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.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

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.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount