Reishit Dinner 2017 - Alumnus of the Year: Effie & Rena Zlotnick

you know ever since I left theiva I've been in touch with Myan to this day when I first got to be ches for my shanal was about 15 years ago I've been in touch with all of Myan whether it's with respect to when I was in yu when I started dating having children sending them to school I mean so many decisions along the way and there wasn't one decision that I made where you know my wife and I didn't speak to their rean Yeshiva and get their take on it you know because of their attention to me throughout the years not just when I was in Yeshiva but their willingness to make time for me they really understand who I am who we are and what we're looking for one of the things I really learned to appreciate and looking back in my time in Yeshiva is how the ream really took every individual and developed them based on their own strengths they were able to really get an understanding of what each of us were looking for how to develop each of us as individuals my brothers and I all went to ISA we all had very different personalities very different goals very different things that we were looking for and we really all developed in our own way and that's a testament to their re's attention and focus on each of us individually and trying to find you know what what was best for us in our own development rather than just trying to accomplish a general common goal for for the T medium at large it was really a focused attentive you know mission to try and develop each person you know based on their own strengths which is something that's really unparalleled and something that's always inspired me I've had the privilege to know Fe for close to 20 years as as a rean of post High School Yeshiva I often draw upon fa as an example to try to explain to my students that being serious about Tamor has nothing to do with being a professional or formal Rabbi aftera in Wu later in smik F always took his learning very seriously and even to this day I can always count on opening up an email and seeing an email from Fe whether it's a question of the day or the yearly that helps put together e is the one who keeps the from Yesa together by making sure that there's a substantive conversation surrounding TOA and I hope that we'll be able to grow together for many years to come my parents point out all the time that you know the group of friends that I was able to develop from my time of Yeshiva are still my closest friends to this day really there's there's nobody like them and it's not that we have everything in common between each other we just have a a mutual respect for each other and I think really started by being Yesa together being around rabim who had the respect for us and looked at us as individuals saw our strength saw our potential really allowed us to see potential in each other closest friends today are are the ones who you know I spent that year year and a half with in yiba and those are friends that are going to last me a lifetime