(Courtesy of The Moriah School) The Moriah School in Englewood, New Jersey, one of the nation’s premier Jewish day schools, educating over 650 students across Bergen County, will be hosting its 54th annual dinner on Saturday night, March 2. The dinner will take place at the Hilton Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at 8:00 p.m. Motzei Shabbat. This year’s honorees are Orit and Seth Gribetz (guests of honor), Livia and Elias Marcovici (Young Leadership Award) and Rachael Schwartz and Yehudith Stavsky (Rabbi J. Shelley Applbaum, z”l, Service Award).
Orit and Seth Gribetz are the paradigm of leadership; together they help to inspire others with their generosity and their outstanding commitment to Torat Yisrael, Am Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael. Orit, originally from Israel and then Boston, and Seth, a Moriah graduate from Teaneck, have lived in Englewood since 2004.
Seth is the founder and chief executive officer of Walnut Court Capital, a finance firm based in New Jersey. Orit and Seth have been involved in a variety of leadership roles at Moriah. Orit has served as a class liaison, Barnes & Noble event chair, “Names, Not Numbers©” mentor, Chesed Committee member and, most recently, as the inspiration behind our new Educational Garden. Seth has served as the Annual Dinner chair, Finance Committee chair, Capital Campaign chair, Construction Committee chair, Executive Committee member and board president. He currently serves as the co-chairman of the Board of Overseers. Perhaps Seth’s most notable accomplishments are his successful initiatives and focus on staff and faculty morale.
Beyond Moriah, the Gribetzes are involved in East Hill Synagogue, where Orit is a former co-president of the Sisterhood; the Englewood Mikvah, where Orit was a former board member, and Englewood Hospital, where Orit is involved with the kosher kitchen. In addition, Seth has served on the board of Project Ezrah.
Orit and Seth are the proud parents of Tali (’18), Maya (’19), Nicola (’21) and Joseph (’24).
Livia and Elias Marcovici have been proud members of the Moriah family since 2012. Livia, originally from Manhattan, and Elias, from Lido Beach, New York, have been active members of the Englewood community since they first moved to Englewood in 2010. Together, they have held leadership positions with the East Hill Synagogue, Yeshivat Ohr Simcha, Amit and Shaare Zedek, and are involved with numerous other charitable causes, as well.
Elias is a managing principal of Blake Partners, a real estate investment company based in New York. Livia currently serves as the director of admissions at Moriah, where for three years she has worked closely with the Moriah faculty, administration and board to help ensure Moriah’s continued growth and success.
Since the start of their time at Moriah, Livia and Elias have served as co-chairpersons for the Moriah Summer Outing. Elias has been a member of the fundraising committee for both the Moriah Annual Dinner and Summer Outing, and Livia has volunteered in multiple other capacities including working on the Open House and on a number of admissions initiatives—all of which laid the groundwork for her career at The Moriah School.
Livia and Elias are especially proud of their three children, all of whom are Moriah students—Ezra (’23), Sofia (’25) and Henry (’28).
Rachel Schwartz joined the Moriah family a week after her graduation from Ramapo College of New Jersey in January of 2000. During the course of her 19-year tenure at Moriah, Rachel’s role in the school has evolved and she now oversees several of the Middle School’s most prominent programs.
Rachel started her career at Moriah as a seventh-grade English teacher, shifting three years later to sixth-grade English and ultimately to seventh-grade history. She soon became chair of the middle school English department and continues to infuse classes with her love of reading, writing and analyzing text. Rachel combines her passion for teaching with her commitment to strengthening our students’ Jewish identity. Her stewardship of the iconic Moriah Heritage Fair enhanced the educational elements of the program. In 2012, she was part of the Moriah Middle School team that created Moriah Reads, and since 2014, Rachel has chaired that Moriah event. In 2016, Rachel became the educator and co-coordinator of the eighth-grade Holocaust project, “Names, Not Numbers ©,” a program that has given her the opportunity to work closely with many dedicated Moriah parents and to ensure that our students leave Moriah with a clear understanding of their responsibility to honor and remember those who suffered and those who perished. In addition, Rachel has been the volunteer facilitator for MAP’s parent book club since 2016. In 2016-17, Rachel’s accomplishments were recognized beyond Moriah as she was named the Northern NJ Jewish Federation’s Grinspoon Educator of the Year for Excellence in Jewish Education.
Rachel and her husband, Steven (Sholom) Schwartz, live in New Hempstead. Their daughters, Jessica and Kayla, are proud Moriah alumnae.
Janet Stavsky, also known as Morah Yehudit, has taught at Moriah for over 25 years. She joined the Limudei Kodesh support staff as a learning center teacher and for the past 15 years has taught Judaic Studies Kittah Alef and Bet.
Yehudit graduated from Queens College with a BA in speech and hearing disorders. At the same time, she attended Yeshiva University’s Teacher’s Institute for Women. Yehudit received her MS in Education from Queens College. She is certified in the Orton-Gillingham method of reading and writing instruction from the Windward School Teacher Training Institute. Most recently, she joined the second-grade Judaic studies teachers to pilot the Responsive Classroom program now used throughout all of the grades. This program enables children to develop their socio-emotional skills while being more engaged in the learning process.
Yehudit and her husband Mattis are grateful to Moriah for the wonderful education their children Moshe (’95), Aryeh (’97) and Eli (’00) received. Yehudit and Mattis are members of Congregation Rinat Yisrael of Teaneck.
For more information on Moriah or the Annual Dinner, please contact Ari Lewis, events and marketing manager, at 201-567-0208, ext. 393 or [email protected]. To register for the dinner, go to www.themoriahdinner.org.
