Fall 2005

2OO5 October 5766

Touro Roasts Nate Lury

by Barry Jay Schiff

Inside This Issue From the Chairman

2

Kibbitzing

3

GolfTournament

4

Student Financial Aid .... 5 Coach Baron Out and About ...

6 ..7

The Un-caped Crusader Capturing Moments with a Single Snap See page 3.

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ur first lodge meeting held on September 21, 2005 featured a Roast of Touro's "Man of the House," Nate Lury. Following the initiation of four new brothers and a feast from Bob Miller's sizzling grill, the night's festivities kicked off.

Chairman Miller served as Roast Master, delivering the goods on Nate with his usual witty flair. Brothers Gilstein, Hodosh, Lamchick, Poulten, Rosen, Smith and myself added our own two cents worth. Nate's affinity for anything and everything "blue", his colorful descriptions of Touro food offerings, his beloved Horseradish growing in front of Touro and his voluminous House committee reports were but a few of the highlights of how much Nate has become part of the fabric of everyday Touro life and the engine that keeps our House in good order.

After receiving gifts for his many years of service, Nate capped off the night by thanking all our members, followed by a standing ovation. I lifH

Seeing this image at the end of any articles, indicates photos are available to view and download from our website at www.tourofraternal.org Look under Touro Photos, Nate receives special gift from Chairman and Roast Master Bob Miller.

Nate takes the "Heat" and loves it!

From the Chairman

by Robert Miller My Brothers; It sure has been a busy time here at Touro. Summer is officially over and the holidays will be going on by the time you read this.

We had a great family outing at the Masonic Park in Warwick. A great time was had at the PAWSOX game. The golf tournament was a great success. The annual dinner dance at the Venus again drew a crowd of 300 plus.

The steak-fry filled our hall as usual. We had a Shofar Factory and a successful roast honoring Nate Lury.

All this goes on in addition to the other eight months of the year when our social committee plans events for our monthly meetings, twofers and any other event that we have during the year.

Ever wonder who does all the work behind the scenes? Who does all the planning? Who puts the flyers together? Who cooks the meals? Who washes the dishes?

Who cleans the garbage? For the most part it is your brothers volunteering their time to ensure that you and your guest are always going to have a great time at a Touro event.

Over the years we have been blessed with different levels of volunteer activity.

Sometimes we have too many and they say "I came and there was nothing for me to do." Other times we can't get enough. Sometimes volunteers' personalities clash and that doesn't work either.

Lately we have struggled to get all the help we need at times. Sure, we hire help to work in the kitchen on nights when we serve meals; however, we can always use more help.

Touro is a fraternal association that from its inception has been built, maintained and grown by volunteers. Volunteers are the lifeblood of Touro. My brothers, why not try it today.

On behalf of myself and my family, as well as the officers and board members, I wish you and your families a happy and healthy New Year.

Fraternally, Bob Miller

D^n\.

We deeply mourn the loss of two of our beloved brothers who recently passed away:

Mazel, Mitzvahs & Milestones To...Brother Michael and Marilyn Smith on their 37th Anniversary, September 1, 2005.

To...Brother Jerry and Joan Tebrow on their 37th Anniversary, September 1,2005.

Brother Peter Traugott joined Touro in 1965. He passed away on June 19, 2005.

He served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1978-2000.

Brother Joel Pressman joined Touro in 1955. He passed away on June 20, 2005.

He served as a member of the Board of Directors from 1997-2005.

We remember them in the spirit of Harmony, Friendship and Benevolence.

Social .Scene

By Steven White =^=S>7

"^ "^ ~T~ 71th the summer heat behind us, \ \ / Touro is ready to start up in VV full force.

In July, Touro's annual golf tournament was in full swing. Another rousing success.

Also in July was Touro's family picnic at Buttonwoods, with lots of fun and games.

August's annual Touro night with the Pawsox was a great time under the red tent with plenty of hot dogs, burgers and another exciting PawSox game.

September began with our first Shofar factory. On September 21st we roasted Brother Nate Lury along with hamburgers and hot dogs to the delight of all who attended.

Dave Jageler, the play-by-play announcer of the Pawsox, was the guest speaker at our October 23rd Friendship Lodge brunch.

Here are some events to look forward to: November 12th two-fer at the Quonset O Club featuring Johnny T. November 13th Touro night at PPAC-The Lion King.

November 16th Harmony Lodge with guest speaker brother Steven Feinberg of the RI Film Commission.

November 20th Touro goes to Foxwoods December 18th Chanukah Party with Revlak the Magician.

December 21st Friendship Lodge with guest speaker John Hazen White, Jr. December 25th Chinese Dinner and a movie.

Don't forget 1st Wednesday night of the month is the Social Committee meeting.

Everyone is welcome. Turn to our website for up-to-date information.

wvirw.tourofraternal.org

Tourof s Un-caped Crusader

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t takes many helping hands to keep an organization like Touro r u n n i n gD O smoothly. Gladly, we are not at a loss for active participants. Some enjoy the higher profile positions as officers or board members. Others choose to serve on committees, such as the house or social committees.

Then, there is Richard Levenson. Like Batman, he operates behind the scenes, preferring to stay out of the spotlight. If work needs to be done, Rich swoops in and does it. He just doesn't need the accolades. In fact, true to his nature, his first instinct was to eschew the honor of being profiled in the Tourogram.

Rich initially chose to serve Touro as secretary of Friendship Lodge. Ultimately, though, a less formal arrangement suited him better. He is now more apt to fill in where his talents lie. For instance, many of the photos you see in the Tourogram or on the Touro website are Rich's. And many Touro members enjoyed his culinary stylings at the recent Touro Family Picnic.

Three things motivate Rich. First and foremost, is his family. He married Jane twenty-one years ago. When asked about his hobbies, he invariably lists, with a sparkle in

by Jed R. Brandes

Richard Levenson his eye, their nine-year-old son, Zachary.

Rich also considers his responsibility to the community as a high priority. He serves as Membership Vice President at Temple Am David.

After two years at URI studying Management Information Systems, he left to join the family business, Rhode Island Safety Systems. Thus beean his love of all things techO D nology, the second motivation. Through the years, Rich honed his craft, running the fam-

ily business, managing for Radio Shack, and working as an electronic technician for Behavior Research Institute (Watch Out! He knows his way around electric shock therapy equipment!). For the last fourteen years, he has been the face of Contemporary Telephone Group, working as the senior technician and operations manager. He installs and services business communications systems.

However, he gets the most satisfaction out of the relationships he develops with his clients as a trusted advisor. Herein lies the third motivation. At the end of the day, he just wants to be able to look in the mirror and see the reflection of a man who has done the best job he could for those around him.

Whether it's teaching Zachary important values and life skills, helping to clean Touro Hall at the end of a meeting or getting people involved at the temple, he wants to be there when needed.

Like Batman, Rich is a man on the go, and carries the tools of his trade on his trusted utility belt. He takes a lot of ribbing for it, but it's all in good fun, because we all know that we don't need to shine a light in the sky to enlist his aid.

Kibitzing with the President

By Edward Deluty, President, Friendship Lodge A s I sit here at home, with all of my creature comforts, I have to remind myself that there are many L\ people throughout the world that have so little. Hurricane Katrina has hit a whole region of our JL JLown country hard and many people are left with nothing but the clothes they wear.

I also want to remind you that we have a large number of our servicemen and women serving in the armed forces both at home and abroad. I personally know of one in particular who is also a Touro member. He is a fairly new member and he has reached out to Touro by asking me to let you know that he will be in Iraq for the next eighteen months. His name is Jeff Horovitz. He has a wife and two young boys, ages 5 and 7.1 had the pleasure of seeing Jeff and most of his family a number of times this summer.

My own son and Jeff's boys have played together at camp and here at home. I can't help but think of all the things Jeff will miss by not being here with them.

The reason I bring this up is this. If you know of a Touro member or someone related to one, who is serving overseas, please don't forget him or her. Try to maintain some contact with them. A letter from home or e-mail goes a long way to ease the burden of being away from home and family. Please don't forget, their family left behind may also need some help dealing with problems at home. Reach out and offer a helping hand.

If you know Jeff, his e-mail is jeff.horovitz@us.army.mil. Please drop him a line and wish him a safe and healthy new year, and if you know of anyone else, please let me know and I will try to get their names and email address in the next Tourogram.

To all of you, a safe, happy, and healthy New Year.

Touro's Golf Outing a "Wind, Win" for All

By Jed. Brandes

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n July 25th, Touro held its annual golf tournament at the Quonset Golf Course in North Kingstown.

Seventy Touro members and their guests took part in a great day of golf and camaraderie.

Teams used the very forgiving best ball format, ensuring few, if any, embarrassingly high scores. This was particularly fortuitous since a high wind conspired to create a fair number of errant shots! Or was that just poor technique?

The Golf Committee, in its continuing effort to keep the tournament fresh, introduced a continental breakfast to the festivities. Following golf, the group was treated to an excellent steak fry with all the fixings. After all, what is a Touro event without plenty of food, and after a "hard fought" round, there were plenty of appreciative mouths to feed.

Immediately following, a raffle was held and awards were presented in the following categories: Top Touro Team with a score of 69: Sanford Shaw, Howard Shaw, Steve Shaw and Abe Strasnick Second place Touro Team with a score of 74: Bruce Weisman, Norman Goodman, Edward Deluty and Paul Botvin Top Non-Touro Team with a score of 63: Howard Poulten, Bob Taylor, Joe Marques and Wayne Lima Second place Non-Touro Team with a score of 63: Allen Wong, Dave Mealy, Barry Miller and Steve Jodot Closest to pin: Touro Howard Shaw Closest to pin: Non-Touro Bob Taylor Longest Drive: Touro Joe Goodman Longest Drive: Non-Touro Allen Wong

View of the first tee at North Kingstown

Top Touro Team with a score of 69

Second Place Touro Team with a score of 74

Top Non-Touro Team with a score of 63

Congratulations to all!

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Touro Announces Student Financial Aid Winners for 2005

By Art Poulten A first year college student and a final gained honors as a Middlesex League All Star.

AA year college student are the recipients At the same time he was ranked 14th in his JL JLof the 2005 Touro Fraternal Associaclass of more than 200 students and was a tion Scholarship Grants. member of the National Honor Society.

Randy D. Fixman of Stoneham, Mass., Outside of school he maintained a part time who is entering his freshman year at Conjob and was a summer camp counselor. necticut College, and liana Guttin, a senior Ms. Guttin, a Cranston resident, has a this fall at Northeastern University, were sedouble major: theater and English with a goal lected by the Association's Student Financial of a career in teaching. She has been an oriAid Committee to receive S3,000 scholarentation leader at Northeastern, a "study ships. They were chosen from a large pool of abroad student", and involved with a numapplicants all of whom were "extremely well llano. Guttin Randy Fixman ber of major theater productions at Northqualified," according to Alan Lury, eastern. She also has been a camp chairman of the Committee. Nine counselor and a substitute religious Silver Anniversary for Student Loans others received $2,500 interest-free school teacher. This summer she

By Art Poulten student loans. As has been the was a Camp Jori Spielberg Fellow The Leo Greenberg Memorial Student Loan Program Association's practice since the inresponsible for improving and helpmarks its silver anniversary this year.This is the 25th conception of the student loan proing organize the camp's theater prosecutive year in which Touro has made interest-free stugram, the committee did not release gram. Her philosophy is that "the dent loans available to children of its members. The protheir names. world of theater has more than just gram began in 1981 when 15 interest-free loans totalFixman, whose father and grandentertainment value" and her goal ing $4,750 were approved. For 2005, nine students refather are Touro members, is a. preis to help prove it. ceived loans totaling $22,000. law student. At Stoneham (Mass.)

This year's scholarship grants Over the years, 72 children of Touro members have High School he was an outstanding and loans each were $500 more benefited from interested-free student loans totaling member of the school's cross counthan last year, to reflect the increases more than $188,000 — and there have been no defaults. try, indoor and outdoor track teams in college costs. and served as co-captain. He also

Touro Continues a Tradition of Saving Lives

Come Blow Your Horn

By Andy Lamchick ""\"\7~ 7"hÂŁn tne Community Involvement Committee convened \ X / this year, we talked about some of the more important V V projects we've taken on over the past few years. One that stood out to all in attendance was our donation in the community of our defibrillators.

It all started with a Touro member approaching the committee to request a defibrillator for a local Senior Center. After some discussion, the committee decided that it would be a Mitzvah to donate defibrillators to other communities that are in need. In the end, the Board of Directors approved an allocation of up to $15,000 to furnish eight communities, and our very own Touro Hall, with the latest in defibrillator technology, along with a training session for each.

Look in your local publication in the near future for a summary of our gifts to the community. This shows what great things can come out of one person's idea, so don't be shy! Bring your great idea to the Community Involvement Committee. You too could be responsible for lives saved.

By Andy Lamchick

C

habad came to Touro Hall on Sunday, September 18th with its Shofar Factory. The event was a great deal of fun for all who attended. Rabbi Laufer was very gracious, and entertaining for the kids. He gave the attendees some background about the significance of the Shofar in Jewish tradition, and each child got the chance to make his or her very own working Shofar.

Before the event kicked off, there was an introduction to Touro Fraternal, and what we do in and for the community. This combined effort of Chabad and Touro Fraternal Association offered our members, and the community, a new event at Touro Hall. sjJJ

Coach Baron Updates Us on URI B-Ball

By Lester Nathan

Camp JORI Dedicates Visitors Center to Touro Fraternal Association

By Edward Deluty

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(l-r) Steve McDonald and Coach Jim Baron

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niversity of Rhode Island Basketball Coach Jim Baron gave Touro members an update on Division I college basket ball, with particular emphasis on URI's program, atTouro's annual Steak Fry June 22nd.

The evening began with the lodge meeting, run by the Friendship officers and featuring the initiation of seven new members.

The steak dinner, cooked by Chef Miller and his crew, was excellent as usual. We were then treated to the humor of radio sportscaster, Steve McDonald. After completing his set, he introduced Coach Baron.

Jim started with a trivia contest, awarding URI tee shirts to members who could answer questions on URI basketball. Next, he entertained us with jokes and funny stories. Getting down to basketball, he discussed new player recruitment and the upcoming home schedule at the Ryan Center. While last year's team had six graduates, Coach Baron stated that he has found four new replacements and said, "(we're) gonna be very competitive."

The Coach then took questions from the audience. He explained the temptation of taking money from a professional team and leaving before graduation. This disrupts any longterm building plans for most college coaches.

Finally, he was critical of current American players who play selfishly, similar to what we heard from Ernie Degregorio.

Jim was complimentary to foreign players, who appreciate things more than American Coach Baron with players. F^ his newest recruit

n July 29th, the visitor center at Camp Jori was dedicated to Touro Fraternal Association. Touro underwrote the cost to refurbish the building that houses the center at the main entrance to the camp. About 10 of our Touro brothers attended dinner and Shabbat services with all of the campers. Following services, we proceeded to the visitor center where, after a few short speeches, a lovely sign was uncovered dedicating the center to Touro.

Membership Has Its Privileges Byj Dr. Aaron Sherman, Membership r Chairman

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here are so many reasons why one might become a mem-ber of Touro Fraternal Association. From stu dent loans and grants to mortuary benefits and cemetery gravesites, Touro has us covered. From filling our Wednesday evenings with brotherhood and entertainment (and our bellies with abundant food) to dinner dances and family picnics, Touro adds to our social calendars a variety of highly anticipated events. But whether we are at Touro Hall for a monthly meeting, enjoying a show among our brothers and their families at PPAC, or dancing the night away at the Venus, Touro has one privilege that surpasses them all: friendship.

Touro friendship is the special bond that keeps our organization growing and thriving. Whether socializing or conducting business, we frequently turn first to our Touro brothers. When we add our friends and family to Touro, we not only help them, but we assure that the friendship and camaraderie that we share will continue for generations to come.

Touro continues to thrive because of the qualified members that you, our current brothers, bring in. We continue to reward those who help us add regular members with three Touro issued $5 bagel bucks. But mostly, we reward you, the new members, and our entire brotherhood with friendship.

Touro Welcomes New Members

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On June 22 Touro welcomed seven new brothers: (l-r) Rick Nelson, Barry Kaplan, Stephen Kabalkin, Irving Smith, Steven Howitt, Phillip Sherman and Michael Field

On September 21, 2005 Touro welcomed 4 new brothers: (l-r) Richard Coren, Guy Bermel, Stephen Grubman-Black, and Harry Mancoll

Picnic, PawSox and the Venus

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TOURO FRATERNAL ASSOCIATION P.O. BOX 3562 CRANSTON, RI 02910

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Providence, RI Permit #719

USA

Visit Touro's Website at www.tourofraternal.org

HARMONY • FRIENDSHIP • BENEVOLENCE

Mark your calendars for Touro's Annual

BOARD OF DIRECTORS • 2005-2006

October 2005 Editor: Columnists:

Bruce Weisman Jed Brandes Edward Deluty Andrew Lamchick Richard Levenson Lester Nathan Arthur Poulren Barry Schiff Gerald Tebrow

Touro Fraternal Association 45 Rolfe Square, P.O. Box 3562, Cranston, RI 02910 Phone: 401-785-0066 Fax: 401-941-8781 E-Mail: tourofrarl@aol.com Website: www.tourofraternal.org

HARMONY LODGE Barry Schiff, President Steven White, Vice President Steven Waldman, Secrerary Peter Hodosh, Treasurer

Robert Miller, Chairman Andrew Lamchick, Vice Chairman Gerald D. Hodosh, Treasurer Gerald Tebrow, Secretary Judah Rosen, Chaplain Arthur Poulten, Chairman Emeritus Milton Bronstein Morton Coken Jeffrey Davis Steven Dinerman Andrew Gilstein Stevan Labush Rodney Locke Alan Lury Nathan Lury Lester Nathan Barry Shaw Dr. Aaron Sherman Stewart Solup Michael Smith Bruce Weisman Irving Wolpert

FRIENDSHIP LODGE Edward Deluty, President Jed Brandes, Vice President Adam Halpern, Secretary Steven Shaw, Treasurer

Family Hanukkah Party Sunday December 18, 2005 1:00 pm Join us for Latkes, Pizza Strips, Hot Dogs, Dessert Featuring

REVLAK the Magician Open to members, their wives, children and ran**""*- ildren

Gifts for children 12 years of age and under

Watch for details on Touro's website and bv mail.