Dinner Honorees
Dr. Jeremy (Yuri) & Allie Alperovich Simon
Parents of the year
Allie Alperovich and Dr. Jeremy (Yuri) Simon, recipients of the Parents of the Year award, are the parents of Emma Simon, who is currently a Shana Aleph student at Migdal Oz. They are thrilled with the religious, intellectual and emotional growth that she has experienced there, as well as her deep engagement with talmud torah.
Allie learned at Midreshet Lindenbaum and graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law School. She is a partner at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in New York. Allie serves on the board of JOFA and American Friends of Itim and has also served as treasurer and co-chair of Darkhei Noam.
After learning at Yeshivat Har Etzion in 1986-1987, Yuri attended Columbia University and then NYU, where he received both a medical degree and a PhD in philosophy. He is currently Professor of Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, where he also serves on the Ethics Committee and Ethics Consultation Service.
Allie and Yuri live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where they daven at Darkhei Noam and the Jewish Center. In addition to Emma, their family includes Hannah, who is an eighth grader at SAR. They have been long-time supporters of the Yeshiva and Migdal Oz, and are pleased to be able to deepen their connection through Emma’s time there.
Rabbi Dr. Benjamin J. & Stephanie Samuels
Rabbinic and educational Leadership AWARD
Rabbi Dr. Benjamin J. ’86 & Stephanie Samuels are the proud recipients of the Rabbinic and Educational Leadership Award.
Benjamin J. Samuels has served as rabbi of Cong. Shaarei Tefillah of Newton Centre, Massachusetts since 1995. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion post-high school from 1986-1988, and earned his semikhah from RIETS. He holds a PhD in Science, Philosophy, and Religion from Boston University, an MA in Biblical Studies and Medieval Jewish History, and a BA in English Literature from Yeshiva University. He is the immediate-past-President of the Vaad HaRabonim of New England, a member of the Boston Beit Din, and teaches widely in the Greater Boston Jewish community.
Stephanie Samuels has taught limmudei kodesh at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts since 1995. She studied at Michlalah Jerusalem College in 1986, graduated from Barnard College with degrees in English Literature and Education, earned an MA in Medieval Jewish History from New York University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in education at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish education at Yeshiva University.
Benjamin and Stephanie are the proud parents of Amitai (YHE’12) and Reut, Yedidyah, Aryeh and Yakir. They are deeply grateful for the formative education Benjamin, and their son Amitai, received at Yeshivat Har Etzion, and the ongoing model and resource of Torah learning and leadership that the Har Etzion network provides to their family and so many others.
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo & Chana Zuckier
Alumni of the Year
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zuckier attended Yeshivat Har Etzion from 2005 to 2009, where he had the great zechus of being a Talmid of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l. He is currently a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a Maggid Shiur at Stern College and GPATS.
Shlomo spent many years studying at Yeshiva University, from MTA to Yeshiva College to two MAs from Revel, Semicha, and Kollel Elyon. He received a PhD in Judaic Studies from Yale University and has completed postdoctoral fellowships at McGill and Notre Dame Universities, as well as the Wexner, Tikvah, MFJC Advanced Torah Learning, and Kupietzky Kodshim Fellowships. Shlomo previously was the OU-JLIC Rabbi at Yale University and a Founder of The Lehrhaus. He has taught at a variety of Torah and academic institutions, and at synagogues across North America.
Chana Zuckier is a litigation associate at a law firm in Manhattan, where her practice focuses on white collar and regulatory defense. After receiving her J.D. in 2017 from Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, she clerked for federal judges on the District Court and Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to law school, Chana graduated from Stern College with a BA in Physics and Jewish Studies, followed by two years of studying Talmud and Halacha in GPATS.
Shlomo and Chana have three daughters – Meital, Amalyah, and Maayan, and they live in Teaneck, NJ.