Dr. Levisohn's Graduation Speech

Welcome parents, grandparents, rabbis, teachers and friends,

Dear graduating seniors,

A cold, winter night in January. Rabbi Levitt, Rabbi and Mrs. Kosowsky, and I pile into a van to make the long rush-hour trip to Baltimore. Three days earlier, the Board of Yeshivat Rambam announced that the high school was closing for the following year and we arranged for an emergency meeting with Rambam parents to describe the Hebrew Academy and discuss the options of enrolling their children. We arrived to a packed living room of very anxious parents. They listened to our descriptions, they asked us questions, and many of them began to cry. The Academy was exactly the type of school that they wanted for their children and exactly the type of school that they had hoped to be building in Yeshivat Rambam. 

As the next few months unfolded, we hosted dozens of visits from these families. You guys must have made a good impression, because almost without fail, they fell in love with the school, with the hashkafa that we represented, with the students, the teachers, the classes, and the whole environment.

During this time, we also hosted several families from communities throughout the United States—places such as Houston, Memphis, Harrisburg, PA and Charlestown, South Carolina—each of whom made the long journey here to search for the right day school and the right community in which to raise their children. One tour around the building made them envious.

While standing in the thicket of trees, it is often difficult to take a good look at the forest and it is too easy to take what we have for granted. Hearing from families who yearn for a school like ours helps us recognize just how good we have it, just how privileged we are.

You might think that this is my main message to you. But, no; there’s more. My charge to you goes beyond convincing you that the Academy is a great place to go to school (which it is), or that you should appreciate what you have (which you should), or that you should donate back to the school when you hit it big (which, of course, you will.) 

A few months ago, a wise woman approached me in shul and challenged me about what we were doing as a school to encourage our students to aspire to greatness. I wasn’t quite certain what she was driving at. Do you know how you sometimes say a lot in response to a question you don’t fully understand in the hopes that the questioner will kind of figure out the answer for himself. Well, that’s what I did. I described all sorts of different positive aspects of the school: the classes, the speakers, the extracurriculars, unique programming. But that didn’t do the trick. “Your kids are privileged; they are special,” she said. “They are from a minority of a minority of American Jews who receive an intense day school education. Do they know that they are special? Do they know that they have great responsibility? Do they aspire to greatness?”

Wow! Her question was a lot more complicated than I thought.

So now I turn to you for the answer. Do you aspire to greatness? 

Greatness does not necessarily mean heading a Fortune 500 company, becoming a senator or winning an NBA MVP. Greatness is choosing a path that makes meaning out of your life, rather than chasing pursuits that are hollow and trifling; a path in which you take responsibility for your fellow human beings rather than one in which you view others as responsible for taking care of you. 

It could be serving on the Board of a day school to help make it better; creating a Tomchei Shabbos in your community, developing a program to help underachieving children, or a fund to alleviate pain and suffering. Your greatness could be your vocation or it could be your avocation. Your greatness could be scholarly or could be active; it could win you a national award…but in most cases it probably won’t. 

I know that you all have it in you. I know that you know how to recognize privilege and opportunity. I saw all of you on the Mission to Israel, the beneficiaries of extraordinary largesse on the part of the Bermans, and each and every one of you acted as if you understood your great fortune and privilege. As Rabbi Levitt mentioned, when you saw the possibility of rising to the occasion and helping those who needed help, no one needed to ask you. In those moments, you did, indeed, achieve greatness.

As we hand you your diplomas in just a moment, as you become graduates of a school that you often loved, occasionally tolerated, maybe even disliked on a bad day, consider your good fortune and your privilege. Consider how sadly rare it is for a Jewish teenager to graduate high school with an intense education in limudei kodesh and limudei chol, with an enveloping community, with role models for how one might think, behave, react and pray. Class of 2011—consider your privilege and aspire to greatness.

Rabbi Levitt and Mr. Barr—would you now please come to the center of the stage.

The following students of the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy are aspiring to greatness.

Zachary Alexander Kronisch – In the fall, Zach will be attending Bucknell University.

Aaron Zuckerman – Aaron will be attending Yeshivat Reishit Yerushalayim and then Yeshiva University.

Nathan Asher Denicoff – Nathan will be attending Yeshivat Har Etzion and then Yeshiva University.

Joseph Aaron Eleff – Joey will be attending Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh and then University of Maryland.

Ari Mark Wertheimer – Ari will be attending Yeshivat Reishit Yerushalayim and then University of Maryland.

David Reiz – David will be attending Derech Ohr Sameach and then Montgomery College.

Joel David Miller – Dovi will be attending Chai Israel and then the University of Albany.

 Robert Brandon Fisch – Robert will be attending Northwestern University.

 Jonathan David Levi – Jonathan will be attending Yeshivat Reishit Yerushalayim and then Montgomery College.

Netanel Menasheh Levitt – Tani will be attending Yeshivat Har Etzion and then the University of Maryland.

Aryeh Moshe Mellman - Aryeh will be attending Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi and then Washington University in St. Louis.

Joshua Samuel Charnoff – Josh will be attending Yeshivat Lev HaTorah and then the University of Maryland.

David Ian Klein – David will be attending Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh and then Drexel University.

Benjamin Zwillinger – Ben will be attending the University of Maryland.

Yecheskel Melman – Zeke will be attending Derech Ohr Sameach and then Binghamton University.

Benjamin Levi Kreitman – Ben will be attending Montgomery College

Joseph Daniel Rubinstein – Joey will be attending Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh and then the University of Maryland.

Ari Nathaniel Byer – In the fall, Ari plans on studying Torah in Eretz Yisrael.

Amichai Jacob Charnoff – Ami will be attending the University of Maryland.

Noah Yaakov Paul – Noah will be attending Machon Lev in Israel and then the University of Maryland.

Ariel Yosef Isser – Ariel will be attending Yeshivat Har Etzion and then the University of Maryland.

Chaim Baruch Shulman – Chaim is already in Israel where he has begun his service in the Israeli Defense Force.

Mrs. Levitt Klein and Mrs. Isser—could you please join me on stage?

 Rose Janet Lapidus – Rose will be attending Machon Maayan and then Binghamton University.

 Esther Irene Shmunis – Esther will be attending Midreshet Amit and then Stern College.

 Jessica Chava Betaharon – In the fall, Jessica will be attending Towson University.

 Sharon Miller – Sharon will be returning to Israel and entering the Sherut Leumi program.

 Eliana Tamar Foltin – Eliana will be attending Binghamton University.

 Julia Samantha Adelman – Julia will be attending Midreshet Amit in Israel

 Eliana Karin Ely – Eliana will be attending Michlelet Esther and then Rutgers University.

 Michal Ruth Jacobson – Michal will be attending Bnot Torah, Sharfman’s in Israel

Brooke Rachel Meshel – Brooke will be attending Arizona State University.

Talia Jean Franco – Tali will be attending Tochnit Shalem in Israel and then the University of Maryland.

Congratulations and Mazal Tov to our 2011 MJBHA graduates!