Honorees
Guests of Honor
Robert and Hinda Mizrahi reside in Long Beach, NY and are proud parents of Scott and Lindsay, Stephen, and Matthew, a current HAFTR 10th grade student. They are also proud grandparents of Jacob and Madeline.
Robert’s family fled Egypt and eventually moved to Brooklyn when he was a young boy. His extended family left Egypt for freedom and opportunities across the globe and thus his childhood was all about helping families and other immigrants adjust to a new life. Hinda, a Rabbi’s daughter, grew up in a home where community issues were at the forefront of family life. Attempting to emulate their parents' teachings and examples of helping others, Robert and Hinda value giving back to the community. They are both active in shul, Ohel and getting involved in HAFTR was an easy choice for them - "what better place to give back to than your child’s school!"
Robert recently retired from the finance industry after a 35 year career as a Managing Director for the Precious Metals desk at a Canadian Bank. Hinda has served on the Finance Committee for the past 10 years, Treasurer for the past 7 and is proud to have helped Ms. Hammer start HAFTR Hours, an after school enrichment program, which she ran for 9 years.
Robert and Hinda are honored to be chosen as this year’s honorees and feel there is no better way to say thank you to all the principals, teachers and lay leaders of HAFTR for the wonderful work they do and for putting so much love and care into the education of each and every student, especially Matthew.
Young Leadership Awardees
Sarah & Josh Glatt are the parents of 3 wonderful HAFTR students. Sam, 7th Grade, Ayelet, 5th Grade, and Benny, 1st Grade. They are both active at HAFTR and at their shul, IPM, where Josh serves as the Gabbai.
Josh has been a partner & owner at NYFF Events for the past 20 years, and has produced many a memorable event for HAFTR, from Back-to-School carnivals and school dinners to the PTA events and celebrations. Josh has served on the Board of Trustees for the last 3 years and was the Dinner Chair last year, and it was a huge success!
Sarah is the CFO at Rhodes NY, a Real Estate Development & Management Company for the past 15 years, and prior to that worked as a CPA at PWC. She enjoys welcoming new parents to the school and sharing the loving and warm environment HAFTR fosters. Josh & Sarah thank the teachers and administrators who work tirelessly to provide the students at HAFTR a quality education with a love of Yiddishkeit and Chesed.
Educator of the Year
I am the grateful daughter of Shirley, o.b.m., and Michael, o.b.m. Rodgers. I am the proud wife to Peter, mother to Elianna and her husband Josh, to Joshua and his wife Chaya, and to Gabriel, and Bubbie to Mikey, Abby, Emma, Adira and Ilan.
I began working at HAFTR ECC in 2007 and have been a staff member of the Early Drop Off Program for most of my years at HAFTR. I have always shared materials, techniques, and strategies with my fellow teachers and, in 2015, I became an official Mentor for our new teachers. I am proud that most of the Teacher Assistants who have worked with me are now Head Teachers at HAFTR.
My students are my everything and I am committed to providing them with a safe, respectful, loving, academically challenging, and fun environment that boosts their self-esteem and inspires them to love being Jewish and to love learning. I am committed to contributing positive energy, professional respect, and friendship to my colleagues and to contributing creative suggestions for our curricula and for our projects. As a Hatzolah wife and mother of a Hatzolah member, I formalized the protocol needed to be followed by the ECC teachers in the event of an emergency.
I earned my BA in Education and MS in Education, both from Queens College and am a New York State Certified Teacher. Prior to HAFTR, I was a Head Teacher at the YI of Forest Hills Nursery and Kindergarten. In addition to working at HAFTR, I am also a Head Teacher for the Sunday Kindergarten class at the Temple Beth Sholom Hebrew School in Roslyn Heights.
I began working at Camp Hillel in 1998. I wrote an instructional pamphlet for Camp Morahs, which is still being used today at camp orientation! In addition, before camp begins and throughout the summer, I mentor new Camp Morahs, and I share materials, techniques and strategies with seasoned Morahs, as well. I also worked as a bus matron, (I prefer the term Bus Goddess), for most of my camp years. My husband and I plan out the two Queens bus routes for every camp season and I mentor the bus counselors as needed, throughout the summer. I am proud that many of the counselors that work with me in the summer request that they are assigned to me again, year after year. One counselor started as my CIT and worked with me for a total of 7 summers!