This Wednesday, eight new members were inducted into the Hebrew National Honors Society during a ceremony in the Hebrew Academy auditorium.
To become a member of the society a student must maintain a 92 or higher in all their Hebrew language courses throughout high school.
The new members, Jacob Stein, Itai De Roca, Yosef Melul, Jaclyn Nussenblatt, Jonathan Malove, Ariella Glick, Hannah Mayer, and Miryam Levin, expressed excitement about joining the HNHS.
“It feels nice,” said Malove (11th Grade).
The keynote speaker, Israeli Defense Force Veteran Zaq Harrison, shared his story about growing up in a small town in Appalachia and becoming an IDF lone soldier. Harrison spoke about growing up in a town with barely any Jews. After watching the murder of the 11 Israeli Olympians at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games on television, Harrison realized the importance of his Jewish roots and made Aliyah to Israel.
“Everyone has something they want to do that’s kind of culturally connected, and I was no different in that sense. I always had that connection to Israel,” Harrison said.
This year the HNHS is raising money for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Force (FIDF). So far they have raised $500.
“Every year, we have students who go and serve in the army,” said Hebrew Department Chair Morah Kravetz. “We have Eden Glick, who is the sister of Ariella Glick, one of our honor society members, who is right now serving. And a lot of our students did that, so I think it’s important.”
By: Yael Bramy (12th Grade), Ava Horowitz (12th), Maya Somek (12th) and Ariella Wolfson (12th)