The Covenant Foundation Announces Recipients of 2025 Covenant Award
New York, May 27, 2025 – The Covenant Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of this year’s Covenant Award, honoring three outstanding Jewish educators for their immeasurable contributions to the field of Jewish education.
The 2025 Covenant Award recipients are: SARAH ATKINS, Director of Camp Kadimah, Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canada; RABBI DIANNE COHLER-ESSES, Rabbi and Director of Lifelong Learning, Romemu, New York, NY; and RABBI MICAH LAPIDUS, Director of Jewish and Hebrew Studies and School Rabbi, The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy, Atlanta, GA.
“The three Jewish educators being honored this year are meeting these problematic times with integrity, depth, creativity, and brilliance,” said Deborah Meyer, Chair of the Board of The Covenant Foundation.
“At camp and on campus, at day school and online—Sarah, Micah, and Dianne draw on deep reserves of Jewish knowledge and soulfulness to engage and even to transport learners in their communities and beyond.”
Along with the recognition that accompanies the Award, The Covenant Foundation will honor the recipients with $50,000 each, and each of their institutions will receive $10,000.
“Micah, Sarah and Dianne apply their considerable skills across the diverse communities in which they live and work,” said Joni Blinderman, Executive Director of The Covenant Foundation. “They are truly courageous educators, leading their communities in a very challenging moment for the field and for the Jewish people at large.”
“And they all also share an essential quality: the ability to nurture the neshamot of their constituents. Each day, they demonstrate what lies at the heart of an extraordinary Jewish educator: attending to the soul of each and every student they teach.”
Sarah Atkins
SARAH ATKINS has served as Director of Camp Kadimah in Halifax, Nova Scotia, since 2017. In this role, Atkins is responsible for planning and implementing camp programming and supervising all senior staff and specialists. Her most significant impact on the camp has been her infusion of Jewish learning and values into every aspect of the Camp Kadimah experience.
Because of Atkins’ focus on the educational experience of staff members, Camp Kadimah was chosen by Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Yedid Nefesh program, which provides support for camp to explore and implement additional learning opportunities for staff development in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In 2024, Atkins launched “Kadimah on Campus,” a program for which she and other senior camp leaders travel to university campuses across Canada to offer educational programs, gatherings and social-emotional support to young adults in the Kadimah community. In preparation to lead productive dialogues in the summer of 2024 about antisemitism and the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza, as well as to prepare to support many Israeli staff members and campers, Atkins completed the Conflicts of Interest program through The iCenter.
“Sarah is one of those rare individuals who can inspire learners, colleagues, and supervisors with authentic humility coupled with professional brilliance,” said Michael Soberman, Senior Educational Consultant, The iCenter for Israel Education and Board Co-Chair at Camp Kadimah, who nominated Atkins for the Award.
“She does not see her role as a job but rather as a mission to apply Jewish education to build community, ignite passion, and strive to change the world in a positive way. She is the role model I aspire to be, and I am a better educator because of being her mentor, her colleague, and, most importantly, her student.”
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude to those who have nominated me, supported me, and worked alongside me throughout my career,” Atkins said, as she reflected on what it means to receive a Covenant Award.
“I love my job at Camp Kadimah. I truly feel that the work we do is transformative for our staff and our campers. Jewish camp, in my opinion, is one of the most important avenues for our youth to form and solidify their Jewish identity and grow into our future leaders.”
Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses
RABBI DIANNE COHLER-ESSES has served as Rabbi and Director of Lifelong Learning at Romemu, a Renewal congregation in New York, New York, since 2012. In this role, Cohler-Esses is responsible for the visioning, design, and implementation of all adult education offerings. She serves as Romemu’s lead educator and teaches numerous classes, including the congregation’s signature Open Book program—a hybrid in-person and virtual weekly class on the parashah held before morning services and attended regularly by 80 participants from around the world.
Rabbi Cohler-Esses’ work as an adult educator also extends well beyond Romemu. She co-teaches the Artists’ Beit Midrash Skirball Academy class at The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center and teaches Torah to lay leaders through the UJA-Federation of New York. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the Academy for Jewish Religion and she has been a bold leader in creating chesed programs that inform and inspire the community on topics including Judaism and disabilities and issues relevant to Jewish women.
“Dianne’s life journey, from the traditional Syrian community in which she was raised, to her own path as a seeker, to her powerful leadership as a rabbi and Jewish educator, has only been possible because of her unwavering commitment to intellectual, emotional, and spiritual honesty,” said Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College, who nominated Cohler-Esses for the Award.
“Such honesty requires quiet courage to ask hard questions of oneself and others. As an educator and as a communal leader, Dianne persistently creates space for asking honest questions. Any place where Dianne teaches Torah vibrates with questions—and with life.”
“I was in Israel on a rabbinic mission, immersed in issues of national trauma, war and peace, when I got the call about the Covenant Award,” said Cohler-Esses.
“To receive this tremendous honor while in Israel, witnessing so much heartbreak, was hard to reconcile. But Torah is a powerful gift, and I am starting to realize that even in the face of overwhelming challenges for our people and our planet, being recognized as a teacher of Torah matters now, as much as it ever did. My heart overflows with gratitude.”
Rabbi Micah Lapidus
RABBI MICAH LAPIDUS has been the School Rabbi and Director of Jewish and Hebrew Studies at The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy (Davis), the largest Reform Jewish day school in the United States, since 2008. In this role, Rabbi Lapidus leads a team of 10 faculty members in the creation of Jewish Studies, Hebrew, t’filah, holiday, and music curricula for the school. Rabbi Lapidus also leads the day-to-day teaching and religious activities at Davis; spearheads strategic initiatives as part of the senior educational leadership team; offers annual faculty professional development and facilitates reflective learning opportunities for the school’s administrative team. In addition, Rabbi Lapidus has strengthened spiritual expression at Davis, orchestrating weekly t’filah services, organizing interfaith learning, and igniting social action through intentional service-learning.
In addition, Rabbi Lapidus serves in a number of roles concurrent with his work at Davis. Since 2021, he has been a teacher for the Jewish Learning Collaborative, powered by Moishe House. Since 2015, Rabbi Lapidus has served as the Composer-in-Residence at The Temple, Atlanta’s largest Reform synagogue. Further, Rabbi Lapidus uses music and performance to create interfaith connections between members of Atlanta’s Jewish community and other local religious groups.
“Since Rabbi Micah joined Davis in 2008, he has impacted thousands of lives for the better,” said Amy Shafron, Head of School at Davis, who nominated Lapidus for the Award.
“He embodies a unique constellation of character traits and virtues. He is humble yet audacious, pragmatic yet visionary; he is a mensch but is not afraid to make difficult decisions. Under his leadership, the Jewish and Hebrew experience at Davis has been transformed. He is a consummate steward of our school’s mission and vision, a universally respected ambassador for Reform and Progressive Judaism, and a wonderful colleague and confidant.”
“Like so many other Jewish educators, I have benefited from the extraordinary contributions of previous Covenant Foundation Award recipients and I am so grateful to the Foundation for this honor,” said Rabbi Lapidus, reflecting on his selection as a 2025 Awardee.
“And, too, I am so blessed to be a part of The Davis Academy, to work alongside such dedicated, inspiring, and creative educators every day. My entire rabbinate has unfolded at Davis, and yet, after 17 years, I still feel like a student here—still learning, still growing.”
Guidelines on nominating an educator for a 2026 Covenant Award will be online June 9th, 2025. To read biographies of past recipients, visit https://covenantfn.kudos.nyc/awards-prizes/awards-program/.
The Covenant Foundation is a program of the Crown Family Philanthropies.