June 7, 2018

Atara Bayever, 18
High School: Valley Torah High School
Going to: UCLA

Atara Bayever is almost ready to take on the world. 

“I think I may be half-prepared [for this next phase],” Bayever said in a phone interview. “Since I have a lot of responsibilities in school and with extra curriculars, I’ve been doing a lot of that growing up over this past year.”

Before the soon-to-be Valley Torah High School graduate begins her college experience at UCLA, where she plans to take pre-med courses, Bayever will spend a year studying at Darchei Binah seminary in Jerusalem. 

“I’m really excited to be on my own for the first time and explore what that means,” she said. “I’m really excited to just branch out, have new experiences and get in touch with who I am in a different setting than I am used to, and see where that takes me.”

Bayever said it was important for her to take a gap year for her personal development and spiritual growth “before I go out to the secular world and find my place there.” 

At Valley Torah, Bayever undertook a dual curriculum of honors classes in both Judaic and secular studies. During high school she found her love for medicine. 

 “I starting thinking about how I could use my interests to help people,” she said. “Also, [science is] something that challenges me, and there’s so much knowledge there that I wanted to explore, so I thought that would be a good opportunity for that.”

Bayever said she plans to make a difference, one person at a time.

“I’m really excited to just branch out, have new experiences and get in touch with who I am in a different setting than I am used to, and see where that takes me.”

“The best impact you can make is when you really connect with people,” she said. “Either as a practicing doctor or if I go into research, whichever one I decide, I want to be able to connect with people and how I can help each person specifically.”

Bayever has been honing those skills as part of her volunteer work at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. “I really got to see how a hospital works,” she said, “and it was an amazing experience. I really want to be a part of that.”

This summer, Bayever will be working as a camp counselor — as she has over the past two summers — at Camp Gan Israel and Camp Shamayim, both of which are in the San Fernando Valley.

When not studying or volunteering, Bayever plays guitar and enjoys photography. She also hopes to continue her love of painting while in the seminary and plans to take art classes in college. 

Bayever said Valley Torah instilled in her a love for Judaism.

“I think that’s really important to take with me,” she said, “because I’m going to a pretty secular college and it’s really going to be up to me, after seminary, how involved I want to be in Judaism. I think Valley Torah gave me that desire to stay connected.”

Clara Pitt, 17
High School: Milken Community Schools
Going To: Vassar College

She’s the salutatorian for the Milken Class of 2018, but academic achievement is just one aspect of Clara Pitt’s many accomplishments. Active in student government and service organizations, she has helped plan the school’s Service Learning Fair, is active in the education movement Girls Learn International, and is on the planning committee for Milken’s AIDS Walk team. A talented dancer, she’s team captain for the Los Angeles Israeli Dance Company, and she is a teacher’s aide for Temple Isaiah’s pre-K Sunday school class.

“Giving back has always been really important to me,” Pitt said in a phone interview. “It’s something my parents and grandparents are very enthusiastic about. I grew up watching them do community service, and was so inspired by their ability to give back that I wanted to do the same. I think it’s the greatest work we can do in our lives. My parents never pushed me in school, just encouraged me to do my best.”

An ardent traveler, Pitt attended Camp Svarvas, an international Jewish camp in Hungary, and has been to Israel three times, most recently in April for the March of the Living. She went twice in 2016, first with a Stephen S. Wise Temple three-way summer exchange program and stayed with families in Tel Aviv and Vilnius, Lithuania. She returned a few months later, on a Temple Isaiah group tour. “We had an Israeli tour guide and a Palestinian tour guide to learn about both sides of the conflict,” she said.

“I’m always amazed by how rich and vibrant the culture is,” Pitt said of Israel. “I don’t necessarily agree with everything the state of Israel does, but I feel blessed that the Jewish people have a state, and hope that one day in the future we’ll be able to live peacefully there.”

“I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface with my understanding of everything. I’ll take any opportunity to travel and learn about another culture.”

Pitt, who received her Jewish education at Temple Isaiah, where she had her bat mitzvah, and has attended Milken since middle school, said she “became a lot more in touch with my Jewish identity and Jewish heritage” after transferring there from a secular elementary school. “I was studying a lot more in-depth than before, and through exchange programs I’ve been able to meet Jewish people from around the world. That has motivated me to learn more about Judaism and stay connected with it. It’s really a large part of my life,” she said.  

“I see how much my ancestors struggled to be Jewish,” she said, noting that her grandmothers fled Eastern Europe before World War II. “One became a schoolteacher and the other a librarian. Their willingness and passion for giving back to the community really inspired me.”

Heading to Vassar College this fall, Pitt has “a long list of things I want to study: cognitive science, journalism, art history, anthropology, maybe chemistry,” she said. “My ideal job would be a photojournalist.” 

Her summer plans include doing fun things around L.A. and taking a trip with her brother Benjamin, a recent New York University graduate. “It’s one of my goals to help people wherever I go and learn and experience as much as I can. I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface with my understanding of everything. I’ll take any opportunity to travel and learn about another culture.” n

Eli Isaacs, 17
High School: YULA Boys High School
Going to: Yeshiva University

Eli Isaacs has plans to go into medicine because “I’ve always wanted to help people,” but he’s also fascinated by how medicine relates to Jewish law. It’s why he’s happy to put his plans to attend Yeshiva University in New York on hold for a year, or possibly two, so that he can spend time in Israel studying at yeshiva.

At the end of this summer, Isaacs will head to Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in Ashdod. Despite the fact the area has been a target of rockets from Gaza, Isaacs is not worried. “I feel very safe in Israel,” he said. “I’ve been there multiple times, and when I’m learning in yeshiva, I feel like HaShem is protecting me.”

Isaacs’ passion for Torah learning is evident at school, too, where he has voluntarily taken on an additional three Talmud classes. “I see that there are people who want to learn Talmud all day, and they have an immense love for it and seem like they live happier lives. I want to emulate that,” he said. He added that he’s also inspired by how his father studies Talmud every night after a busy day at work.

He also is impressed with his father’s work as the owner of Garden of Palms, a Jewish assisted living facility, where Isaacs has spent time volunteering. Isaacs, who lives in Pico-Robertson, has walked with his father and brother (who also works there) all the way to the facility in West Hollywood on Shabbat, “so we can daven with them and sing songs with them.” When he’s at his own shul, Beth Jacob in Pico-Robertson, he’s the gabbai there. 

At YULA Boys High School, his teachers and rabbis have designated him an ambassador for prospective students “because they believe I represent the school well” in taking advantage of everything the school has to offer, being involved and getting consistently good grades. “They feel I have extra insight to share,” he said. 

“I’ve learned that it’s important to be there for other people, and to try to better myself as a person and as a Jew.” 

Isaacs is also a huge sports enthusiast, having played on YULA’s varsity basketball and volleyball teams, serving as captain of the basketball team in both his junior and senior seasons. He also has six older siblings. “They’re all competitive and sporty, so I’m always trying to beat them.”

Before heading off to yeshiva in Israel in August, Isaacs will spend the summer in New York at Camp Kaylie in the Catskills as a member of the sports staff, where he’ll be both teaching sports “and hopefully having time to play, too,” he said. In addition, he said the camp has a Jewish studies learning program in the mornings and evenings that he’d like to take advantage of.

Isaacs said that his years at YULA have taught him how to manage his time and to be grateful for all opportunities. “YULA really pushes [the notion of] brotherhood,” he said, “and I’ve learned that it’s important to be there for other people, and to try to better myself as a person and as a Jew.”

Aaron Saliman, 18
High School: Milken Community Schools
Going to: UC Berkeley

When Aaron Saliman heads to UC Berkeley this fall, he’ll be coming full circle. Born in San Francisco, his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 4.

“I’m really excited to go to Berkeley, partially because it’s an entirely huge change of pace from small, private Jewish schools in Los Angeles, but also because of what I’m going to be studying,” said Saliman in a phone interview. He plans to study environmental economics and policy.

Saliman considers himself an environmentalist and an activist, and he is thrilled to be able to explore his interests academically.

“A lot of the time when I tell people the major I want to go into, they’re like, “So you really want to change the world?” And I’m like, “Yes, of course I want to move our world to a more sustainable path.”  

Saliman said he hopes to eventually join an organization such as the National Resources Defense Council or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He would like to “help institute policy or analyze the economy or something that will help us get a better understanding of global climate change, and then help us combat it.”

Saliman, who said he wanted to be a creative writing major “for the longest time,” has earned three national and four regional gold medals from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. He attended the Iowa Young Writers Workshop in summer 2016, the Kenyon Review Young Writers summer program in 2017, and two sessions of the four-week California State Summer School for the Arts in 2016 and 2017. He was also named one of Ventura Boulevard magazine’s Top Teens: 10 to Watch.

“Writing is my biggest passion,” he said. However, his practical side tells him he needs to do more to “support a family, make money and survive. So I will be continuing creative writing for fun and for my own personal fulfillment.” 

He also plans to continue his passion for playing guitar, which he has been doing for the past six years. 

“ ‘So you really want to change the world?’ ” people ask me. And I’m like, ‘Yes, of course
I want to move our world to a more sustainable path.’ ”  

This summer, Saliman plans to teach creative writing to children and also focus on enjoying his time at home, getting the most out of Los Angeles, his friends and family before heading off to school.

Spending his summer this way also dovetails with his philosophy of being around people who are genuinely kind to one another. 

 “I wish there was more of a stress in our society and in ourselves to just be nice people,” he said. “It’s a really cliché thing, but it’s been one of my biggest beliefs lately.”

These are important beliefs to hold onto, he said, because, “It’s very easy to get lost when you’re talking about things like climate change and these big ideas of writing and music. Everything I take part in [involves] big nebulous ideas, and it’s easy to lose the individual. I think by maintaining empathy and basic human kindness it will help us on all levels of human development.” n

“I’m really excited to go to Berkeley, partially because it’s an entirely huge change of pace from small, private Jewish schools in Los Angeles, but also because of what I’m going to be studying,” said Saliman in a phone interview. He plans to study environmental economics and policy.

Saliman considers himself an environmentalist and an activist, and he is thrilled to be able to explore his interests academically.

“A lot of the time when I tell people the major I want to go into, they’re like, “So you really want to change the world?” And I’m like, “Yes, of course I want to move our world to a more sustainable path.”  

Saliman said he hopes to eventually join an organization such as the National Resources Defense Council or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He would like to “help institute policy or analyze the economy or something that will help us get a better understanding of global climate change, and then help us combat it.”

Saliman, who said he wanted to be a creative writing major “for the longest time,” has earned three national and four regional gold medals from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. He attended the Iowa Young Writers Workshop in summer 2016, the Kenyon Review Young Writers summer program in 2017, and two sessions of the four-week California State Summer School for the Arts in 2016 and 2017. He was also named one of Ventura Boulevard magazine’s Top Teens: 10 to Watch.

“Writing is my biggest passion,” he said. However, his practical side tells him he needs to do more to “support a family, make money and survive. So I will be continuing creative writing for fun and for my own personal fulfillment.” 

He also plans to continue his passion for playing guitar, which he has been doing for the past six years. 

This summer, Saliman plans to teach creative writing to children and also focus on enjoying his time at home, getting the most out of Los Angeles, his friends and family before heading off to school.

Spending his summer this way also dovetails with his philosophy of being around people who are genuinely kind to one another. 

 “I wish there was more of a stress in our society and in ourselves to just be nice people,” he said. “It’s a really cliché thing, but it’s been one of my biggest beliefs lately.”

These are important beliefs to hold onto, he said, because, “It’s very easy to get lost when you’re talking about things like climate change and these big ideas of writing and music. Everything I take part in [involves] big nebulous ideas, and it’s easy to lose the individual. I think by maintaining empathy and basic human kindness it will help us on all levels of human development.”