Every year, the gym at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington becomes a banquet hall for the annual Dinner of Champions. This year it is where seniors Gigi Gordon and Nate Szubin will be recognized for their athletic, academic and community service achievements.
Gordon and Szubin are among six high school athletes receiving the 2024 Hyman M. and Phillip D. Perlo High School Athlete Award, which is given to Jewish senior scholar-athletes from the DMV. The award is from the Bender JCC of Greater Washington.
The recipients of the award will be honored at the 32nd annual Dinner of Champions on Nov. 24. Winners of the Perlo award excel in athletics and academics and contribute to their communities through involvement in activities such as clubs and organizations.
“These athletes, they’re recognized for standing out as top athletes in the area,” Co-chair of the Dinner of Champions Danielle Cantor Jeweler said. “It’s also really important that they’re good humans and that they’re making an impact in their community.”
Both Gordon and Szubin have significantly contributed to varsity sports at CESJDS and have made meaningful contributions to the community. Gordon is a three-season varsity athlete; she is captain of the soccer, basketball and softball teams. She is also involved in numerous clubs and academic endeavors, but views her recent work, helping kids with disabilities play sports, as most impactful in the long term.
Szubin, a track and cross country runner, has set numerous records and won countless awards and races in the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference (PVAC) and the region. In addition to athletic achievements, he recently received the Jewish Theological Seminary Ahavat Torah award for being an excellent student-leader and a National Merit Scholarship Letter of Commendation for his PSAT score.
“[I’m] very grateful to my coaches for nominating me,” Szubin said. “[I’m] very proud to be joined to this lineage of people.”
The Dinner of Champions itself is a fundraiser for the inclusion program at Lessans Camp JCC. The camp, whose inclusion program is nationally recognized, aims to create a “meaningful summer camp experience to children of all abilities” per their website. The Bender JCC names inclusion as a core value, and has many programs for kids with disabilities.
“Once I went to the camp, I was blown away and wanted to do whatever I could to help make sure that our community can continue offering this for many years to come,” Cantor Jeweler said.
Szubin and Gordon are both happy to be part of an event helping this cause.
“When I looked more into it and realized that [the award and Dinner of Champions] was about helping the JCC and kids with disabilities… I was pretty proud of it,” Gordon said.
The award recipients also have the chance to be part of a mentorship program that Cantor Jeweler started last year. The high school athletes will be paired with a previous JCC sports hall of fame inductee, who will be their mentor for the year. Cantor Jeweler hopes the mentors and mentees will stay in touch in the future.
“We want them [to have] an opportunity to be part of this community forever,” Cantor Jeweler said. “Once you’re a Perlo award winner, then you’re in this community, you have this mentorship program, and a lot of them we’re hoping will move on to be successful athletes or successful professional sports agents or sports executives.”
Many JDS alumni have won the award. Recent alumni include Sam Sharp (‘24), Alex Reichmann (‘24), Ella Sheintal (‘23), Coby Malkus (‘23) and David Fritz (‘23).
“Looking back over the years, lots of great JDS people have gotten it, and I [feel] honored and humbled to be in that same list,” Szubin said.
