Tampa Catholic High School

The Eva and Arie Halpern Merit Award

The Eva and Arie Halpern Merit Award Program at RKYHS was established in 2008 by the Stein family in order to commemorate Eva and Arie Halp­ern’s lifelong dedication to Jewish education, Jewish causes, and the Jew­ish people.

Eva and Arie Halpern knew each other as children. Of the 2,000 Jewish families who lived in Chorostkow, Poland, they were among the only twenty people who survived. Spending the war years in ghettos, labor camps, and in hiding, they lost most of their families and friends in the Shoah.

After the war, Eva and Arie married their first spouses, Bernard Stein and Frieda Halpern, each of whom died prematurely, and then married each other and became a blended family with five children, sixteen grandchil­dren and two great-grandchildren. They rebuilt their lives with tremendous energy and optimism and made important contributions to their community in the United States. In addition, they were very strong Zionists and were always very involved with and supportive of Israel.

Despite the tragedies they and their families suffered, Eva and Arie never stopped believing in G-d and emphasized the utmost importance of Ho­locaust remembrance and education, saying: “The world must know and remember what happened!”

Eva's and Arie’s dedication, tenacity and generosity serve as an inspiration to us all.

This endowment provides four-year financial awards to four students who have excelled during middle school in academics, chesed, art, music or athletics. All eighth-graders applying for admission as a freshman at RKYHS are eligible to apply for the program, which provides each recipient with a $3,000 award towards the freshman, sophomore, and junior years, and with a $1,000 award towards the senior year.

Applications are welcome from eighth-graders who require financial assis­tance, as well as those who do not. Two Eva and Arie Halpern Merit Awards are awarded annually to graduates of the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Acad­emy, and two are given to graduates of other yeshivot.

It is hoped that Eva and Arie Halpern’s devotion to Torah, community, and family, as well as their tenacity and generosity, will serve as an inspiration to recipients of the Eva and Arie Halpern Merit Award Program, and to all students at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School.

We have an online application process that allows you to easily apply for the Eva and Arie Halpern Merit Scholarship. Please complete the information requested on the form and upload your 1,000-word essay in Word or PDF format for consideration.

For more information, please call our Director of Admissions, Allison Lyons, at (862) 437-8050 or Mrs. Shawn Tarzik, our Admissions Coordinator, at (862) 437-8064. The deadline for submission of all application materials is January 31, 2024.

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