Ally was the heart and engine of our family. She ran our home as my wife and as the mother of our children, Nathan, Jake, Zachary, and Chloe. Professionally, she was a teacher and educator at the Hebrew Academy of Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) for nearly 20 years, most recently as its Lower School Math Coordinator. She was also a daughter, a sister, a family member, an incredible friend, an exercise junkie, an artist, and a genius at organizing any space or idea. She was vivacious, hilarious, loyal, empathetic, generous, disciplined, powerful, a woman of action, and unapologetically herself.
Even so, no list can really capture Ally. You didn’t just know her, you experienced her. If you ever met her, you understand exactly what I mean. If you didn’t, I hope this page helps you see why so many of us feel her absence so deeply.
Ally’s gift was believing in people, adult or child, before they believed in themselves. She turned her belief into your confidence. Her students got that belief, and in turn, confidence, every single day. Math is often the subject where a child first starts to doubt themselves, and Ally made it her goal to stop that doubt before it took hold. She gave the most patience to the students who needed it most. She made them laugh, made them try again, and made them feel proud of the effort, not just the answer. Years later, they still remember how she made them feel. She tutored for no reason other than to spread that confidence to as many children as possible. Ally always believed in what a child could do and could be, even when, in that moment, they couldn’t yet. She was steadfast in that view of her students, and her students felt it.
Ally kept the proof. Every note a student or parent wrote to her went into a shoebox she labeled “Special.” Those notes meant as much to her as she meant to the students who wrote them. Read a few, and you’ll understand her gift.
As is often the case for those humans most impactful, Ally was tragically taken from us way too early. We miss her every second. Though life moves on without Ally’s physical presence, what defined Ally doesn’t have to end. Every student, those strong and those waiting for someone to see what they’re capable of, still needs a teacher, a tutor, a mentor like her. I am starting the Ally Rahmani Legacy Foundation to make sure that Ally’s confidence keeps reaching the children who need it most. That was her gift, and now it will be her legacy.
Thank you for being here, and for remembering her with us.
