Some 215 people gathered at the Luxe Hotel in Los Angeles on Tuesday for the Milken Family Foundation’s 34th annual Jewish Educator Awards luncheon honoring four teachers from Jewish day schools in the city.
“No one is more important than our teachers,” Richard Sandler, executive vice president of the foundation, told attendees. (Sandler is also a trustee at the foundation and its secretary, according to the foundation’s website.)
“We’re going to be successful if our schools are the best schools there are. Not the best Jewish schools, but the best schools,” he told JNS. “If you don’t have the best schools, you don’t have the best teachers.”
The four awardees, who teach students ranging in grade from kindergarten to high school, were Rabbi Yossi Elefant (Yeshiva Ketana of Los Angeles), Rebecca Moray (Brawerman Elementary School of Wilshire Boulevard Temple), Rabbi Ari Schwarzberg (Shalhevet High School) and Einav Telem (Valley Beth Shalom Day School).
“I’m feeling all of the feelings: pride, excitement, passion, humility,” Morey, who teaches kindergarten, told JNS. “It’s a feeling of being recognized for doing something that’s not normally recognized but has such a huge impact.”
Lowell Milken, co-founder and chairman of the foundation, told JNS that Jewish education has “never been more important.”
“When I was in school, I was very fortunate to have a number of outstanding educators, and they prepared me well for life’s opportunities,” he said. “I always wanted to find a way to call attention to the work our best educators do.”
To be eligible, nominees have to work at least 15 hours weekly at K-12 schools, which are accredited by Builders of Jewish Education, an independent organization that partners with the Jewish Federation Los Angeles. Nominees also have to have at least five years of experience.
A committee of educators selects the winners.
Awardees learn that they have been recognized via surprise announcements at their schools. They are presented with “individual, unrestricted Jewish educator awards of $15,000,” per the foundation.
“These are the good days,” Sandler told JNS, of surprising teachers in front of their colleagues and students and telling them that they’ve won.
“To go there and to honor people, who do not expect to ever be honored or appreciated and to show that the community appreciates them—it’s really a privilege for me,” he said.
‘Poured hearts into helping Israel’
Telem, who is Israeli, was presented with an award during a pro-Israel celebration at her school. She told attendees how difficult it was to be in the United States since many of her family members were in Israel during and in the aftermath of the Hamas infiltration and terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Everyone was called to help, and I was here,” she said.
She felt “helpless” but then received a call from her boss asking her to create a lesson about the attacks, which was a “blessing.” She did so in an hour-and-a-half and for the remainder of the year, her students “poured their hearts into helping Israel.”
“It is not work,” she said of being a teacher. “It’s like being home.”