A Night at the Riviera

For more than 60 years, WJC has held an annual gala to celebrate our community, raise funds, and honor key contributors to our shul. This year, the goal of our annual festivity is to welcome as many WJC members as possible. Chaired by WJC members Lauren Sholder and Joanna Shlesinger, we invite our entire community to bask in the breeze of the Riviera and partake in casino fun.

We are thrilled to offer tribute to a distinguished group of honorees who represent three different segments of our membership. Judy and Howard Zweig, Sharon Weinstock and Jacques Steinberg and Glenna Lee are all remarkable individuals. Even without formal titles in synagogue leadership, these changemakers show initiative and creativity to drive our congregation forward. Their contributions help make WJC the center of our Jewish lives.

Voices asked WJC members who know our honorees best to offer commentary and insight as to what makes each of them so valuable in our community.

Judy Zweig

When you meet Judy Zweig on any occasion, you are greeted with a beautiful smile and a warm embrace that signals immediately that you are about to have a wonderful time. And you are never disappointed. She first asks about you and your loved ones, and then starts a meaningful conversation about some common experience in which she shares her knowledge, her understanding, and her desire to know your opinion. This is usually followed by an interesting exchange from which we come away better than when we started.

Aside from being personable and interesting, Judy has the gift of being creative, energetic, and well-organized — all of which allows her to translate her creativity into activity. This has been demonstrated in her founding of the J.O.Y. Club with her husband Howard. The acronym J.O.Y. stands for Just Older Youth (the name was originated by one of the founding members) and it was designed to serve the social and intellectual needs of WJC members over the age of 70. This WJC institution brings delight to those of us who have the proper membership credentials and will be a mainstay of our congregation as long as there are eligible members. Not only did Judy co-found the club, but she has also assumed responsibility to make it a success, doing everything from selecting wonderful speakers to moderating the sessions and arranging dinners to promote wonderful conversations. The J.O.Y. Club has a perfect name: it brings joy to us all, and this is largely thanks to Judy, and the joy that lives inside her.

—Marion and Walter Reichman

Howard Zweig

Almost 30 years ago, Howard Zweig joined WJC. Just one week later, he and his wife Judy volunteered to co-chair the Membership Committee! Over the years, it became obvious that he took great satisfaction in helping WJC. You name the committee — Howard has been the chairman or at least the co-chair.

More recently, he and Judy were inspired to create the J.O.Y. Club, tapping into the WJC membership to take advantage of our doctors, lawyers, professors, businessmen, and authors willing to provide members an inside look on important issues of the day. It’s to Judy and Howard’s credit that it has been such a success. Personable, dependable, smart Howard Zweig is a mensch for all seasons, and we are thrilled to know him.

—Ed and Adi Stein

Sharon Weinstock

The person you want to greet you when you walk into a WJC program or service is Sharon Weinstock. Beyond her quick wit and intellect, you will quickly notice her warmth. Despite a full-time law career, and a rich and athletic family life with husband Jacques Steinberg and children Ali and Jordan, Sharon pops up regularly at WJC programs, making each event that much more an exercise in sincerity. She is devoted to enrichment and interested in Jewish life—and to sharing it with her friends, many found at WJC. Sharon savors engagement and participation, both hers and yours.

Opportunities to engage with fellow WJC enthusiasts include helping to lead planning for the high-holiday Study Service (together with the extraordinarily learned members of the Spiritual Life Committee), working on the Nominating Committee, where she was inspired by the contribution and involvement of long-time members, and, as she says, “the enthusiasm of younger newer ones eager to get involved, participate, and engage with the synagogue.”

Sharon cites a highlight of her service as a Jazz Night sponsored by the Musical Enrichment Committee featuring Renewal services’ percussionist Nadav Snir-Zelniker’s band. “It gave us a unique way for people to gather at WJC on a Saturday night,” she said.

You may recall seeing Sharon at a Koslowe Gallery opening, hiking through Sheldrake on a Sisterhood outing, finding mindfulness at Shabbat Yoga, or serving as a Shabbat Greeter. Her bright smile welcoming you. Her presence beside you would have made the experience that much more meaningful.

— Amy Levine-Kennedy

Jacques Steinberg

He has been on the Rabbi Transition Committee and the Strategic Planning Committee. He has lent his voice to the study service and to the renewal service. He, along with Sharon, his partner in life, love, and crime, co-chaired the grand mitzvah project of 2019. He has, within the sanctuaries of Westchester Jewish Center, mourned the death of his father and celebrated the coming of age of his children. He drew on his professional excellence to be a founding editor of Voices magazine under Rabbi Arnowitz, and to be a rousing force on the Letters to My Children keepsake under Rabbi Segelman. He spent four years as trustee. Someone once called him a Rabbi whisperer. In moments small and large Jacques Steinberg has served to the benefit of WJC—embodying the center’s best values, and furthering its salient missions—ever since he landed here in 2003. “In the nearly two decades that Sharon and I, and Jordan and Ali, have been members, WJC has added so much to our lives,” Steinberg says. “Close friends. Learnings from clergy and congregants. Spiritual and cultural enrichment. And WJC has never been more of an anchor for me, never more of a source of comfort and camaraderie, than during the year after my father passed away in November of 2018. I will always be grateful for that support.”

The essential point about Jacques, the point that friends and acquaintances will make, is one of kindness. Chesed. He will give you advice when you need it most. He’ll remember your favorite beer. He’ll make it to your early-morning minyan. He’ll pick you up from the airport if you only ask. Jacques is a mensch. And a gala honoree worthy in every sense of the word.

—Kostya Kennedy

MARION AND WALTER

REICHMAN have lived in Larchmont for 51 years and been members of WJC since the mid-1970s. Marion taught kindergarten in the ECC, Walter is a past Secretary and Vice President, and their children celebrated their B’nei Mitzvah at the shul.

Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 6:00pm

For more information and to reserve your tickets, visit wjcenter.org/riviera