PHDS’s awards dinner on June 5

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The Providence Hebrew Day School’s annual awards dinner will be held on Sunday, June 5, at the school. 

Rabbi Yechezkel Yudkowsky and his wife, Shiffy Yudkowsky, are the recipients of this year’s Amudim Award, for their outstanding support of Jewish education and the Providence Jewish community.   

Rabbi Yudkowsky moved to Providence from Baltimore, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Talmudic Law at Ner Israel. For several years, he served as a mentor and adviser in the study hall at the New England Rabbinical College, in Providence. In his current teaching position at PHDS, he uses his creative talents to achieve two goals: instill in each student a love of Torah study and develop the students’ taste for mitzvot

Shiffy Yudkowsky grew up in Providence and attended PHDS and the New England Academy of Torah (NEAT). After earning teacher’s certificates from Beth Jacob of Jerusalem and from the State of Israel, she returned to Providence and began her teaching career at Touro Synagogue Hebrew School. She has now been teaching fifth grade at PHDS for 20 years. Mrs. Yudkowsky cultivates success in each student on multiple fronts:  character development, organizational skills and academic achievement.

Beyond the walls of PHDS, Rabbi Yudkowsky serves as rabbi of Congregation Mishkon Tfiloh, in Providence. He is also the local rabbinic supervisor of the Providence eruv and a member of the Rhode Island chevra kadisha (ritual burial society).  Shiffy Yudkowsky is co-president of N’shei Chesed and a vice president of the Mikveh Ladies Association of Rhode Island.  She also directs the annual PHDS Hanukkah choir.

The couple’s accomplishments in the classroom and selfless dedication to family and community make them worthy recipients of the Amudim Award.

The Parents of the Year Award for 2016 will be presented to Menachem and Libby Leibowitz, of Passaic, New Jersey. They have a longstanding relationship with Providence and NEAT. Over the years, four of the Leibowitzes’ daughters have attended NEAT.  

The Leibowitzes have expressed their gratitude to the school, the teachers, the boarding families and the Providence community. They attribute the success of their daughters to NEAT faculty members, who nurture every student, and to the families in the community with whom their daughters have developed close ties.   

Russell Rosen, of Baltimore, will receive this year’s Alumnus Award. Rosen grew up in Providence, where his father practiced medicine and his mother was a beloved teacher at PHDS. He continued his religious studies at Ner Israel and the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.  He earned a bachelor’s degree at Towson University and an MBA at Johns Hopkins University.  

After six years at T. Rowe Price, Rosen has moved on to become chief operating officer at USADWEB.  

Rosen actively supports several community organizations and has assumed a leadership role in his local synagogue. He and his wife, Beily, have built a home centered on Torah values and Torah study. All the Rosen children attend Jewish day schools, continuing the legacy of Jewish education that Russell received at PHDS.

The annual awards dinner begins at 4:30 p.m. and is open to the public. Tickets are $65 and you must reserve by calling PHDS, 401-331-5327.  To place an ad in the Journal, the school’s yearbook, call the school. Two dinner tickets are included with the purchase of a full-page ad in the Journal.

RUCHAMA SZENDRO lives in Providence and is a member of the PHDS Amudim committee.

PHDS, Amudim, awards