According to dinner chairmen Eliyahu Berger and Yehuda Biber, the 55th annual dinner of Torah Academy for Girls promises to be an event that will touch the hearts of its attendees. The dinner, which is scheduled for Tuesday evening, February 20, at the Sands in Atlantic Beach, affords the TAG family an opportunity to enjoy a meaningful evening together. Journal chairmen Moshe Feigenbaum and Dr. Ernest Isaacson and their entire committee are working hard to ensure the success of the evening. This year’s theme of “b’chol levovcha” emphasizes the derech of chinuch that TAG has been providing for our community for over 50 years. The dinner will give us all an opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to those who have stepped forward to ensure that TAG will be able to continue to teach and reach each talmidah.
Farewell Tribute: Morah Sara Drillman. This will certainly pull at the heartstrings of the many alumnae, current parents, and faculty who hold her in such high esteem.
Morah Sara Ickovitz came to TAG as a young teacher, handpicked by Morah Sara Heiman Nadav who recognized her inborn talents when she watched her give shiurim in Camp Chedvah. Morah Heiman recruited her to teach the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. After her marriage, Morah Drillman taught ninth grade, and it became obvious that with each passing year she gained a sterling reputation as a teacher who gave her heart and soul to her talmidos. Morah Drillman left TAG after she gave birth to her first child and taught high-school classes in Brooklyn, where she lived. Years later, when Morah Heiman remarried and left TAG to live in Eretz Yisrael, Morah Drillman was the perfect choice to become principal of TAG’s limudei kodesh department. Her interaction with the students and faculty became legendary. Her ability to provide singular devotion to each of her many students endeared her to all who were privileged to have such a wonderful role model to emulate.
Now that she is leaving TAG to embark on a new chinuch mission in Lakewood, this farewell tribute allows TAG an opportunity to express its hakaras ha’tov to a phenomenal mechaneches who has inspired the fortunate talmidos of TAG for decades.
Guests of Honor: Mr. Dudi and Mrs. Esti Gross. Upon meeting Dudi and Esti Gross you are immediately drawn to them. It could be their warm and friendly demeanor, their ability to make one feel at ease, their willingness to be helpful, or maybe all of the above. Both Dudi and Esti are actively involved in numerous chesed and tzedakah initiatives throughout the community, and are always ready to help TAG in any way they can.
Esti Gross, nee Newman, grew up in Lawrence and is a proud TAG graduate, class of 2002. After attending Queens College and getting married, Esti came back to TAG to work as an assistant in the Ganger Early Childhood Division. The beautiful dedication that Dudi and Esti donated in memory of her esteemed father, Norman “Tully” Newman, a’h, who was a TAG board member, now graces the Jarvis entrance to the preschool. Their son, Tully, named after his illustrious grandfather, currently attends Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island.
Esti’s devotion to TAG is a yearlong endeavor. Currently, Esti works as an assistant in the TAG Elementary general-studies department, and she spends her summers working in Camp Atara. She is an active member of the Women’s League, involved in many projects throughout the year. The Gross daughters—Ilana, fifth grade; Leora third grade; and Avigail, first grade—are used to seeing their mother in school every day, whether at work or co-chairing events, organizing box top campaigns, or just being available whenever she is needed.
Dudi Gross was raised in Long Beach, NY, and his sisters went to TAG as well. He attended Yeshiva Darchei Torah for elementary and Yeshiva of Far Rockaway for high school. He earned his bachelor’s from Queens College and a JD from Cardozo Law School. Today, Dudi is a successful tech entrepreneur. Having cofounded and sold his first internet startup, Empower NY, a revolutionary suite of online tools for real-estate management, Dudi is now working on his next technology venture. He has previously served as a chairman for TAG dinners and as a committee member for the Yeshiva Ketana dinners. Aside from being a member of the TAG board, he is always willing to work behind the scenes, whenever called upon, to use his skills to ensure the success of any TAG project. Dudi also serves on the board of Kehilas Ahavas Yisrael, under the leadership of Rabbi Daniel Glatstein, where the Gross family davens.
Rabbi Moshe Weitman Memorial Award: Rabbi Dov and Mrs. Tamar Bauman. This award is bestowed annually to a couple who exemplifies and shares the ideals and hashkafos of our beloved dean, Rabbi Moshe Weitman, z’l. The Bauman home is a representation of Torah, avodah, and gemilas chasadim. In their quiet way they have helped many individuals and communal organizations. They have an open-door policy for anyone in need, including the unaffiliated, kiruv organizations, and their children’s friends. Their home has always been a makom Torah where shiurim are frequently hosted and open to all. Both Rabbi and Mrs. Bauman are avidly dedicated to the dissemination of Torah education and to the growth and development of Klal Yisrael’s children and their adult counterparts.
Rabbi Dov Bauman was a longtime talmid in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel and learned in Eretz Yisrael under his rebbe muvhak, Rav Yonasan Berger. Upon returning to America, Rabbi Bauman worked for seven years as a rebbe in Yeshivas Madreigas HaAdam in Queens and as a part-time manager of a family-owned business, Glatt Mart. Rabbi Bauman has a unique derech ha’limud that he learned from his rebbe, and has been teaching with this method for the past 12 years in his amud yomi shiur in Sh’or Yoshuv’s Kollel Boker. Rabbi Bauman’s passion in life is his learning and teaching. In his spare time, he prepares his shiurim, provides professional-development classes for rebbeim on teaching Gemara, and has presented his well-received approach to learning at Torah U’Mesorah. As owner of Glatt Mart, Rabbi Bauman has also earned a sterling reputation as an honest businessman with an eye on helping the klal in whatever way possible.
Tamar Bauman, nee Mezei, was raised in Staten Island and graduated from Pace University with a doctorate in school–clinical child psychology. She works as a senior coach and mentor through Hidden Sparks and provides ongoing education and coaching to Jewish day school teachers as well as supervision and mentoring to teacher-coaches in training. Her life’s work has been dedicated to helping children identify their individual strengths, face their challenges, and learn to thrive both in school and in life. Although Mrs. Bauman can rightfully be called Dr. Bauman, it is her title as wife and mother that she is most proud of and prefers to use. As the mother of nine beautiful daughters, bli ayin ha’ra, she always puts her family first and is devoted to the continuous growth and development of her children, Meira, Elisheva, Yael, Kayla, Ariella, Gila, Chana, Leah, and Avigail.
Current TAG students, Yael, a senior in Machon Sarah High School, and Kayla in tenth grade, are avid fans of the school, as were their older sisters, TAG alumnae Meira and Elisheva. Meira is married to Moshe Beitler and lives in Eretz Yisrael. Her husband learns by Rav Asher Arielli while she is working towards her MBA at Bar Ilan. Elisheva recently returned from Bnos Sara seminary, is currently studying psychology in Touro College, and will be pursuing a doctorate in the field. All of the Bauman girls credit TAG for providing them with stellar chinuch and general-studies education, as well as a positive social environment in which to thrive.
For dinner reservations and journal ads, please call 718-471-8444, e-mail dinner@tagschools.org, or visit
TAGdonation.org.
