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An Interview with Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, Senior Director of the Tikvah Fund

On Sunday, June 19, The Truman Scholars Program Capstone Event & Graduation took place in the law offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Over 200 people were in attendance, with students from 17 Truman schools, located in nine states, represented at the Graduation.

As a senior in SAR High School, hearing the words “Senior exploration” could mean a variety of different things, an internship, a creative project, a research paper… etc. Pretty much senior exploration takes place during May, and it is for a senior to “explore” things that he or she might be interested in, to get a broader perspective of the “real world” and learn how to work with other people in a professional setting. For me, I knew that I wanted to do something cool and different and something that I probably would not have done if it was not for this opportunity. I thought a bit about what could be meaningful to me and immediately it came to me.

Sunday, June 12, was a meaningful and inspirational day for graduates at Bnos Malka Academy. There was a culminating brunch and video premiere for the program Names, Not Numbers©: an interactive, multi-media Holocaust project created by educator Tova Fish-Rosenberg.

The girls in Ms. Eskenazi’s third grade class at Yeshivat Ohr Haiim completed their Social Studies chapter on Timelines. They put their new skills to use in a meaningful culminating project. Each girl made a timeline of her life so far. Each girl had to choose six to eight important events from her life. They asked their families for the dates and details when needed.

Last week, Mrs. Feldman’s fourth grade class in Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe had Jewish figures visit their class. The boys met David Adler, Albert Einstein, Ralph Lauren, Harry Houdini, Stan Lee, Haym Solomon, Anne Frank, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Yoni Netanyahu, Steven Spielberg, Ilan Ramon, Sandy Koufax, Maurice Sendak, H.A. Rey, and Levi Strauss. The figureheads came to teach the class that there can be frum individuals who become writers of secular books, and there can be non-frum people who have major accomplishments in their lifetime.

Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe’s 7th and 8th grade boys had the privilege of being addressed by Rabbi Shmuel Marcus, the rav of the Young Israel of Queens Valley. Rabbi Marcus spoke about the value of perseverance and resilience. The rabbi told an inspirational story of a blind boy, who after several failed attempts, managed to win the Chidon HaTanach. The 5th and 6th graders heard an amazing story from Rabbi Becker about a soldier’s attitude of taking life’s challenges one problem at a time.