Jewish educators earn Covenant Award for Jewish education excellence

(JTA) – Three Jewish educators have received 2012 Covenant Awards for excellence in Jewish education and innovation.

The recipients of one of the most coveted honors in the field of Jewish education are Peter Geffen, founder and executive director of KIVUNIM: New Directions in New York; Gitta Jaroslawicz-Neufeld, director of education at Allegra Franco School of Educational Leadership in Brooklyn; and Karina Zilberman, director of Jewish Family Life and Culture at 92nd Street Y in New York.

“The institutions they have enriched, the programs they have initiated, and the influence they have had on their students, their peers, and the community at large is enormous,” Eli Evans, The Covenant Foundation’s board chairman, said in a statement. “They do not share one denomination, one pedagogical approach, or one type of classroom. But each one, each day, proves that Jewish education across the spectrum of ages and venues, are catalysts for individual and community growth, strength and future.”

The three recipients join 63 other Jewish educators honored with a Covenant Award since the foundation established the citation in 1991. Each will receive $36,000, and each of their institutions will receive $5,000.

The Covenant Foundation, a program of the Crown Family Foundation and the Jewish Education Service of North America, honors outstanding Jewish educators and supports creative approaches to Jewish programming.