Our Award Winners , Beryl & Gary Cohen
Beryl and Gary are from Johannesburg , South Africa . After they got married , they moved to Portugal where they lived in a fishing village near Lisbon for two years before moving to San Francisco . It was in San Francisco that their son , Daniel ( NYHS 2014 ), was born . Soon after , Gary got his dream job with Boeing in Wichita , Kansas . They eventually made their way to Seattle where their daughter , Ariella ( NYHS 2017 ), was born .
Neither Gary nor Beryl attended Jewish day schools growing up , but when it was time to choose a school for their kids , they decided to enroll Daniel at JDS and Ariella soon followed .
Photo by Meryl Alcabes Photography
“ Coming from South Africa to the US , we didn ’ t quite feel the same sense of community as we easily felt where we grew up . Joining the day school community became our family . We watched our kids blossom [ in day school ] and become proud to be Jewish .”
Daniel graduated from NYHS in 2014 and spent two years in Israel . Now he is studying at Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim outside of Paris . Ariella will graduate this year .
Beryl and Gary have been wonderful volunteers for NYHS . Beryl hosted class parties , chaired two galas and serves on the NYHS Board as secretary . The Cohens are active in Hadassah and Kline Galland . Beryl and Gary have made the Shabbos Project Challah Bake a family affair . This year , over four hundred people gathered in November to bake challahs and connect Jewishly .
“ We look for opportunities to connect people . If we each stopped thinking just of ourselves but rather focused on the needs of the community , we ’ d be a stronger and prouder community . That ’ s our hope for the future .”