Annual meeting marks five years for Alliance

PROVIDENCE – Members of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island gathered in the meeting hall at Temple Beth-El the evening of June 15 for the Alliance’s fifth annual meeting and received a warm welcome from Temple Beth-El’s rabbis. Renovations at the Dwares Jewish Community Center made the change of venue necessary, but that didn’t dampen attendance. Approximately 150 people gathered for the awards ceremony, leadership reports and board installation.

A moment of silence to remember the victims of the recent Orlando shootings was followed by “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Hatikvah” led by Chloe Savit. Beth-El’s Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman welcomed the crowd, expressing his pride, as the new rabbi on the block, at the way in which the Alliance uplifts the community by its inclusion, welcome and support for all Jews.

Five awards were presented to community members recognized for going above and beyond community service.

Susan Odessa Froehlich received the Kipnis – Wilson/Friedland Award, honoring extraordinary women who have set a high standard for philanthropy and volunteerism. Froehlich, a speech and language pathologist, has been an active volunteer at the Alliance for many years and will now serve as the vice chair for philanthropy. She is a second-generation recipient of this award; her mother, Elaine Odessa, was the first woman in Rhode Island to receive the award. “Volunteerism is in my DNA,” she said.

Andrea Katzman received the Lea Eliash/Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Education, honoring outstanding classroom-based teachers in formal Jewish educational settings. Katzman, a Kansas native, teaches Pre-K at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island. She has lived in Israel and  taught at Rhode Island College and now is an instructor at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts.

Marc Gertsacov received the Riesman Leadership Development Award, designed to inspire and encourage emerging leadership. Recipients attend the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. Gertsacov, an attorney, is the vice chair of community development for the Alliance and a member of other Alliance committees.

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser received the Norman D. and Flo Tilles Community Relations Council Award, established to stimulate and encourage leaders and emerging leaders who have performed significant service to the Community Relations Council of the Alliance. Goldwasser came to Temple Sinai from Florida in 2014. He’s concentrated on interfaith relations and dialogue as well as  spirituality. He is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Joint Commission on Worship, Music and Religious Living.

Susan Leach DeBlasio received the Joseph W. Ress Community Service Award, recognizing a worthy individual who has demonstrated exemplary leadership at the Alliance, local or national Jewish agencies and the general Rhode Island community. A corporate attorney, DeBlasio has contributed her professional and personal skills to a number of Jewish and Rhode Island communal organizations, including the University of Rhode Island Hillel, Jewish Seniors Agency, Jewish Family Service and Temple Emanu-El, as well as the Alliance. In the community, she’s been active in the Rhode Island Bar Association and the Rhode Island Bar Foundation among other organizations.

This meeting recognized a change of leadership of the Alliance. Sharon Gaines reflected on three years as chair of the board, saying she hoped she lived up to her mission. (You can read her remarks on Page 9.)

Jeffrey Savit, president and CEO of the Alliance, thanked Gaines, and also recognized retiring chief financial officer Manuel daRosa for his 17 years of service to the institution.

Savit’s remarks highlighted the tremendous successes of the past year.

“We once again have been able to sustain the annual community campaign; opened the breathtakingly moving new Holocaust Memorial; drafted and championed the Rhode Island legislation that will provide mandatory Holocaust and Genocide Education in our middle and high schools; launched the tremendous Lenny Krayzelberg Swim Program and had our most successful golf tournament in our history,” he said.

He went on to say that the Alliance has “directly served and/or supported upward of 1,200 financially and socially vulnerable community members via our Living on the Edge Initiative.” A report on the initiative is expected later in the summer.

Savit also highlighted the capital campaign that has raised the money to renovate the JCC. “By the beginning of next year, the Dwares will be totally accessible, secure and inclusive,” he said. And next year, the annual meeting will take place in a renovated Baxt Social Hall.

Highlighting the “joy with the oy,” Savit mentioned that half the Rhode Island Jewish population remains economically vulnerable and talked about the anti-Semitic acts of the last nine months, as well as potential community turmoil. “We are striving to achieve a cohesive Jewish community that allows for diversity and open embraces,” he said, “not one that shuts off dialogue and persecutes others who think differently or offer contrary opinions.”

The new board members and leaders were installed by Rabbi Sarah Mack of Temple Beth-El. 

Mitzi Berkelhammer, board chair, gave her last report as outgoing vice chair of philanthropy on donations to the various campaigns that totaled $8.1 million.

Then, outlining her thoughts on her installation, she said, “I’m happy and humbled to be sharing this evening with you. I look forward to serving as the Alliance board chair for the next three years.”

She continued, “We will introduce a new strategic vision for philanthropy and programming that will attract and please all the members of our Jewish community.”

FRAN OSTENDORF is the editor of The Jewish Voice.