Recipient: Aviva Hermanoff

When asked what motivates her to teach with excellence, Aviva responded that she “really, really, really believes in Jewish continuity.” She wants to provide her students with a connection to their past in order to help them with their future. She believes that if you don’t know where you have been, you don’t know where to go. In order to bring relevance to the past she strives to teach in meaningful ways by varying her teaching style. She teaches lessons that will touch the hearts of her students and she models that learning can and should be enjoyable.

Aviva sees teaching as a mission, not a job. As a teacher she is an advisor, performer, best friend, counsellor and of course, a teacher! She is inspired by her students and strives to forge bonds with them that go beyond the classroom.

Aviva’s nominator is one of the students that she has inspired. Dustin wrote :

Mrs. Heramanoff’s class is different as she inspires me to be as productive as possible with her unique teaching methods. It is the lessons in life that I have taken away from her class, which inspired me to nominate her. She has taken Jewish History to new heights, and our class has explored a whole new meaning to the Jewish religion. Her class gave me the facts and the confidence for the first time to talk to my grandparents about their experience in the Holocaust.

She allows us to speak our minds in her class, and she never allows herself to be drawn into emotional tirades but keeps the debate alive with insightful and directional comments.

I feel as if I am not just leaving her class with an excellent understanding of Jewish History, but I am leaving this class with a friend and a mentor who has inspired me to be the best that I can be.