Emerging Scholars Award
The Emerging Scholars Award celebrates women who are high school seniors and have demonstrated a personal commitment to leadership, spirituality, and Torah learning. The award seeks to acknowledge these young women for their accomplishments and dedication while supporting their continued growth. Three award recipients will each receive $2,500 in scholarships towards tuition for a gap year program in Israel. Nominators can include teachers, scholars, educators, or spiritual leaders. Following nomination, students will be sent a link to an application.
The deadline for nominations this year has passed: please reach out to Liba Berger with any questions or requests for future award timelines.
We are so excited to announce this year’s winners! Please join us in celebrating and congratulating these brilliant and wonderful young women!
Meet the awardees and finalists by clicking on their photo.​​​
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2025-2026 Awardees
Lia Goldberger is from Manhattan, where she loves running in Central Park, hopping between friends’ homes on Shabbos, chatting with strangers on the subway, and leading Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday nights. She loves how Torah learning seeps into every part of my life—especially the intersection of Tanakh and Machsheva, which offers a rich, moral framework for navigating the world. Like our rabbinic predecessors who embraced machloket l’shem shamayim, she sees her love for Israel as rooted in a deep appreciation for its complexity, history, and diversity. After her gap year in Israel, she will be attending Brown University, where she hopes to study Political Science, History, and Religious Studies.
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Aliza Lesser (Recipient of the Ian J. Kagedan z”l Emerging Scholars Award) recently graduated from CESJDS in the Washington, DC area. She has greatly enjoyed spending her summers at Camp Stone, the Drisha high school program, and the Bronfman Fellowship. She loves sharing her learning with chevrutas during lunch at school, her friends at their weekly parsha club, and her Daf Yomi siyums with friends, classmates, and occasionally her entire school. After attending Midreshet Lindenbaum where she hopes to continue deepening her connection to Hashem and strengthening her textual skills, she will be attending Columbia University, where she hopes to study psychology and contribute meaningfully to the Jewish and broader communities.
​Aliza Shyovitz is from Evanston Illinois and went to Ida Crown Jewish Academy for high school. In second grade she lived in Jerusalem with her family and is looking forward to another transformative year in Israel — this time at migdal Oz in the Gush. In her free time she reads sings in the school's choir, runs the schools Israel Advocacy Club, and competess in Model UN and the USA Chidon HaTanach. Next year, she's excited to continue with her Tanakh studies and also expand her Jewish knowledge through Gemara and Machshava. After her gap year, she plans to attend Yale University
Thank you to this year's finalists:
Gianna Goldfarb (Ramaz // Midreshet Amudim), Tovah Berger (Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School // Midreshet Amudim), Hinda Gross (Arizona Jewish Academy // Midreshet Lindenbaum), Jessica Klibaner-Schiff (Gann Academy // Yeshivat Drisha), Sophie Obstfeld (Ramaz // Migdal Oz)