Five emerging Jewish educators received the 2024 Pomegranate Prize today at a ceremony held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage- A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in New York.
The 2024 recipients are: Beckee Birger, director of DEIJ Initiatives at Moving Traditions, Chicago, IL; Kimberly Ariella Dueñas, Director of Learning & Founding Member, Jewtina y Co.
Venice, California; Emma Miller, Teen Education and Engagement Director, HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir, Playmakers Youth Theatre & Performing Arts Camp Director, Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland, Theater Arts Director, B’nai Jeshurun, New York, NY; Rabbi Zachary Rothblatt, Judaic Studies Teacher, Kohelet Yeshiva, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania; Liana Rothman, Director of Youth Empowerment, Adamah, Palo Alto, California.
The Pomegranate Prize is designed to recognize emerging leaders in the field of Jewish education by encouraging them in their pursuits and offering the resources and connections necessary to accelerate their development, deepen their self-awareness, and amplify their impact on the field.
The Prize stands next to the Covenant Award, which, since 1991, has honored three outstanding Jewish educators each year for their impact on the field of Jewish education.
In addition to the Prize ceremony, this year’s event also included a musical performance by 2023 Pomegranate Prize recipient Eliana Light, accompanied by Jesse Chevan, Drew Cohen, Coleen Dieker, Carla Friend, and Gabriel Lehrman. The performance was followed by a conversation between Covenant Award recipients Rabbi Shai Held and Dr. Rebecca Schorsch, titled “Judaism Is About Love, and What That Means for Jewish Education,” inspired by Rabbi Held’s recently published book. Following the talk, attendees continued learning with three Pomegranate Prize alumni who have also been published recently: Rabbi Adina Allen, Maya Bernstein, and Jonathan Shmidt Chapman.
“This year’s cohort of Pomegranate Prize recipients is creative, energetic, and wholly committed to the field of Jewish education,” remarked Cheryl R. Finkel, a 1999 Covenant Award recipient, former board chair and current member of the Board of the Covenant Foundation, who presented each recipient with the Prize.
“These five educators represent the promise of our field. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to honor them today for all they have already accomplished and for what we know is still to come.”
“The Pomegranate Prize uncovers vast potential within the field of Jewish education.” said Joni Blinderman, Executive Director of The Covenant Foundation. “Beckee, Kimberly, Emma, Zachary and Liana have each already accomplished so much within their organizations and contributed in inspiring ways, to the field. And what’s more, is that their contributions simultaneously inspire other emerging Jewish educators who are just starting out. That chain reaction is invaluable.”
Biographical snapshots of the 2024 Pomegranate Prize recipients:
Beckee Birger is the director of DEIJ Initiatives at Moving Traditions where she also serves as the fellowship director for Kumi, a program for Jewish teens to explore justice and equity from a Jewish lens. Prior to joining Moving Traditions, she served in multiple capacities as a program director at Jewish United Fund of Chicago and was the director of education and movement building at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA). Beckee also served as a mentor for early-career teen engagement professionals in The Jewish Education Project’s GENERATE Fellowship. Before finding her home in Jewish education, Beckee’s passion for social justice led her to serve as a special education attorney, AmeriCorp program manager, and career advisor at an education non-profit. She is proud to celebrate her Judaism through a deep commitment to social change, and believes engaging people of all ages, especially youth, in justice education is critical to our future. Beckee lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter and is a co-founder of JCUA’s Kol Or Jews of Color Caucus. She earned her J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and her B.A. in English from Suffolk University.
Kimberly Ariella Dueñas is a founding member of Jewtina y Co. where she currently serves as director of learning, overseeing culturally responsive programming focused on community, identity, leadership, and well-being. As a certified yoga teacher, she integrates wellness practices into her work as an access point for healing, growth, and empowerment within the Latin-Jewish community. Kimberly Ariella was born into a multiracial home and has traced the roots of her dynamic Jewish identity to rural El Salvador, Spain, and across Europe. She celebrates her family’s generational practice of farming and baking, which has inspired her heart-led, earth-informed approach to guiding others in developing deeper connections to their multicultural identities. Kimberly Ariella is a Pedagogies of Wellbeing Fellow (2022) at M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education and an alum of its Senior Educators Cohort (2017). She was also a fellow of the JDC Entwine Jewish Service Corps and Bend the Arc’s Selah Leadership Program, as well as a member of the Schusterman Foundation’s ROI Community. Based in California, she is a graduate of American Jewish University.
Emma Miller is a Jewish educator and theater director currently serving in three roles: teen education and engagement director for HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir; theater arts director at B’nai Jeshurun in New York City; and Playmakers Youth Theatre director and director of the Francine and Benson Pilloff Family Performing Arts Camp at the Mandel JCC in Cleveland, Ohio. Emma has founded new models for Jewish performing arts programming and strategically redesigned HaZamir’s experiential teen leadership lab. She has served as an educator and consultant for Perelman Jewish Day School, Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple, The Temple-Tifereth Israel, Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, Tkiya, and Romemu. Emma has written original curricula that use the arts to teach students about the Holocaust, Jewish identity, and American Jewish history. Emma is the co-founding artistic director of New York City’s The Hearth theater company as well as a director and producer of new American plays. Now based in New York City, she earned her B.A. in Drama from Kenyon College in Ohio.
Rabbi Zachary Rothblatt is a Judaic Studies teacher and curricula creator at Kohelet Yeshiva in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. Previously, he served as a Judaic Studies teacher and the director of Israel guidance at The Idea School, as a Rebbe at Camp Dora Golding, as the head of a SEED: Life Tools for Jewish Families mission to Sydney, Australia, and as a Shoel uMeishiv (teacher’s assistant) for the 11th grade at Yeshiva University High School for Boys. Zachary was also a rabbinic intern at both Lincoln Square Synagogue and Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, Maryland. He received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University where he also earned a master’s degree in Bible and Talmud and a certificate in Mental Health Counseling. Zachary holds both an M.A. in Education and a B.A. in Business from Johns Hopkins University. He has also studied at Ner Israel Rabbinical College and Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh. Based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Talmud at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University.
Liana Rothman is the director of youth empowerment at Adamah, where she co-founded the Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM). She oversees JYCM and Adamah on Campus, fostering a vibrant generation of Jewish leaders through environmental education, climate action, and community building. Liana worked with the Adamah Farm Fellowship and Teva at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center and served as national programs coordinator and manager for the Seal of Sustainability, ultimately developing JYCM, and expanding Adamah on Campus. Over six years at Adamah, Liana has shaped and pushed the Jewish environmental landscape by integrating social justice with climate action and community building. Before Adamah, Liana worked with Kids4Peace in Jerusalem as a youth educator, counselor, and community organizer. She holds an M.P.A. in Nonprofit Management and Public Policy from New York University’s Wagner School, a Certificate in Jewish Ethics and Social Justice from The Jewish Theological Seminary, a Certificate in JOFEE Leadership from Hazon, and a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Tel Aviv University.
The Covenant Foundation is a program of Crown Family Philanthropies.