(Courtesy of The Moriah School) The Moriah School held its annual dinner on Motzei Shabbat, February 20. Over 750 people tuned in as the dinner streamed live from Moriah. This year Moriah honored Rabbi Daniel Alter (head of school) and Erik Kessler (executive director) with the Rabbi J. Shelley Applbaum, z”l, Service Award, and Dr. Diana Straus, Dr. Sam Sultan, Dr. Sandra Hoenig Yahalom and Moriah’s Nurse Toby Eizik with the Hakarat Hatov Award. Moriah also paid a special tribute to the teachers and administration for their courage and commitment to Moriah students this year.
The evening began with donors driving up to the front of the Moriah building to wish the dinner honorees mazal tov from their cars. After picking up a food box and some Moriah swag, donors then headed home to watch the program live from the comfort of their own homes. Honorees and their families made their way inside to enjoy the show and receive their honors in a COVID-friendly environment.
In his remarks, Rabbi Alter spoke about how the Moriah community stepped up to the challenges this past year brought. “We have watched the kehilla come together to ensure the safety, well-being and growth of our students in ways that are unprecedented. And tonight we show appreciation to everyone who played such an important role in our success. We show appreciation to our teachers and administrators, to our parents, to our lay leaders, to our fabulous students and to all our donors, especially in this year when they recognize the unique needs of our community caused by COVID. And we show appreciation to tonight’s honorees—the medical committee, whose unflagging devotion and commitment to the students in our school has been nothing short of inspiring.”
“This year we pivoted back to in-person learning, implementing the many necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our staff and students,” said Steven Bleier, Moriah president, board of trustees. “Behind the scenes the effort was enormous, spanning many months and drawing on the time and expertise of many people. Tonight, we honor and show our gratitude to the people who worked to enable Moriah to not only endure the pandemic but to emerge an even stronger, more adaptable and inventive institution.”
Moriah would like to express our sincere gratitude to dinner committee chairs Emily Adler, Rachel Heumann, Dania Lauer and Jen Wasserman; Jeff Jacobs for his help and creativity with our live program; the Moriah team of professionals: Rivkie Gunsburg, Erik Kessler, Ari Lewis, Sara Tetievsky and Dawn Wohlrab; the Moriah maintenance crew; and our fundraising committee, Noam Heller, Jonathan Schechter, Alex Solomon and David Ulmer, who raised over $1.12 million for the Moriah scholarship fund. Moriah would also like to thank our vendors who helped make our evening a special event: Esprit Events, Creative Image Productions, Triple S Studios, Judaica House/Cool Kippahs, The Write Gift, FillerUp, Patis Bakery, Privet Flowers, Ray’s Reproductions and Wizevents.
