Dr. Steven Baruch to receive Lifetime Impact Award as Coalition for Jewish Learning awards go virtual | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

Dr. Steven Baruch to receive Lifetime Impact Award as Coalition for Jewish Learning awards go virtual

 

Dr. Steven Baruch, former director of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, will receive the coalition’s Lifetime Impact Award during the 2020 Salute to Jewish Educators. 

The virtual event will happen at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9. Originally scheduled for mid-March, the event was moved online because of continuing concerns with COVID-19. The annual event of Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Coalition for Jewish Learning honors educators, administrators, volunteers and aides. Baruch is one of several who will receive awards during the free hour-long interactive experience on Zoom 

The award ceremony will also be broadcast on the Coalition for Jewish Learning Milwaukee’s Facebook page. A recording also will be added to the Coalition’s YouTube page. Search “CJLMilwaukee” on Facebook and YouTube.  

To learn more or to RSVP, visit MilwaukeeJewish.org/CJL, or contact Jewish Education Community Planner Tzipi Altman-Shafer at TziporahA@MilwaukeeJewish.org 

“The event is wonderful because we have people from across the Jewish community,” said Altman-Shafer. “It brings everyone together in a feel-good way. We’re hoping to be able to replicate that in the virtual experience.” 

The event will feature a tribute video to the winners, speeches, and music by local klezmer group A Band’n All Hope. 

“We want to show the teachers in our schools that, particularly this year, where they’re having to pivot and find so many new, creative ways to engage students, that we really appreciate all they’ve done this past year and what they’re going to do in the fall,”  Altman-Shafer said.  

Dr. Steven Baruch 

The Lifetime Impact Award will be presented to Baruch, who spent 15 years as director of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, where he known for being selfless, dedicated, ethical, and a team player, according to the Coalition. Prior to his time with the Coalition, he worked for Milwaukee Public Schools for 32 years as a teacher, developer of curriculum and director of a professional development center. 

Since retiring, he has volunteered with the Speaker’s Bureau of the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center.  

Baruch and his wife, Judy, have lived in Milwaukee since 1967 and raised their two children here.  

Yael Gal-Ben Yitschak 

Yael Gal-Ben Yitschak has been named the Levy Family CJL Jewish Educator of the Year, an award first granted in 1982. An Israeli native, she has been teaching Hebrew as a foreign language to Milwaukeeans of all ages for 16 years. She currently teaches Hebrew at Nicolet High School and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she instills a love of the Hebrew language and its culture in her students. She is also known for her pioneering use of technology in teaching Hebrew.  

Intravaia, Hiller and Sarah Frank 

The Jerry Benjamin Inspiration Award for Informal Education will be granted to Debbie Intravaia, Lisa Hiller, and Sarah Frank.  

Intravaia created and runs a weekly school at Congregation Beth El in Sheboygan, where she serves as education director. She is also the youth director at Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid 

Lisa Hiller and Sarah Frank run the annual musical theater productions performed by students of Torah Academy of Milwaukee, with Hiller as producer-director and Frank as musical director. For the past 28 years, Hiller has worked as vice president of administration at Bader Philanthropies. Frank is a clinical dietitian.  

Other awards 

The Gill Incentive for Teachers Award, designed to recognize unique and effective classroom projects, goes to Jodie Honigman of Milwaukee Jewish Day School and Sherry Miller and Tamara Miller of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. The award has been granted since 1991.  

Teacher Impact and School Support awards will recognize special contributions by one teacher and one support person at each Milwaukee Jewish school. Award winners will be listed at MilwaukeeJewish.org. 

How to go 

Virtual Salute to Jewish Educators 

When: Sunday, Aug. 9, 4-5 p.m. 

Cost: Free 

RSVP required for Zoom access: MilwaukeeJewish.org/CJL