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Gulliver Prep senior Luiz Gandelman is the Prep’s Silver Knight nominee for World Languages.
Gandelman is fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. He says he’s nearly fluent in Hebrew, conversational in Italian, Japanese, and Ladino (an obscure language spoken in Israel, Turkey, North Africa and parts of Yugoslavia).
He learned Portuguese in Brazil. He learned English in school when he moved to Miami, and he learned Spanish on the streets.
“This year I convinced my teacher to let me go into Advanced Placement Spanish,” he says.
He finished all the Japanese language courses his junior year, including AP Japanese.
A semester aboard in Israel helped him learn Hebrew and he practices with his mother who is Israeli.
He learned Italian through Duolingo and talking with his parents who are both fluent.
Ladino is not available through the online language services, so he used books and online videos to learn it.
Gandelman says his semester in Israel changed his life. He was there from January 2022 – May 2022.
“Freshman year I was lost, I didn’t know what direction I wanted in life,” he says. “I thought I wanted to study engineering. I had no real goals and aspirations.”
That semester connected him to his Jewish identity, and his Israeli identity.
“That semester is when I become involved in more direct activism,” he says.
Since then, he has been writing for a variety of publications from the school newspaper to The Times of Israel.
“I write for The Progressive Teen, the newspaper for the Progressive Democrats in America,” he says.
He’s written ten articles published in the Times of Israel.
Like for all Jews, Oct. 7 is a day of tragedy and terror. It’s especially difficult for someone like him who have been involved in peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians.
Because of his longtime work with his friend Sara Gelrud, the Gulliver community has weathered the situation fairly well.
“If you ask people on campus, you’d say the Jewish community is stronger,” he says. “It’s incredible to know that me and Sara have had such an incredible impact. The problems we’ve had since Oct. 7 is close to none.”
He says the secret is a strong Jewish community.
“It’s hard to speak up with hatred when the light is stronger,” he says. “Now, People are proud to talk about it. You have students of all faiths and all cultures wearing their Jewish Student Union shirts.”
They have coalitions with all the other faith groups.
“They stand by us. When trouble struck, Gulliver’s non-jewish community has been standing by us.”
Since freshman year, he’s been committed to building the Gulliver Jewish community. He and Gelrud founded the Jewish Student Union, which has worked to build bridges to the other cultural student groups such as the Christian Club and the LGBTQ+ community.
“We have been involved in the DEI on campus,” he says.
He was one of the founding members of the DEI Committee.
Gandelman leads the Student Holocaust Education group. He has helped run or plan all the holocaust education at the school.
Next year, Gandelman will attend Hamilton College in Upstate New York where he will concentrate on World Politics and Government. His goal is to become a diplomat.
“I’m big on building bridges and having conversations to change the world,” he says.
At school he is a member of the Environmental Club, Model United Nations, the Brazilian Club and the Japanese Club, and is president of the Geography Bee team. He’s in many honor societies.
He’s also huge on traveling. He’s been to 38 counties and will soon be going to # 39.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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