Dina Burcat
Silver Academy graduate 1998
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My time at the Rabbi David L. Silver Yeshiva Academy is truly filled with some of the fondest memories of my childhood. I remember Student Council elections and meetings, which were capped off in my 8th grade year, when I served as co-president with Sari (Goldsmith) Eisenberg. Class trips to Fairview and the Oceanography retreat were incredible learning experiences - even for some of us less-than-outdoorsy classmates. And who can forget our 8th grade trip to Israel! This once-in-a-lifetime experience bonded our class and brought to life everything that we'd learned in school up until that point.
And then there were the teachers - too many to count! Ms. Koplovitz z"l taught my second grade class in her last year of teaching, and we always felt privileged to be a part of that special class! I had amazing Judaics teachers...Mrs. Schertz, Morah Chanie, Mrs. and Rabbi Stein, Rabbi Kamensky, and Rabbi Gewirtz; and a fantastic education provided by secular-studies teachers like Mrs. Herman z'l, Mrs. Hervitz, Mrs. Zandieh, Mrs. Schreiber, Mrs. Nussbaum, Mrs. Gold, Mrs. Dalton, Mrs. Gaughan, Mrs. Heit, and more. I love going home and running into so many of these teachers around town! |
After I graduated from the Rabbi David L. Silver Yeshiva Academy in 1998, I went on to attend Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore, MD. Beth Tfiloh was an amazing place for me to continue the phenomenal secular and Judaic education that I received at the Yeshiva, and BT continues to be impressed with the many students from Harrisburg who have attended there over the years (and still do!) After Beth Tfiloh, I attended the University of Maryland and, after a semester abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2005, I graduated from UMD in 2006 with a double degree in Communication and Jewish Studies.
It was truly the Yeshiva Academy that fostered my love of Jewish education and helped direct me toward a career in Jewish education and the Jewish community. After college, I worked at Beth Tfiloh for 5 years as the Development Associate and Alumni Coordinator. I moved to New York in 2011, where I have worked at Yeshiva University, serving as Director in the Office of Alumni Affairs. I am also very involved in my synagogue on the Upper West Side, The Jewish Center.
The Rabbi David L. Silver Yeshiva Academy is in my bones - my mother, Gail (Hartman) Burcat, and all her siblings graduated from the Yeshiva, as did my sister, Shira (Burcat) Sarfati, and my father continues to serve on the board, even all these years after his children graduated. And I am the very proud granddaughter of Helen Hartman z"l - office manager extraordinaire, snack passer-outer, tooth box distributor, school nurse, along with many other hats that she wore - who worked at the school for 32 years. I'm so grateful for the experience that I had and the education that I received there and consider myself so lucky to be an alumna!
It was truly the Yeshiva Academy that fostered my love of Jewish education and helped direct me toward a career in Jewish education and the Jewish community. After college, I worked at Beth Tfiloh for 5 years as the Development Associate and Alumni Coordinator. I moved to New York in 2011, where I have worked at Yeshiva University, serving as Director in the Office of Alumni Affairs. I am also very involved in my synagogue on the Upper West Side, The Jewish Center.
The Rabbi David L. Silver Yeshiva Academy is in my bones - my mother, Gail (Hartman) Burcat, and all her siblings graduated from the Yeshiva, as did my sister, Shira (Burcat) Sarfati, and my father continues to serve on the board, even all these years after his children graduated. And I am the very proud granddaughter of Helen Hartman z"l - office manager extraordinaire, snack passer-outer, tooth box distributor, school nurse, along with many other hats that she wore - who worked at the school for 32 years. I'm so grateful for the experience that I had and the education that I received there and consider myself so lucky to be an alumna!
