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HERALD Spectacular art at Woodland M.S.
Meet East Meadow’s salutatorian
Playing volleyball for a good cause
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Vol. 23 No. 25
JUNE 15 - 21, 2023
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‘She just always wanted to learn’ Addison Baroukh is East Meadow High School’s valedictorian By MAlloRY WIlSoN mwilson@liherald.com
Jason Thomas/Herald
A fork sure would help Samuel Hurtado, 8, had his work cut out for him during the Stew Leonard’s-sponsored pie-eating contest at East Meadow Community Day last Saturday. Story, more photos, Page 3.
East Meadow High School Valedictorian Addison Baroukh always seemed to find the hardest things in school the easiest and the easiest things more difficult.. “If it was ever a complicated lesson in math, I would always understand that,” Baroukh, said. “If it was something very simple, I’d be like, ‘It can’t be that simple, right?’” B a ro u k h , wh o re c e n t ly tur ned 18, made her way through the East Meadow School District, attending Bar num Woods Elementary School and
Woodland Middle School. Now she’s finishing her high school career with a weighted average of 110.12. “I always thought it was a possibility, and that I was up there,” Baroukh said of being the valedictorian. “But, there’s so many smart kids in our grade that I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Then I was told, and I was like, ‘Oh, so it is me.’” She will make her way to upstate Ithaca this fall to attend Cornell University, where she plans to study industrial labor relations, which focuses on the study of people and workplace policies. She said the industrial Continued on page 18
The Garden at Temple B’Nai Torah celebrates harvest By MICHAEl MAlASZCZYK mmalaszczyk@liherald.com
It all started with a simple question: Can we have a garden like this? When Rona and Bob Kauffman, two members of Wantagh’s Temple B’Nai Torah, attended a class led by Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum and the Rev. Mark Genzsler, of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Bellmore, a number of years ago, comparing interfaith scriptures, the subject of the garden at St. Francis came up. Intrigued, the Kauffmans met with Susan Salem, the garden’s creator and coordinator, and became regular volun-
teers there, where parishioners grow fresh produce to fight local hunger. Salem and the Kauffmans wanted to bring that effort to Temple B’Nai Torah — which was originally known as Suburban Temple before it merged with Massapequa’s Temple Judea in 2008 and East Meadow’s Temple Emanu-El in 2018. The interest grew stronger when Temple B’Nai Torah brought the temple’s youth group to the St. Francis Garden in 2019 for a Sukkot activity. A year later, B’Nai Torah took action. “When Covid hit, we realized that if we were ever going to do
I
t was so incredibly brave of them to take a chance. SUSAN SAlEM Garden volunteer
this, we should do it now, because the food pantries were really having a problem keeping food on their shelves,” Rona Kauffman recalled. “And thankfully, the temple board was willing to take a chance on it.” It turned out that Temple B’Nai Torah had a playground
that was no longer in use, and that spot was chosen for the garden. After much reworking, sand boxes became garden beds for growing vegetables, all of which would be donated. Though not a member of the Temple Torah, Susan Salem continued to lend her gardening skills to the effort. “Susan and I share some responsibilities, and
exercise different responsibilities depending on what’s needed,” Kauffman said. “We work very well together as a team.” Salem brings her gardening prowess to the project, while Kauffman — in addition to her own gardening knowledge, learned from Salem — coordinates all of the volunteer efforts. Continued on page 8