13 CHESHVAN 5774 • OCTOBER 17, 2013 • VOLUME XXXVII, NUMBER 20 • PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID, SYRACUSE, NY
Frank and Beverly Goldberg create PACE Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of Central New York By Linda Alexander The Jewish Community Foundation of Central New York recently announced a new gift to benefit the community into perpetuity. Frank and Beverly Goldberg have funded a Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment Fund at the Foundation. The PACE program is a partnership between the Jewish Federation of Central New York and the Foundation. Under the Foundation’s management, and through investment and growth, a PACE Fund will ensure a family’s continued support as donors to the community into perpetuity as their gift to Federation’s Annual Campaign. Every year, the Foundation will send a portion of the Frank and Beverly
Goldberg PACE Endowment Fund to the Federation’s Annual Campaign drive. Born and raised in Syracuse, Frank Goldberg met fellow student Beverly Cotton at Syracuse University. After graduation, they married and began their life together in Syracuse, with Frank entering his family’s business, Goldberg’s Furniture Stores. The Goldbergs are longtime members of Temple Adath Yeshurun and follow the example of tzedakah inculcated in them while growing up in their respective families. They have a long history of involvement with Jewish causes in the area. Frank has served on the boards of Temple Adath Yeshurun, Menorah Park and the Jewish Federation of Central New York,
Frank and Beverly Goldberg
among other charitable activities. They have two children and three grandchildren, all of whom grew up in the Syracuse Jewish community they “hold so dear.” Frank said, “Beverly and I are creating this fund to give back to the community which we have been a part of for so long. We have strong ties to the area and we wanted to help strengthen the Jewish community here.” Through many generations, the Goldberg family name has been synonymous with support and service to the local Jewish community. The Foundation board is grateful that Frank and Beverly have set up this PACE Fund as a lasting tribute that will perpetuate their values and represent their strong roots in the community.
SHDS and Upstate New York Jewish Day School Consortium
By Tamar Margolis The Syracuse Hebrew Day School recently joined five other independent upstate New York schools to share ideas for improving education in a regional collaboration. School professional and lay leaders from six independent Jewish day schools in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton and Albany have formed a collaborative partnership designed to strengthen all of the member schools, while bolstering day school education across upstate New York. Following on the heels of a national conference of day schools last February, the six schools have created the Upstate New York Jewish Day School Consortium to foster the sharing of practices and ideas, as well as to find new ways to pool resources and work together to deepen relationships and educational offerings. The goal is “to ensure that Jewish day school education thrives in small communities with common experiences and challenges, whose solutions can enrich each other.” The participating schools include Kadimah School of Buffalo; Hillel Community Day School, Rochester; Syracuse Hebrew Day School, Syracuse; Hillel Academy of Broome County, Binghamton; Bet Shraga Hebrew Academy of the Capital District, Albany; and Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District, Albany. The consortium was formed at the suggestion of former SHDS President Marc Beckman after representatives from upstate New York schools met at the North American Jewish Day School Conference in Washington, DC, in February. The original motivation was to investigate collective cost-saving opportunities, but the scope of the organization has since expanded. The group teamed up in the spring to collectively apply for a technology grant, and although the consortium in its early stages did not qualify for the grant, the relationships
Members of the Upstate New York Jewish Day School Consortium who attended the first retreat included (seated, l-r) Shira Brown, Marc Brown, Rhonda Rosenheck and Tamar Margolis. Standing: Jonathan Epstein, Chaye Kohl and SHDS Co-Head of School Lori Tenenbaum. fostered from that effort are said to have resulted in “a stronger partnership.” Each month, consortium members, mostly heads of school and board presidents, engage in a teleconference to share their knowledge and new ideas. At times, a consultant in a specific area of expertise is brought into the call. Head of Rochester’s Hillel Community Day School Chaye Kohl said, “We each bring important experience to the table. We serve as consultants and sounding boards to each other.” The group’s monthly teleconference topics have included educational initiatives, lay-professional relationships, uses of technology to broaden student horizons and approaches to accounting, business management and fund-raising. SHDS CoHead of School Lori Tenenbaum said, “Each community has its own personality. What we are proving is that we share enough in common to help each other grow our schools and serve our students.”
As a result of this collaboration, several professional development and programmatic ideas have already been generated, as well as plans for the future. The joint initiative has even garnered national attention, including a feature in the electronic newsletter of RAVSAK, the national trade group for Jewish community day schools. Most of the six schools are RAVSAK members. Shira Brown, a Buffalo resident, an administrative physician at three Ontario hospitals and the consortium’s coordinator, said, “There is no competition among our schools. We speak our minds freely and have come to trust each other.” More recently, lay and professional
leaders from Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Rochester met on August 26 at SHDS for a full-day summit. The group shared their backgrounds, updated each other on what each school is doing, compared notes and formulated plans for further shared action. Bet Shraga Hebrew Academy of the Capital District’s new head-of-school, Rhonda Rosenheck, noted “how much the group enjoyed meeting face-to-face” after months of focused phone conferences. She said, “The camaraderie was immediate. We laughed and had more fun than the agenda warranted. The truth is that the pleasure we take in our relationships can only strengthen our collaborative learning and programs.” The partnership also encourages interaction between the schools and their students. Last spring, middle school students from the Hillel Community Day School in Rochester and Kadimah School of Buffalo had exchanges of programming days in each other’s cities. The students renewed their relationships with a joint retreat from September 16-17. An upstate New York regional middle school event is being planned for this spring. Kadimah School Co-President Marc W. Brown, an alumnus of the school his child attends this year, said, “I remember being at a Shabbaton at Hebrew Academy in Albany with teenagers from Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester – all across upstate New York. These are the things I remember most clearly from my Jewish day school experience: the friendships, the connections.” See “SHDS” on page 6
C A N D L E L I G H T I N G A N D P A R AS H A October 18...............6 pm..................................................................... Parasha-Toldot October 25...............5:49 pm..............................................................Parasha-Vayetze November 1.............5:40 pm.........................................................Parasha-Vayishlach
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Holocaust program
Congregational notes
JCC teens
Syracuse University will present Local shuls announce classes for The JCC’s The SPOT is looking for a workshop on the Holocaust for adults; children’s events; concerts; new members for its teen council teachers on October 24. to help plan events for the year. talks; and more. Story on page 3 Story on page 5 Story on page 4
PLUS Calendar Highlights.................. 6 B’nai Mitzvah.............................. 6 Obituaries.................................... 7 Men in Business........................ 8