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Awards

At Maharat, we celebrate leadership at all life stages. The Emerging Scholars Award honors high school senior women who demonstrate deep learning and leadership.

Emerging Scholars Award

Award Description

The Emerging Scholars award is a $2500 scholarship for high school senior women who plan to spend a gap year studying in Israel. The award celebrates women who have demonstrated a personal commitment to leadership, spirituality, and Torah learning. It acknowledges these young women for their accomplishments and dedication, and it supports their continued growth as learners and leaders. 

How to Apply

High school seniors must be nominated for the award by a Jewish professional, spiritual leader, or educator. Following nomination, students will be sent a link to an application. This year’s nomination deadline is on March 30, 2026, and the student application deadline is April 11, 2026. 

Current Awardees

Lia Goldberger

Lia Goldberger is from Manhattan, where she loves running in Central Park, hopping between friends’ homes on Shabbos, chatting with strangers on the subway, and leading Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday nights. She loves how Torah learning seeps into every part of my life—especially the intersection of Tanakh and Machsheva, which offers a rich, moral framework for navigating the world. Like our rabbinic predecessors who embraced machloket l’shem shamayim, she sees her love for Israel as rooted in a deep appreciation for its complexity, history, and diversity. After her gap year in Israel, she will be attending Brown University, where she hopes to study Political Science, History, and Religious Studies.

Aliza Lesser

Aliza Lesser (Recipient of the Ian J. Kagedan z”l Emerging Scholars Award) recently graduated from CESJDS in the Washington, DC area. She has greatly enjoyed spending her summers at Camp Stone, the Drisha high school program, and the Bronfman Fellowship. She loves sharing her learning with chevrutas during lunch at school, her friends at their weekly parsha club, and her Daf Yomi siyums with friends, classmates, and occasionally her entire school. After attending Midreshet Lindenbaum where she hopes to continue deepening her connection to Hashem and strengthening her textual skills, she will be attending Columbia University, where she hopes to study psychology and contribute meaningfully to the Jewish and broader communities.

Aliza Shyovitz

Aliza Shyovitz is from Evanston, Illinois and attended Ida Crown Jewish Academy for high school. In second grade she lived in Jerusalem with her family, and she is looking forward to another transformative year in Israel — this time at Migdal Oz in the Gush. In her free time, she sings in her school's choir, runs cross country, leads her school’s Israel Advocacy Club, and competes in Model UN and the USA Chidon HaTanakh. Next year, she's excited to continue with her Tanakh studies and also expand her Jewish knowledge through Gemara and Machshava. After her gap year, she plans to attend Yale University.

Past Emerging Scholars Awardees

2025: Lia Goldberger, Aliza Lesser, Aliza Shyovitz
2024: Eliana Fromer, Charlotte Moreen, Amit Zohar
2023: Miriam Goldberger, Netta Haas, Charlotte Naar, Tamar Rosenfeld
2022: Rina Rogers, Eliana Menashe, Reyna Perelis
2021: Tiferet Grossman, Rivka Krause, Cara Lopatin
2020: Miriam Fisch, Noam Goldberg-Kellman, Elitsa Sklar
2019: Gabrielle Buch, Yonit Krebs, Clara Sandler