Breaking News

June 2007:  Gan teacher Jennifer Rosenberg wins Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award, sponsored in part by Neil and Bunny Elyakin 

Kindergarten teacher Jennifer Rosenberg has won the Grinspoon-Steinhardt award for Excellence in Jewish Education, recognizing teachers across North America who have made a difference in the field of Jewish education.  The award comes with a gift from the local Ann Arbor community of $1000, and a national gift of $1500 to be used towards professional development.  The Ann Arbor gift is sponsored by Neil and Bunny Elyakin, in memory of Neil's brother Steven Elyakin, who had a love for Israel, children, and education.  Jennifer will be invited to a professional development seminar and a national reception in honor of all of the awardees.

June 2007:  HDS scores nationally in the 98th percentile. 

May 2007:  HDS Class of 2000 member named by WXYZ-TV/Channel 7 as one of our area's "Best and Brightest" High School Seniors

Rachel Nadler was named by WXYZ-TV as one of 250 high school seniors in southeast Michigan who are the "best and brightest" for 2007.  These seniors will be featured in TV spots throughout the summer.

May 2007:  Detroit Jewish News names four Ann Arbor high school seniors as the "brightest Jewish seniors"; three of the four are HDS graduates. 

Congratulations to Talia Alexander, Ben Freed and Rachel Nadler.

Three members of the HDS Class of 2000 were in the top 5% of all high school seniors in Ann Arbor in 2007 (Ann Arbor News, May 10, 2007, "Top Scholars"):

• Rachel Nadler was one of six seniors at Community High School in the top 5% of her class.  Rachel is a member of the National Honor Society.  She was a Swing City dance instructor; a member of, and choreographer for, the Community High Dance Body program; and she participated in three dance institutes at the University of Michigan.  Rachel also served as a Hebrew classroom assistant at Beth Israel Religious School.  Rachel is now attending Lee Honors College of Western Michigan University and is continuing to study dance.
• Maya Spivak was one of 31 seniors at Pioneer High School in the top 5% of her class.  Maya was a National Merit Scholarship Winner and also scored in the top 100 in the Michigan Math Prize Competition.  She was a member of the national championship team for Academic Games and also coached elementary students for Academic Games.  Maya was a member of the symphony and marching bands and the tennis team.  Maya is now studying engineering at the University of Michigan, where she was awarded a full scholarship.
• Julianna Scheiman was one of 32 seniors at Huron High School in the top 5% of her class.  Julianna played varsity lacrosse all four years.  She participated in varsity cross-country, was co-founder and co-president of the Model United Nations Club, president of the Jewish Student Union and president of B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, a youth group.  Julianna plans to attend Barnard College or Dartmouth College to study neuroscience or physics.

Two members of the HDS Class of '95 now at the University of Michigan are specially recognized by the University:

• Jonathan Liberzon is awarded the prestigious Hopwood Award for creative writing.  Read more about Jonathan's honor here.

• Josh Berman is chosen to be the student speaker at the University of Michigan graduation on December 6, 2006.

Nine National Merit Honorees -- Five National Merit Semi-Finalists -- Four National Merit Finalists -- Two National Merit Scholarship Award Winners 

Dateline May 2007 (see also September 30, 2006 Ann Arbor News, p. 6):

Nine Ann Arbor Hebrew Day School graduates from the fifth grade class of 2000 were named National Merit Scholarship Winners, National Merit Award Finalists, Semi-finalists or Commended Scholars for 2007 by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.  This represents almost half of the 19 students in the class of 2000.  Five of these -- an incredible 30% of the class members who live in Ann Arbor -- became Semi-Finalists: by comparison, 4% of all Ann Arbor high school seniors and 1% of all high school students nationwide were so named.  Four of these five advanced in the competition to become National Merit Finalists out of a total of 1,300 so named in the entire United States.  Two of these have been awarded National Merit Scholarships as of May 2007. 

Congratulations to National Merit Scholarship Award Winners Maya Spivak (Pioneer High) and Ben Freed (Huron High), to National Merit Finalists Dafna Eisbruch (Huron High) and Daniel Saltzman (Pioneer High), to National Merit Semi-Finalist Samuel Smolkin (Huron High); and to recipients of National Merit Letters of Commendation Noah Blumenthal (Community High), Cari Merritt (Pioneer High), Julianna Scheiman (Huron High), and Rafi Ellis, who now lives in New Jersey.