Winter 2013 by Touro Fraternal Association

2013 February 5773

INSIDE This Issue

Student Financial Aid Program Launches 2013 Season By Jed Brandes, Chairman, Student Financial Aid

Tourography: Aloha Ried Redlich page 3

he Board of Directors is pleased to announce the renewal of the Student Financial Aid program for 2013. The assistance provided to Touro’s families through grants and loans makes this benefit among those most appreciated by our members. Once again, the Student Financial Aid Committee has a budget of $45,000. The funds will be awarded in the form of three outright grants of $3,000 and another $36,000 in interest-free loans of up to $3,000 each. Regular Touro members, their spouses and children, and children of deceased regular Touro members may apply for grants. Regular Touro members, their children and children of deceased regular Touro members are eligible for loans. Previous winners will not be eligible for an additional grant. They still, however, qualify for the interest-free loans. Each eligible student may qualify for a total of $12,000 in loans over their academic careers. Applications for both the loans and the grants will be available in March. Complete details will follow in an early March mailing announcing the program’s kickoff.

Name That Tune page 4

A True Season of Giving By Andy Lamchick, Community Involvement Chairman

Scott McKay RI NPR Political Analyst Visits Touro page 5

Stooges Night page 6

Karen Meyers ABC6 Anchor page 6

he annual goal of the Community Involvement committee is to make a difference in our area, financially, and in other ways. We were able to accomplish this in 2012 with some new, innovative ideas, along with traditional hard-core helping from our brothers. Our first request came from the Committee on Jewish Scouting, which needed Wi-Fi at the Camp Yawgoog synagogue so Jewish scouts could do the research needed to complete their Neer' Talmud award. We were happy to provide the one-time funding to make this happen. We also made significant donations to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Jewish Family Services’ Heating Assistance fund, Kosher Meal sites, Jewish Seniors Kosher Food Pantry, Open Table and finally, Adopt Rhode Island. Touro is aiding Adopt Rhode Island with its summer camp program which reunites siblings as well as sponsors birthday celebrations for foster children. Brother Andy Liss is spearheading our quarterly meal preparation for visiting parents and kids at Ronald McDonald House. The most recent meals were prepared on December 23rd, right at the height of the holiday season. Speaking of holidays, this year Touro brought the famous Jewish Voice & Herald Hanukkah Coloring and Essay Contest back to the community. A committee of three Touro Board members approached

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Continued on page 5 - Giving

Touro's Annual Nominating Convention Wednesday, March 6, 2013 • 7:00 pm at Touro Hall Select the men you think are best qualified to serve as: Lodge Officers and Association Board Members Reservations required • Ice Cream Social to follow Watch for your flyer in the mail or visit www.tourofraternal.org ~1~

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From the Chairman By Robert Miller, Chairman of the Board 2013 has arrived. No fanfare, nothing really exciting to start the year with a bang other than the noise from all the fireworks displays. All is well here at Touro. The building is in good repair. Our finances are in order. Our lodges are meeting regularly. We continue to provide social events for our members to enjoy. We continue to participate in the community when opportunities arise. We can always use more volunteers and greater activity from our membership. Other than that, Shalom. Bob Miller, Chairman-Board of Directors

Retaining the Association's Knowledge By Lester Nathan, President, Friendship Lodge

uring my acceptance speech last May, I stated the importance of retaining our members and encouraging the participation of our new members. I said: “Hopefully, some will volunteer to help out, as an officer, serving on a committee or through community involvement.” I still believe member retention and participation are important to Touro’s health. Additionally, retaining our organizational knowledge is very important. As older directors retire from the board and lodge officers move to the board, they take their knowledge, experiences and know-how about Touro with them. If this isn’t passed on to their successors, then Touro suffers because the “wheel must be reinvented” by the new officer. The same thing occurs in the corporate world; as an aging workforce retires, it is taking enormous amounts of critical know-how out the door. So the company’s challenge is ensuring this institutional knowledge is passed on rather than lost. In an article by Anne Fisher in Fortune magazine several years ago, titled “Retain Your Brains,” she wrote that a consultant who surveyed large employers found 70% of them hadn’t even begun to identify what wisdom they’d need to keep, let alone how. When a company does address the issue, they ask their line managers three questions: 1.) What knowledge is likely to be lost when an employee leaves?; 2.) What will be the business consequences of losing that knowledge?; and 3.) What can be done to prevent or minimize the damage? No doubt, you’ve read Chairman Miller’s articles about the selection process he created to help the board select the next chairman and vice chairman. Bob has served in Touro leadership positions for over 35 years and acquired a vast knowledge about the Association. All of us hope that after he retires in June, he will assist his successors and pass on as much of his knowledge about Touro as possible. The same wish applies whenever we have turnover of either a committee chairman, lodge officer or a position with an important responsibility. In my position as lodge president, I’ve been learning meal planning and kitchen operations from Ried Redlich and Nate Lury. They have shared their knowledge and insights with me through discussions as well as with written archives and instructions. I hope this is emulated by other committees, and strongly recommend it. Any efforts to pass along knowledge will make it easier to pass the baton to the next generation, and keep the Association running smoothly. ~2~

Social Scene Winter 2013 By Andrew Liss, Vice President, Harmony Lodge Hello Brothers, What a great past year we had, and so much more to look forward to. On February 20th, Friendship Lodge hosted its meeting at Chelo’s Bar & Grill in Warwick. The guest speakers were Paul and John Zangari from Drive Thru Radio. Coming up in 2013: MARCH 6: Board and Officer Nominations with an ice cream social following at Touro Hall. MARCH 20: Harmony Lodge Meeting at Touro Hall. Menu: Beef Bourguignon over egg noodles. The speaker will be weatherman Tony Petrarca of WPRI. APRIL 13: Spring Two-Fer at the Shriners Imperial Room. Menu: Choose from either Chicken Marsala or Lemon Butter Scrod as entrées. Chocolate fudge cake for dessert. Entertainment will be comedian Frank O’Donnell. APRIL 24: Membership Open House at Touro Hall featuring radio and TV personality John Rooke. Menu: KBC [Kosher baked chicken]. APRIL 27: Family Game Night at Touro Hall Board games and team competition, with games like Family Jeopardy. Refreshments will be served. MAY 22: Installation of Officers and Directors at Touro Hall. As you can see, we have some new events and look forward to seeing all of you. Vice President Jeff Padwa and I would recommend that all brothers attend a Social Committee meeting (first Wednesday of every month). We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Once again, Brothers, when you come to the hall, please bring a kosher non-perishable food item. Times are tight, and the Louis and Goldie Chester Full Plate Kosher Food Pantry is running low. Make a mitzvah, and bring something for those less fortunate. Thank you!

Aloha from Oahu, Hawaii: Ried Redlich By Howard Wasser

any of us would name Hawaii as our dream vacation. One of our brothers was actually born there in 1956. Ried Redlich was born in the Army Hospital on Oahu. Ried has no memories of Hawaii because they moved when he was about 3, but he maintains that he CAN produce a valid birth certificate. Ried actually grew up in Brunswick Georgia. During the late 60s and early 70s, the area was a hotbed of anti-Semitism. Ried (being the only Jew in school) had a difficult time during his Georgia school years. High School graduation could not come soon enough. The next move was to Newport, R.I. in 1974. This completed the full circle for Ried’s father because he was born and raised in R.I. The family (also consisting of mother, brother and sister) was very happy with this latest move. They were able to relax in a more tolerant religious area and quickly joined Temple Shalom and the Touro Synagogue. Since Ried was already in R.I., it was a natural progression to attend URI. He put himself through school by doing restoration work on 18th century homes in Newport and graduated with a BS in Business in 1978. California was his next destination. Not satisfied with only a BS, Ried got a Masters of Public Administration from California State University in 1980. He helped pay for this degree by working as a graduate assistant and a substitute high school teacher in LA. He thought he would work in state government but was disillusioned by the Californian politics of the time. Ried could not escape the pull of moving back to R.I., so he continued his career as a professional student at Bryant College. A Masters of Business Administration was his next degree in 1982. It was time to go to work. Instead of trying to work for someone else, Ried and his father decided to try and start their own business. In addition to starting this new venture, Ried worked as a teacher at Bryant. Soon the business (Lighting

and Janitorial Supplies) was picking up steam, so Ried left teaching and devoted his full energies to the new business. Thirty years later the business is still going strong due to hard work and exceptional service. Man cannot live by work alone. Ried met his wife Mindy on a blind date. As soon as she opened the door, Ried’s life changed forever. It has been 23 years now and they have two daughters in college. Sarah is a political science major at Wheaton and Alysa is in the URI Pharmacy program. Mindy (his wife) is a nurse. As the daughters became more independent, Ried decided to stretch his Jewish legs. He had been a synagogue member and a brotherhood member but he needed more. His friend, Steven Adler, solved this problem by introducing him to Touro in 1998. Ried jumped in feet first. He quickly became involved in the internal workings of Touro. He has been the secretary, vice president, and president of Friendship Lodge and is now on the Board of Directors. He also serves as the faithful guide. Being on the Board means he has served on most committees. His favorite is Community Involvement, because he believes it is important to practice tikkun-olam and do our part to help others. Of course, not everything has run smoothly during his Touro involvement. He still gets teased about his fruit cup suggestion. He thought it would be a good idea to have healthier desserts for a Touro family picnic. What was he thinking? Touro members don’t come to Touro for fruit cup! We want brownies or cupcakes. The Picnic Committee decided on cupcakes. Ried is forever linked with cupcakes. Beyond Touro, Ried is interested in coin collecting, antiques, fishing, cooking, skeet shooting and genealogy research. He also is very interested in following the stock market. Ried is always pulled back to the fellowship and camaraderie at Touro. I remember when he was elected to one of his many offices a couple of years ago. He talked of his difficult upbringing and how it had made him appreciate this Jewish organization more than he could describe. He was HOME.

Touro Golf League Start Date and New Location By Barry Shaw

This year’s golf league will be held at Midville Country Club in West Warwick, RI. League starts: Tuesday May 7th with a practice round April 30th. All Touro members are invited to play. Tee off times will be between 4:00 and 5:00pm. • Motorized carts are available. Contact: Barry Shaw at bshaw22@cox.net or call 401-374-3255. ~3~

Name That Tune 2.0 By Lester Nathan

FIRST PLACE: Andy Lamchick and Steve Goldman

ouro’s music enthusiasts returned for another round of “Name That Tune” on January 23rd, challenged with an eclectic compilation of music spanning the last 70 years. After a rapid monthly business meeting and meatball and spaghetti dinner, the brothers formed teams and settled in for the challenge. Apparently, last year’s inaugural contest wasn’t hard enough, so quizmaster Stevan Labush upped the ante by including more challenging titles, and many from the last five years. He played the opening or an excerpt from 50 different pop, rock, swing, country western and theater tunes, as well as TV shows, Broadway and movie theme songs. Each team had to identify as many titles as possible. Scoring, as a percentage of the total, was lower than last year. Nonetheless, the winning teams were similar to last year. Cash prizes went to the top three teams: FIRST PLACE [37]: Andy Lamchick and Steve Goldman (second in 2012) SECOND PLACE [32]: Rick and Mitchell Cohen (first in 2012)

SECOND PLACE: Mitchell and Rick Cohen

THIRD PLACE [30] Barry Schiff and Jed Brandes (third in 2012) Congratulations to the winners and thanks to Stevan Labush for compiling the music tracks.

THIRD PLACE: Barry Schiff and Jed Brandes

Touro Welcomed Four New Brothers at the October 24th and Two New Brothers at the November 28th Meetings

Pictured at the October 24th Meeting 2012 are (l-r): Brandon Winkler, Jonathan Leach, Wayne Forman and Richard Winkler ~4~

Pictured at the November 28th Meeting 2012 are (l-r): Edward M. Gordon and Joel Blazer

Pictured above is Yael, 2nd Place Art Winner. Pictured with Nancy Kirsch, Editor of Jewish Voice & Herald and Touro Chairman Bob Miller is Asheley, 3rd Place Essay Winner.

Nancy Kirsch and Bob Miller present Shoshi with 2nd place in the Essay contest.

Giving- continued from page 1

Bob Miller and Nancy Kirsch with Oliver who took 3rd place in the Art Contest.

Jewish Voice & Herald editor Nancy Kirsch, and proposed a way to gain a community-wide celebration of Hanukkah, sponsored by Touro’s Community Involvement and Membership committees. Starting in August, we promoted the contest which was open to two age groups of religious school students in our area. The younger group participated in a coloring contest, the older with an essay contest addressing the topic “What Hanukkah means to me”. Nearly 100 children entered the contest, and each category was awarded a cash prize for the first, second, and third place winning students. Winners of third place in each division received $36, second won $72, and first place took home $108. In addition, the two first place winners’ religious schools received $720 from Touro, to be used to purchase technology equipment for the school. Brother Steven White represented Touro among the judges. At the conclusion of the contest, a reception was held at Touro Hall to display the winning entries, and award the prizes. This took place on Sunday, December 9th. Touro put on its best face, and showed off our beautiful building to the Jewish community. For the first year, this promotion’s results went beyond our expectations. We garnered great, positive, exposure throughout the community, and were featured in a wonderful photo spread in the Jewish Voice & Herald following the reception. We look forward to sponsoring the event for many years to come.

Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman, head of PHDS and Bob Miller present Elka with 1st Place in the Art Contest.

(l to r) Nancy Kirsch, Hepzibah Alon, faculty member at Kehillah Schechter Academy, and Bob Miller. Hepzibah accepted the top award on behalf of her school for their participation in the contest.

Nancy Kirsch and Bob Miller award Sarah, 1st Place in the Essay Contest.

Political Analyst Scott MacKay Visits Touro by Bruce Weisman

ouro welcomed political analyst and RI National Public Radio personality Scott MacKay to the monthly meeting at Touro Hall on Wednesday, October 24. Once everyone had their fill of a deli-dinner, the membership was served a full helping of the political climate in both the upcoming local and national elections in November. After sharing his insights, Scott took many questions from the membership. All came away with a full belly and better understanding of what the real issues were in the upcoming political season. ~5~

And "We're Glad He Did"

Karen Meyers: Reporting Live from Touro Hall

By Andy Lamchick

By Barry Jay Schiff

Pictured left to right are: Mike Cerrone, Andy Lamchick and Michael Corrente

t's December 18th, and I’m bringing my client Al Cerrone his holiday gift for being a great friend, and advertiser. While enjoying some casual conversation, I look Al in the eyes and say to him: “Hey Al, guess what Touro’s doing tomorrow night?” He pauses five seconds, and says to me, “You’re watching the Stooges movie”. Now Al is not a psychic, but two things made him come to his conclusion. First, he has been our guest speaker in the past, and has a decent feel for the organization. Second, he knows that I am well aware that his brother Mike Cerrone wrote, and produced the Stooges movie with the Farrelly Brothers. I immediately answer: “Correct!!!” Al continues: “Well you’re in luck, because Michael is in town for the holidays, and will be at your meeting to introduce the film!” And that’s the way lucky attendees of the December meeting got to hear first-hand, about the origin, and planning of the successful movie, “The Three Stooges,” from the guy who made it happen. As a special bonus, Mike brought along his great friend, and past Touro guest speaker, film director Michael Corrente. The two thoroughly enjoyed our dairy dinner, and then spoke to the audience about the project of creating the film. I found it particularly interesting, that after the lights went out, and the movie began, the two Mikes stayed for most of the movie, and laughed along with the rest of us. What would have been a great Touro meeting became a spectacular Touro meeting. We got a perfect Hanukkah present from my friend Al Cerrone.

Pictured left to right are: Brother Norm Dinerman with Karen Meyers

n Wednesday, November 28th, Harmony Lodge hosted the monthly meeting featuring Chairman Miller’s Marvelous Meatloaf. The highlight of the evening was the speaker, Karen Meyers, ABC6’s co-anchor for its 5pm, 6pm and 11pm newscasts. A Boston College graduate who majored in both English and Communications, Karen worked for TV stations in Burlington, VT; New Hampshire; Albany, NY; Washington, DC; and finally Boston, before landing in Providence. Karen told us about the changes in the TV news industry as individuals get their news from many different sources: TV, newspapers and, in increasing numbers, the Internet. She took us through a day in the life of an anchorperson at a TV station. From writing and rewriting stories, structuring the newscast to balance hard news with entertainment news, while keeping a pulse on stories important to individual communities, it’s a full time job. She has even had to ad-lib on the air when a taped story is not ready for broadcast. Many members agreed Karen was one of the best speakers Touro has ever had.

Brothers and Sister We Lost in 2012

New Brothers

Robert Lubin Nathan L. Alterman Rebecca Pepper George C. Berk Zenas Pulner Joseph Dickens Melvin S. Rabinowitz Melvin S. Engle Norton M. Rappaport George G. Galkin Hyman J. Rapaporte ('10) Harvey Green Dr. Melvin Greenberg Edward Safire Alan L. Silverman Jerome Horowitz Herbert L. Spivack Irving R. Klein Edward Wasser Howard J. Krasnow Harold Winthrop Bruce R. Lang Irving Zatloff

Brothers Who Joined in 2012 David Altman Joel Bazar Moshe Berman Jonathan Finkle Wayne Forman Joseph Friedman

Edward M Gordon Scott Katz Marc J Ladin Jonathan Leach Ronald Richter Richard Winkler

Brandon Winkler ~6~

Hanukkah at Touro Fall Two-fer at Nino's

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P.O. BOX 3562 CRANSTON, RI 02910

Return Service Requested

UPCOMING TOURO EVENTS: TWO-FER AT THE SHRINERS

APRIL 13, 2013 TONY PETRARCA, WPRI TV March 20, 2013 Visit Touro at www.tourofraternal.org or scan the QR code.

2 0 1 3 FEBRUARY 5 7 7 3 Bruce Weisman, Editor Columnists: Jed Brandes Howard Custis Norman Dinerman Andrew Lamchick Lester Nathan Arthur Poulten Barry Jay Schiff Howard Wasser Staff Photographers: Jeffrey Davis Edward Deluty Touro Fraternal Association 45 Rolfe Square, P.O. Box 3562, Cranston, RI 02910 Phone: 401-785-0066 Fax: 401-941-8781 E-Mail: info@tourofraternal.org

TOURO BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2012-2013 Robert Miller, Chairman Barry Schiff, Vice Chairman Steven Waldman, Treasurer Marc Gertsacov, Secretary Judah Rosen, Chaplain Barry Shaw, Inside Guard Arthur Poulten, Chairman Emeritus Nathan Lury Jed Brandes Robert Miller Milton Bronstein Arthur Poulten Jeffrey Davis Ried Redlich Edward Deluty Barry Schiff Adam Halpern Barry Shaw Stevan Labush Michael Smith Andrew Lamchick Steven Waldman Rodney Locke Bruce Weisman Alan Lury Steven White

FRIENDSHIP LODGE HARMONY LODGE Lester Nathan, President Norman Dinerman, President Andrew Liss, Vice President Jeffrey Padwa, Vice President Richard Cohen, Secretary Andrew Shuster, Secretary Michael Levin, Treasurer Manocher Norparvar, Treasurer Max Guarino, Inside Guard Barry Schiff, Inside Guard Ried Redlich, Faithful Guide

HARMONY • FRIENDSHIP • BENEVOLENCE~8~

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Featuring Radio and TV personality

John Rooke