The Jewish Home | JUNE 16, 2022
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Teachers Who Inspired Me
aS tHe year draWS to a cloSe, We tHink about tHe teacHerS WHo Have Spent ten MontHS in front of tHe claSSrooM Molding our cHildren and giving tHeM life leSSonS tHat tHey Will carry WitH tHeM for yearS. trutHfully, So Many teacHerS teacH More tHan juSt MatH and Science; tHeir leSSonS Have Made uS into WHo We are today. We aSked SoMe MeMberS of tHe jeWiSH WoMen’S leaderSHip council of tHe five toWnS (jWlc) for tHeir MeMorieS of teacHerS WHo inSpired tHeM tHrougHout tHe yearS.
A Passion for Torah
Distinguished Yet Approachable
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Written by rebbetzin Malka truMp hough a lot of junior high school gets muddled in my mind, I can still clearly see my eighth grade Chumash teacher entering our classroom each morning with elegance and grace unsurpassed. Her face was aglow with excitement, and her heels were perfectly matched to her classy outfit. Her energy awakened us, her dreary-eyed students, from our morning daze. We could not help but be amazed each day by her vigor and genuine delight she brought each day to the classroom. The first thing she would do after greeting us with her radiant smile would be to scan the room and quickly start running around (in her heels) cleaning up discarded papers from the floor, straightening books, and aligning desks. “Girls,” she would say warmly, “Torah cannot be learned in a mess. When we learn together, we must make sure our surroundings are prepared to house the words of Hashem.” Of course, seeing our teacher bending over to pick up our scraps of paper, we hurried out of our desks to help. We soon got the hang of it and would (for the most part) tidy up the room before she came in. She always noticed when we did and complimented us on creating a space worthy of the Torah. I still have committed to memory many of the Rashis we learned together on Parshas Shlach. They were learned with such excitement and passion without compromising on hard work. My teacher would say, “Girls, the words of Torah are life. They should become part of you.” All these years later, when Parshas Shlach is read in shul, I see her standing in front of me. Walking, actually. She was always moving around the classroom with passion she could not contain. Though I haven’t seen my teacher in years, her energy is something that affected me as I continued to high school, seminary, and beyond. She transformed Torah from something I recognized simply as being important to a life-giving entity. I am forever grateful for those few months I had in her classroom. They set a foundation on which to build an authentic love for Torah and a commitment to creating spaces worthy of housing the words of Hashem.
Written by rebbetzin Sara Hopkovitz
few months back, my seventh grade daughter was studying for her Chumash exam. I recognized the material and to my amazement, I started reciting one of the Rashis by heart. Wow! I couldn’t believe I remembered it from so long ago (big shout-out to Morah Weiss, 7 th grade Chumash teacher at TAG for many years). This knowledge reinforced what I already knew: that I had a fantastic education at TAG/Torah Academy for Girls for 14 years, nursery through 12th grade, with many wonderful and talented teachers throughout the years. Seminary year was also invigorating, with world renowned educators at Darchei Binah in Bayit V’gan, Yerushalayim. The highlight of my year was attending lectures by the legendary Rav Nachman Bulman, zt”l. He was an absolute powerhouse, associated with many yeshivas and Jewish institutions, and I knew it was a great privilege to attend his classes. I personally felt I had a connection with him since he was the rav of my parent’s shul at the Young Israel of Far Rockaway – and Rav Bulman also had a very close relationship with my Uncle Nat Kurtz, a”h, when he was stationed in the army not far from Danville, Virginia, where Rav Bulman was the rav at the time. Towards the end of my seminary year, I had a very important matter to discuss with Rav Bulman. It wasn’t a quick question to discuss in haste after a class. He invited me to his home to speak further, and I was graciously welcomed into his warm Sanhedria apartment by him and his rebbetzin. Gaining an audience with such a busy, distinguished, yet very approachable rav, and being a recipient to his sound advice, was an experience that was truly exceptional for me and will forever be imprinted in my mind.
