Volume XX, Issue XXXVII | www.thejewishvoice.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
17 Elul 5774 | September 12, 2014
HAPPY ROSH HASHANAH
LET THE RENOVATIONS BEGIN Phase 1 underway with preschool upgrade BY FRAN OSTENDORF fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org Last fall, Donald and Bonnie Dwares announced a major donation to the Alliance Jewish Community Center to help update and renovate the building. The process started, and behind-the-scenes work has been going on ever since. Renovations are now in full swing. Visitors to the now renamed
Dwares JCC have grown accustomed to seeing signs of construction around the building. But some haven’t even noticed the work despite the signs in the lobby. Early portions of the project included work on the HVAC system. The women’s locker rooms have been updated and so has the aquatics area. But the Alliance JCC Early Childhood Center (ECC) had remained untouched.
Now, thanks to a gift pledged by David C. Isenberg and family, the preschool is in the process of a major upgrade. Phase one has begun of what will be a total building renovation with an eye to updating all the facilities in very visible ways. “I want the community to know that the Dwares RENOVATIONS | 26
PHOTO | JEWISH ALLIANCE
The old boilers had to be dismantled, and have been removed.
ECC TO BENEFIT FROM ISENBERG’S INSPIRATION BY FRAN OSTENDORF
fostendorf@jewishallianceri.org
He started with the playground and moved on to the whole preschool. And David Isenberg couldn’t be prouder. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do this,” he said of helping the Alliance JCC Early Childhood Center as it moves toward what Isenberg hopes will be a worldclass facility. Isenberg has made a gift of $250,000 to help accomplish this. “If people could say ‘Wow, I want my kids to attend the Alliance
JCC ECC,’ that’s a real nice gift,” he says. He believes that the children of our community deserve a good start. And that begins with preschool. His children got that at the JCC, and his grandchildren have benefited, and he wants that to continue. “There’s a meaningful history here,” he says. Add to that the many recent accomplishments and innovations in curriculum that will only be enhanced by a top-notch ISENBERG | 27
Ideas for your holiday table. See pages 18-22
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, in Geneva, they have reached an agreement on a framework for Syria to destroy all chemical weapons.
5774: The year in review
BY JTA STAFF (Part one of three parts) NEW YORK – Read about the highs and lows of 5774 – and everything in between. Part one covers events from September through December 2013.
September 2013
The United States and Russia reach a deal to rid Syria of its arsenal of chemical
weapons, prompting Jewish groups to suspend their efforts lobbying for U.S. strikes against Damascus. Rabbi Philip Berg, founder of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles and teacher of Jewish mysticism for A-list celebrities, dies at age 86. William Rapfogel, the ousted leader of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York, is arrested on
charges of grand larceny and money launder ing. Investigators later say the scheme involving Rapfogel netted $9 million in illicit funds, including $3 million for Rapfogel himself. Rapfogel pleads guilty the following April and, in July, is sent to prison for 3-1/2 to 10 years. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, President YEAR IN REVIEW | 24
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