A rare gem makes his mark

DRS graduate Moshe Lonner excels in science and service

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Woodmere resident Moshe Lonner, the salutatorian of this year’s graduating class at Davis Renov Stahler (DRS) Yeshiva High School, has much to be proud about.
The 17-year-old was not only the captain of the Torah Bowl team and a veteran of the math and debate teams during his tenure at the school in Woodmere, but is making his mark in the sciences and a difference in the community.
A budding scientist, Lonner, along with fellow classmates Adam Beckoff and Chaim Steinhardt, designed a sensor which shuts off a heated stove when an individual places a hand over it. It was created with small children in mind. “We did a lot of research, and the sad part about it is that [burning incidents] are very preventable, and by using this technology, we can cause a dramatic decrease in burning-related injuries for children,” Lonner said.
The students presented their device at the annual Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education’s Young Engineers Conference, held at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway in Lawrence last year. A Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) course at DRS, which teaches students an array of technically-based problem solving skills and prepares them to design projects for the fair jump-started Lonner and his peers. “The whole STEM course taught us how to solve problems and inspired us to make the device,” he said.
Lonner was a finalist in the Jerusalem Science Contest in both his junior and senior years of high school. The contest consists of four months of arduous weekly tests based on college-level textbook readings and online lectures related to each year’s topic. In addition to the scientific aspect, each year’s topic is also tied to its relationship with Jewish law (halacha), and students research both aspects.

Last year’s contest focused on astronomy and its relationship with the Hebrew lunar calendar. This year’s contest centered on forensics and the halachic legality of performing autopsies. Out of the more than 100 students who participate in the contest every year, the top 40 scorers on the weekly exams are invited to Chicago to present their research on the year’s topic.
The top finisher is awarded a full-tuition scholarship to the Jerusalem College of Technology, and six of the finalists are given an all-expense paid trip to Israel. “It was a great program,” Lonner said, who placed third overall in this year’s contest, and netted fourth place last year. “It integrates Torah with science and is very interesting.”
Along with his academic work, Lonner is committed to helping his community. For the past two years, he has been involved in the Kulanu-DRS Mishmar program, where nearly a dozen special needs students from Kulanu in Cedarhurst study Torah, play basketball and enjoy dinner together with DRS students on Thursday nights. He coordinated the program this year and was presented with an award for his service on behalf of Kulanu at DRS’s annual Service Society induction ceremony in May. “All of the kids are really excited about it and look forward to it every week,” Lonner said. He added that the program fosters a special bond between the DRS mentors and Kulanu students. “It really has a positive impact on your life when you’re able to help special needs kids,” he said. “It makes you appreciate what you have.”
Jonathan Cooper, Kulanu’s director of inclusion and community services, praised Lonner’s work. “This program has meant a lot to the participants because it is so inclusive, welcoming and joyous,” Cooper said. “Kulanu is sure he is one of the hidden tzaddikim (righteous individuals).” Cooper also said that Lonner does a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure the program runs smoothly every week. “Moshe’s coordination and devotion to the of the DRS-Kulanu Mishmar program made it an organized success,” said DRS junior Yair Sternman. “His personality is very friendly and outgoing.”
DRS Principal Rabbi Yisroel Kaminetsky, like Copper, thinks of Lonner as a rare gem. “Moshe Lonner is one of those rare students that comes to a school only once in a long while,” he said. “He is a unique combination of a brilliant, motivated, hardworking, diligent student, and an amazingly kind-hearted, magnanimous young man whom you can always count on to help those with special needs and to get things done.”
Lonner will study abroad at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in Israel next year before beginning the honors program at Yeshiva University.