The Helen Diller Family Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education will be presented to four Bay Area teachers who have made “an extraordinary impact.”
Jody Bloom, Tikva Farber, Jodi Gladstone and Sarai Shapiro each will receive $10,000, plus a $2,500 award for the institutions where they teach, at the JCC of San Francisco on Monday, May 23.
Established in 2001 by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, the awards honor teachers who work in early childhood education, day schools, congregational or community schools, and informal educational settings outside a classroom.
Bloom teaches Judaic studies to sixth and seventh graders at the Brandeis School of San Francisco. In her 16th year of teaching, her area of specialty is the impact of the teaching and practice of philanthropy on the growth of adolescents.
Farber is a Hebrew and Judaic studies teacher with more than 30 years of mentoring adults, teens and children. She has taught Judaic studies at the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, and Hebrew at Brandeis Hillel Day School — where she earlier was head teacher.
Gladstone is the Jewish resource specialist and outdoor educator at the nursery school at Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, where she also teaches kindergarten in the midweek program.
For the past decade, Shapiro has organized wilderness and coming-of-age programs for Wild Earth, Teva and Kallah. She contributes to curriculum development for Wilderness Torah’s B’naiture program and runs an independent organization for girls focusing on Earth connections, self-awareness and rites of passage.
The free event is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the JCCSF, 3200 California St. To RSVP, see www.jewishfed.org.