Sinai Akiba Academy Lower School Director Receives $15,000 Milken Jewish Educator Award

November 5, 2009

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Shelley Lawrence, Lower School Director at Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, has been awarded the prestigious Milken Family Foundation's Jewish Educator Award and its accompanying $15,000 prize.

The Jewish Educator Awards are presented annually to give public recognition and financial awards to teachers, administrators and other education professionals who have made significant contributions to excellence in education in day schools affiliated with the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE). The Jewish Educator Awards were established in 1990 in cooperation with BJE as an adjunct to the Foundation's Milken Educator Awards program.

"Shelley's love of learning and love of children enable her to lead the lower school faculty to the level of academic excellence that has been our tradition at Sinai Akiba," says Rabbi Laurence Scheindlin, Head of School at Sinai Akiba Academy. "She knows every child in the school and seems to know everything there is to know about elementary school education. She has become one of the most talented and skillful educators I know. We are proud of her and proud that she has been honored with this well-deserved award."

"Shelley Lawrence exemplifies the highest ideals of Jewish and secular education by nurturing a lifelong pursuit of learning and of our Jewish values," said Milken Family Foundation Executive Vice President Richard Sandler, who surprised Lawrence with her Award before an assembly of students and faculty.

Shelley joined the Sinai Akiba faculty in 1991 and became Lower School Director in 2001. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master's Degree in Education from UCLA. In addition to her work at Sinai Akiba, Shelley has been highly involved with teacher training through the UCLA Writing and Literature projects.

As Sinai Akiba Academy's eighth educator to receive a Milken award, Shelley joins the ranks of Sinai Akiba's previous Milken award recipients including Rabbi Scheindlin, Irit Eliyahu, Frida Eytan, Vivian Levy, Rivka Shaked, Suzanne Stein and Ginny Zemtseff.

She will be presented with her grant check at an awards luncheon this December in Los Angeles, California.

About Sinai Akiba Academy

A Solomon Schechter Conservative Jewish day school established in 1968, Sinai Akiba Academy draws on the rich traditions of Jewish heritage to offer a powerful, academic environment that focuses on developing a joyous appreciation of learning, as well as a positive Jewish identity that embraces a reverence for tradition. The school serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

SOURCE Sinai Akiba Academy