HAKOL - June 2019

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The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community

www.jewishlehighvalley.org

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Issue No. 421

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June 2019

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Iyyar/Sivan 5779

AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION EST. 1977

Relive the fun of our Yom Ha’atzmaut IsraelFest p9

Mazel Tov to the graduating class of 2019! p13-14

WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY p4 LVJF TRIBUTES p8 JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE p11 JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER p15 JEWISH DAY SCHOOL p16 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p23

Jewish Federation to honor award winners and leaders

Eva Levitt, Outgoing President

Gary Fromer & Carol Bub Fromer, Kobrovsky Award for Campaign Leadership

By Stephanie Smartschan JFLV Director of Marketing The Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley will honor individuals who exemplify leadership and elect its new board and officers at its Community Celebration & Annual Meeting on June 12. The event will include a buffet dinner, open bar, and is free and open to everyone. After two years as president, Eva Levitt will be turning over the gavel to President-Elect Gary Fromer (see more on page 3). Fromer and his wife, Carol Bub

Carah Tenzer, George Feldman Achievement Award for Young Leadership

Fromer, will also receive the Kobrovsky Award for Campaign Leadership for their chairmanship of the Federation’s Annual Campaign. Carah Tenzer, a long-time dedicated volunteer at several Jewish agencies, will be this year’s recipient of the George Feldman Achievement Award for Young Leadership. Most recently, Tenzer has served as co-chair of Jewish Family Service’s major fundraiser. The Schiff Award for Prejudice Reduction will be given to the Branches of Love Initiative. The 18 women involved with

Branches of Love Initiative, Schiff Award for Prejudice Reduction

the initiative raised $35,000 for the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last year by selling tree of life necklaces after the tragedy that took place. The group is continuing its efforts to fight prejudice and hate (see more in the May issue of HAKOL). Amy Golding, head of school at the Jewish Day School, will be the first-ever recipient of the new Mark L. Goldstein Award for Jewish communal professionals. The award in Goldstein’s memory seeks to honor his life-long commitment to serving the Jewish community in a professional role. Goldstein, who served as the

Amy Golding, Mark L. Goldstein Award for Outstanding Jewish Communal Professionals

executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley for 16 years, passed away in October. The event is sponsored by Country Meadows Retirement Communities, Embassy Bank and RCN. The Jewish Federation’s Community Celebration & Annual Meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the JCC of the Lehigh Valley. Dinner buffet and open bar, free and open to everyone. RSVP by June 7 to 610-821-5500 or mailbox@jflv.org or register online at jewishlehighvalley.org/events.

Young Israelis remembered through a Taste of Memories on Yom Hazikaron By Stephanie Bolmer HAKOL Editor An intimate group gathered in the auxiliary auditorium of the Jewish Community Center of the Lehigh Valley on the evening of May 6. Community shlicha Rotem Bar had prepared a special evening for them to commemorate the lives of two young men from Israel. One, Bar Rahav, z”l, was a 20-year-old soldier who died fighting for the Israel Defense

Forces (IDF). The other, Naftali Frenkel, z”l, was just 16 years old when he and two of his friends were kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2014. For the nine people gathered around the table at the JCC, the simple meal they were about to share would prove to be a meaningful and poignant one. The program that evening, “Taste of Memories,” was created by a shlicha serving in Minnesota a few years ago. The idea, like the Non-Profit Organization

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dinner, was simple—to remember those souls lost too soon through something everyone can relate to. Food. “We’re always thinking about how to bring Yom Hazikaron to the community outside Israel. It’s very hard to explain,” Bar said. “But, everyone has someone they’ve lost and a food that reminds them of someone they miss.” That’s the concept behind Taste of Memories. Together, community members prepare the favorite recipes of fallen soldiers and victims of terror. Two teams worked in the JCC’s kitchen under the supervision of Amy Fisher from the Lehigh Valley Kashrut Commission. One group made lasagna the way Frenkel liked it, with olives, while another team cooked pasta with a cheesy sauce, Rahav’s favorite. Though these young men’s faces smiled out of photographs propped up by candles burning in their memories, it wasn’t until everyone regrouped, waiting for the food to finish baking, that Frenkel and Rahav became real to them.

First, they learned about Rahav, who, as Bar told them, died in Operation Protective Edge, a time that was very hard for her, personally. “It was the first time that people my age were fighting in a serious, big operation,” she explained. Rahav was one of those people. A star water polo player, he could have elected to take the route offered to elite athletes in the IDF and focused on his sport. Instead, he chose a combat role like the rest of his friends. Serving in a very special small unit, Rahav was supposed to be on vacation the day he was called back to fight and gave his life. For the Lehigh Valley residents learning about him through

watching a documentary put together in his memory, hearing from Rahav’s three young siblings firsthand about what life is like without him was heartbreaking. The next video was about Frenkel and his friends and what it was like for all of Israel to come together while they were missing. When the time finally came to eat, there were many tears threatening to fall on the table, and appetites were diminished. Over dinner, the group further discussed how it feels to live in Israel, where, Bar said, one out of every three Israelis visit a cemetery on Yom Hazikaron, and families live in dread of “the knock” of someone in uniform at their door, bringing them the news of the death of a loved one.


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