NEW YORK (JTA) — Five American Jewish educators have received the Covenant Foundation’s Pomegranate Prize.
Established in 2011, the annual Pomegranate Prize recognizes emerging leaders in Jewish education who have been in the field for 10 years or less. Each of the winners receives $15,000 to invest in educational projects.
This year’s recipients are Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, founder and director of the Center for Jewish Mindfulness in Chicago, and program director for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality in New York; Rabbi Michael Bitton, director of educational technology and Judaic studies teacher at Magen David Yeshivah High School in Brooklyn; Talya Gillman, a Jewish educator and social justice advocate pursuing a master’s degree in transformational leadership in Seattle; Oren Massey, executive director of Edah in Berkeley, Calif.; and Rabbi Yigal Sklarin, a Talmud and Jewish history teacher at The Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan.
“We know that encouragement early on in a person’s career can make all the difference in their success,” said James Crown, one of the New York-based Covenant Foundation’s founders, in a statement.
The 2014 group brings to 20 the number of Pomegranate Prize recipients.
