Kol Bogrei Rambam Is the Alumni Council’S Monthly E-Newsletter for and About Maimonides School Graduates
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Kol Bogrei May 2016 ~ Nissan - Iyyar 5776 Rambam Page 1 of 5 CONNECTING MAIMONIDES ALUMNI WORLDWIDE Kol Bogrei Rambam is the Alumni Council’s monthly e-newsletter for and about Maimonides School graduates. Each month we share infor- mation on individual graduates’ ventures and accomplishments, as well as general news notes, all reflecting the school’s mission of preparing educated, observant Jews to be contributing members of society. Your ideas and accomplishments will help sustain and strengthen this key com- munications tool; please forward to [email protected]. Graduate’s Leadership Helps Revitalize Jewish Life in the Pacific Northwest When Laurie and Brian Yablon ’83 most impactful moved to Portland, OR in 1997, “the only moment for kosher meat you could buy was frozen me was when Empire chicken. A group of us at shul my dad left for formed a co-op and purchased meat Israel Motza’ei directly from Rubashkin in Iowa. The Yom Kippur minimum order was 2,000 pounds, so in 1973 with we would coordinate orders around the a number of chagim and recruit customers.” other Boston- area doctors to The Portland community has come a help out in the long way since then, and Brian has been war.” a big part of it. He is serving his fourth year as Oregon’s AIPAC state chair. “I remember the rabbi Brian, an electrical engineer by training announcing and now an engineering management from the pulpit consultant, moved to Portland with that Israel was his family to take a position with Intel under attack, Corp. They arrived two days before Brian Yablon ‘83 speaking at the AIPAC Policy Conference. and my father’s Rosh Hashanah. “We went to the face mirroring local Safeway to buy food, and after AIPAC leadership “is a big commitment. his emotions as he moved from fear to wandering around for a few minutes, We travel to DC at least three times each anger to resolve,” he recounted. “That I asked a stock boy where the kosher year to lobby our congressional delega- night, we got home, broke our fast, and section was. He responded, ‘Kosher? Is tion,” Brian related. “The small size of then he just packed and left for Israel. that like low-fat?’ I figured we’d made our community means we activists have My mom didn’t question his decision at the biggest mistake moving out here personal relationships with every one of all, and held down the fort with me and to the Wild West.” The Oregon AIPAC our members of Congress. They actu- my sister. We didn’t hear from him for chapter was then defunct; it was not ally reach out to us for our perspectives three weeks because he was assigned to resurrected till 2004. on pro-Israel legislation, and for our a field hospital somewhere in the Sinai. thoughts on the ever-evolving situation That taught me what we do for Israel.” The Yablons’ three sons went to a there.” community school, and “we augmented Support for Israel at Maimonides “was their Torah education through inde- Thus AIPAC leaders must be “well- constant and unshakable throughout pendent study with a local Chabad informed and thoroughly conversant my 12 years there, and the Maimonides rabbi,” Brian said. “Things are completely with the news, with the historical con- community absolutely contributed to different in Portland now. We have a text, with the legislative landscape,” my Zionist identity and laid the founda- kollel, the Ma’ayan Torah day school, an he continued. “It is also a tremen- tion for my activism,” Brian recalled. eruv, a full kosher deli at the Safeway. dous feeling to be participating and “Zionism per se was not taught. But we Our shul moved from a dying corner of advancing our agenda, defending the absorbed and internalized it from all our town to the Jewish epicenter and expe- U.S.-Israel relationship and keeping Israel teachers and in all our classes. I think this rienced an unbelievable rejuvenation. safe by personally engaging in the best is because the horror of the Holocaust Portland is now on the Orthodox map!” traditions of our American democracy.” was still so proximate when we were Brian said he is the third generation of young.” “The US-Israel relationship is a very a family of ardent Zionists. “Perhaps the personal one for me,” Brian asserted. continued on page 4 Visit Maimonides on Facebook Follow our Twitter feed, KolRambam Subscribe to our YouTube channel, MaimoTube Kol Bogrei May 2016 ~ Nissan - Iyyar 5776 Rambam Page 2 of 5 CONNECTING MAIMONIDES ALUMNI WORLDWIDE Social Work a Regular Opportunity for Chesed and Caring, Alumna Says For Judy (Rosenkranz) Siderer ’68, “social work has afforded me the opportunity to incorporate chesed and caring into my professional life on a regular basis.” Judy is described by Intervention Associates in a Philadelphia suburb, her employer for more than 25 years, as “uniquely qualified to understand and manage the most challenging circumstances,” thanks to her clinical experience, “combined with her sensitivity, insight, and interpersonal and organizational skills.” She is a senior care manager for the non-profit organization, which provides professional care management and legal guardianship services for people of all ages with all Judy ‘68 and Jack Siderer, their three daughters, three sons-in-law and 17 grandchildren kinds of conditions. “I get a tremendous amount of advances in geriatric care during her “I do miss all the wonderful and fulfillment and personal satisfaction years in the field. special people who were the core of the Maimonides family when working with my geriatric clients “We’re seeing people living longer I was there,” she reflected. “The and advocating for them,” Judy and requiring more complex medical Wohlgemuths, Cohens and Simons declared. “They usually present with care and support for longer periods were close family friends and such complex circumstances, sometimes of time for physical and cognitive extraordinary mechanchim and requiring guardianships, which can decline,” she commented. “On the people.” be especially challenging. Yet it is so positive side, there is more emphasis rewarding to be able to make a real on ways to enhance the quality of life Indeed, she said the Wohlgemuths difference in the quality of people’s and independence as people age.” “were actually the shadchanim for my lives as they age, to ensure that they parents! My father was already living As a manager, Judy supervises and can age with dignity and as much in Boston and my mother was in New trains new care managers, facilitates independence as possible.” York. Bertha knew my mother from regular clinical team meetings, and Germany and made the shidduch!” “The importance of chesed and oversees and helps improve internal middot and caring for others was and external communications. something that was instilled in me “Though I am involved in throughout my years growing up management and administration, I Tournament Dates Set in the Brookline community,” Judy never gave up working directly with said. “My parents (Doris and Arnold clients, which is the work I truly enjoy Ahron Solomont ‘76, chair of Rosenkranz, z”l) were wonderful the most,” she said. the annual Maimonides Invita- role models, as were the wonderful tional Basketball Tournament, has Maimonides and Young Israel Judy has been involved in many announced that the dates for the communities. I saw many instances of aspects of community institutions next event have been set. The tour- chesed being done, both publicly and throughout her years in Philadelphia, privately, and how important this was serving on boards and heading nament will begin on Thursday, Dec. on so many levels.” committees for a day school, 15, and continue through Sunday, shul, mikvah, and various chesed Dec. 18, 2016. Three boys’ and three Judy, who earned her master of social organizations. girls’ teams will join the M-Cats and work degree at Temple University, Lady M-Cats. noted that there have been many Kol Bogrei May 2016 ~ Nissan - Iyyar 5776 Rambam Page 3 of 5 CONNECTING MAIMONIDES ALUMNI WORLDWIDE Fifty Years after Commencement, 1966 Graduates Reflect on Their Lives in Israel As they approach the 50th anniversary of arrival, and earned Sharonah (Koolyk) Rabinowitz made their graduation, members of Maimonides a degree from the aliyah in 1987 with her three children, all School’s Class of 1966 can point to several Hebrew University. students at Maimonides. “I didn’t know distinctions. Theirs was the first graduating that you are not supposed to bring teen- Before retiring about class to spend all four years of high school agers on aliyah — and luckily neither did a year and a half ago, on the new Brookline campus. Theirs also they,” she laughed. Martelle worked in the was the largest class to date, the first to field of elder affairs “It was very pleasantly surprising to see reach 20 seniors. Theirs was the first full- and also was on the how much Hebrew my children had size yearbook. staff of the Diaspora learned at Maimonides — even the And four of those 20 have lived in Israel for Yeshiva on Mount Zion. “I also taught a youngest was able a cumulative 108 years. Each reflected on monthly class in Torah topics for Emunah after the first day his or her experiences in Israel and how Women,” she said. of school to tell me they were influenced by their Maimonides what the current education. Rabbi Menachem Gopin made aliyah collecting fad was, with his wife Rochel in 1999. Now retired, and to understand Rabbi Tanchum Mendi served as executive vice president the classes, as well,” Cohen (Thomas in the of Yeshivat Hadarom in Rechovot and — Sharonah related.