YOUTH OF THE YEAR
Ilan Messing

Huntington Jewish Center

Ilan Messing has been an active member of the Huntington Jewish Center since the day of his bris.

The Jewish community is important to Ilan. He has been a “regular” at Shabbat morning services and other synagogue events. He attended HJC nursery and religious schools. After his bar-mitzvah, Ilan chose to enrich his knowledge of Judaism and foster friendships at SHMA in South Huntington. For fun, he has embraced Jewish connections through USY. To show his love of Israel, Ilan had planned to march with HJC last June in what would have been his tenth consecutive Celebrate Israel Parade.

Ilan is an active volunteer. He assisted the HJC Israel Committee at guest speaker events, as he enjoys learning about current issues. Ilan has regularly helped at synagogue youth events such as Mitzvah Day, Purim Carnival, and the Hanukkah Happening. One year he brought his passion for STEM to the synagogue by running a craft booth that allowed kids to create a paper LED menorah that he designed.

Ilan is a former honors student at Harborfields High School, where he spent most of his free time working on robotics. He was president of the school’s robotics club and was the captain and lead builder/engineer of his team.  He also enjoys volunteering at robotics competitions. He played baritone in the school bands – a talent that came in handy as he was able to blow shofar at his sister’s bat-mitzvah. Ilan is currently studying electrical engineering at Stony Brook University.

Ilan thanks the Men’s club for their support, and congratulates the other HJC honorees: Faith Zimmerman, Alexa Rind, Russell Strachan and Alan Kriegstein! Click here to support Ilan Messing with a journal ad in his honor.

Please click here to support the Huntington Jewish Center’s Man of the Year:
Alan Kriegstein