Ma’ayanot Annual Scholarship Dinner 2024

Amduei Ma’ayanot awardees Yosef and Lisa Rubinstein, proud parents of Leia (‘19), Noa (‘21), Miri (‘25) and Leora (‘26), have contributed to Ma’ayanot for nearly a decade, since their oldest daughter began high school. Yosef serves on the Board and previously on the Scholarship Committee, and recently completed two terms as President. He served as President during COVID and led Ma’ayanot through the completion of its capital campaign. Lisa is on the Parent Council and has served as a parent ambassador.

This year’s Hakarat Hatov award is being presented to Rebecca and Jeremy Kurz. Rebecca served on the Ma’ayanot Board and on the Executive Committee as Recording Secretary. Rebecca also chaired the Board Governance Committee, was a member of the Board Nominating Committee, co-chaired the Covid Reopening Task Force and co-chaired the Senior Breakfast in 2021.

Rebecca and Jeremy are committed to Ma’ayanot and have been involved in other community organizations including the Chevra Kadisha, Tomchei Shabbos, Yeshivat Noam, TABC, and Congregations Rinat Yisrael and Beth Aaron. Rebecca and Jeremy are very appreciative of Ma’ayanot for the excellent education and nurturing Torah environment it has provided for their daughters and the young women of the Jewish community. Rebecca and Jeremy are the proud parents of Yonatan & Leah, Ayelet (‘21), Aviva (‘24), and Daniel.

Mrs. Chani Rotenberg is the Chair of our History Department, Co-Director of Interdisciplinary Programming, and Co-Director of Humanities Enrichment. She grew up in Silver Spring MD and attended HAGWASH/Berman Hebrew Academy and then Midreshet Lindenbaum. Chani graduated from Barnard College with a major in Political Science and minor in US History and earned two Master’s Degrees: a Master’s in Public Administration specializing in Policy Analysis from NYU and a Master’s in Adolescent Social Studies Education from Hunter College. Prior to joining Ma’ayanot’s faculty, Mrs. Rotenberg has tutored groups of students as part of the AVID College Preparedness Program and has conducted research on various education topics, including STEM schools, teacher quality, charter schools and small high schools, at NYU’s Institute for Education and Social Policy.

Shifra Schapiro teaches Tanakh, and advises the Ma’ayanei Torah yom tov publication, yearbook, Sambatyon literary journal and Envision Shakespeare. She also serves as Ma’ayanot’s Middle States coordinator and AP Coordinator. She studied in Michlalah Jerusalem College, earned a B.A. in Biology and Judaic Studies as a Distinguished Scholar from Stern College, where she graduated as valedictorian in the Department of Judaic Studies, and earned an M.A. in Tanakh from Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School. This is her nineteenth year teaching at Ma’ayanot.