UNSUNG HEROES OY! is the quarterly magazine of the St. Louis Jewish Light | May, 2015
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Contents 4
Founded 1963 The Newspaper of the Jewish Community of Greater St. Louis 314-743-3600 • Fax: 314-743-3690 E-mail: msherwin@thejewishlight.com Address for payments: P.O. Box 955519 St. Louis, Mo. 63195-5519 General Correspondence: 6 Millstone Campus Drive, Suite 3010 St. Louis, Mo. 63146 PROFESSIONAL STAFF EXECUTIVE Larry Levin Publisher/CEO Robert A. Cohn Editor-in-Chief Emeritus EDITORIAL Ellen Futterman Mike Sherwin Elise Krug Cheryl Barack Gouger Barry Gilbert BUSINESS Kelly Richter Rebecka Wyrde SALES Shane Blatt Kelly Morris Elaine Wernick Beth Feldman
Editor Managing Editor Editorial Assistant Editorial Assistant Copy Editor Business Director Admin. Assistant
Senior Account Executive Account Executive Account Executive Events Manager
PRODUCTION & TECHNOLOGY Director of Operations Tom Wombacher Graphic Designer Myriam Mistrih Production Assistant Martin Holloway BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS Jane Tzinberg Rubin, President; Steve Gallant, Vice President; Jeff Golden, Vice President/Business Chair; Peggy Kaplan, Vice President; Diana Iskiwitch, Treasurer; Laura K. Silver, Secretary; Gary Kodner, Immediate Past President COMMITTEE CHAIRS Editorial: Ben Lipman; Business: Jeff Golden; Development: Sheri Sherman and Vicki Singer SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRS Teen Page: Peggy Kaplan, Caroline Goldenberg and Lauren Sagel TRUSTEES Andy Babitz, Dr. Lew Chartock, Caroline Goldenberg, Yale Hollander, Anita Kraus, Jill Mogil, Ed Musen, Rori Picker Neiss, Avi Rosenzweig, Lauren Sagel, Jennifer Schmitz, Judi Scissors, David Singer, Toby Warticovschi, Richard Weiss ADVISORY COMMITTEE Terry Bloomberg, Nanci Bobrow, Ph.D., Dr. Lew Chartock, Ava Ehrlich, Charles C. Eisenkramer, Richard Flom, Dodie Frey, Diane Gallant, John Greenberg, Philip A. Isserman, Gianna Jacobson, Linda Kraus, Sanford Lebman, Michael Litwack, Dr. Ken Ludmerer, Lynn Lyss, Rabbi Mordecai Miller, Donald Mitchell, Milton Movitz, Michael N. Newmark, Adinah Raskas, Marvin J. Schneider, Richard W. Stein, Barbara Langsam Shuman, Sanford Weiss, Phyllis Woolen Markus, Vivian W. Zwick. Founder Morris Pearlmutter (1913-1993)
The St. Louis Jewish Light does not assume responsibility for the quality or kashrut of any product or service advertised in its pages, nor is the Jewish Light responsible for the content of its inserted supplements. 4
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
from the editor
contents
Of all that is true and wonderful and unique about the St. Louis Jewish community, topping the list is the sheer number of people who selflessly give of their time to help a vast array of individuals and organizations. The Unsung Class of 2015 certainly proves that, as do the classes that preceded this one, dating back to when the Jewish Light first launched Unsung Heroes in 2010.
DEPARTMENTS
This year, the paper is honoring nine outstanding Jewish individuals and one very large, remarkable group. The latter, which totals 190 volunteers, do everything asked of them to make sure the roughly 8,000 clients served each month by the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry not only have what to eat for themselves and their families, but Ellen also feel cared for and respected Futterman when they visit. As in years past, the individuals being honored span the gamut in terms of the service work they do as well as their age, ranging from 17 to 88. It’s possible that you only know a few of them, or none at all — most of these heroes tend to fly under the radar as they do what they do to make St. Louis a better place. Hopefully, you’ll get to know each of them in the pages of OY! Unsung and come to understand why they are so dedicated to giving back to the community. In addition to the hero profiles, you’ll read about a couple whose unconventional wedding this year married old-world Jewish traditions with Middle Ages and Renaissance fanfare. And in case you didn’t think it possible, you’ll also meet a woman who decided that St. Louis was the perfect place to move and enjoy her golden years, post-retirement. Who knew? I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating: the Unsung Heroes are not chosen by the Light. Each is nominated by members of the community just like you — and from that pool the year’s Heroes are selected by a committee comprising a broad swath of the community. I mention this in the hope that next year you might know someone you’d like to nominate. Generally, the process begins in early February, with nomination guidelines and forms running in the newspaper and online for six to eight weeks. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading about 2015’s amazing Unsung Heroes and find their stories as inspiring and buoyant as I do.
HOME: At home with Alice Thomas
page 6
CHERISHED JUDAICA: A Wedding for the (Middle) Ages
page 10
FOOD: Israeli lemonade inspires bundt cake
page 14
UNSUNG HEROES PROFILES
Don Roth...............................20 Harvey Wallace..................22 Debbie Caplin....................24 Amy Fenster Brown........26 Dorothy Meyerson...........28 Sherri Goldman................30 Wayne Kaufman................32 Mark Rodgers.....................34 Tali Stadler............................36 Volunteers of the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry.....................................40
ON THE COVER: A group of Jewish Food Pantry volunteers stands for a portrait before starting their Tuesday morning shift. Photos: Lisa Mandel
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OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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Alice Thomas, in her Central West End condo, featuring paintings by Israeli artist Myra Mandel. All photos: Lisa Mandel
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May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
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AFresh Start in the Heartland Former Californian makes Israeli art a centerpiece of CWE condo By Susan Fadem • Special to the Jewish Light
A
lthough she made her choices slowly, during a period dedicated to caring for her aging parents, former Californian Alice Thomas devised a post-retirement relocation process that more than worked. It allowed her, at last, to sculpt life on her own terms. Her new Central West End condo, presumably on the site of an erstwhile carriage house that served the now-renovated 1890s house upfront, personifies her “next chapter” credo. Punctuated by color and tastefully accessorized, it speaks volumes. A sprinkling of small colored stones, the kind collected and culled during a lifetime of expeditions, sit pristinely in a corner. They came from Pier 1 Imports. Six large paintings by Israeli artist Myra Mandel have their own backstory. They remind Thomas, a slender and dignified mother of three, of the six years she and her family spent in Israel. At the time, Thomas was in the midst of a 40-plus year career teaching English. Each Mandel painting, calling to mind Mediterranean deserts, forests and grottos, comes with its own Hebrew inscription. “I love the colors. I love the fact that the artist does almost a collage while painting,” Thomas says. But did Thomas search umpteen galleries and schlep the paintings from overseas and then state-to-state? No way. Just as she brought almost nothing with her to St. Louis, other than the keepsakes she could squeeze into her Honda Civic, when she needed paintings she recently Googled “Israeli artists.” Smitten by Mandel’s style, she ordered six paintings online. Once they arrived, she placed each one in a linen mat, surrounded by a dark walnut frame. “Clean and simple,” she says.
Ditto for her greenery. Though it takes a first, second and sometimes third glance, and then a furtive feel to confirm, her plants are artificial. “I’ve raised kids, now all grown and living in New York City. I’ve taken care of parents,” she says. No further explanation needed. With similar, straightforward think-
were among his clients. Michel Thomas was 30 years Alice’s senior. Married for 25 years, they divorced in 1995. He died 10 years ago at age 90. The subtext here is that long surrounded by excellence and achievement, Alice Thomas grew accustomed, in part, to making decisions based on
Thomas’ condo is believed to be on the site of the carriage house of an 1890s home.
ing, Thomas strategized her latest chapter. She moved here from San Diego, where she spent 13 years caring for her parents and living with them in their rambling home. Her mother passed away in 2006, her father in 2012. A nonsurfer and non-golfer, Thomas says she “never really connected to California.” California also had ties to Thomas’ exand now-deceased husband, Michel Thomas. A celebrated linguist who spoke 10 languages, “the Henry Higgins of Hollywood,” he taught accents and foreign diction to movie stars. Doris Day, Mel Gibson, Emma Thompson, Woody Allen and Barbra Streisand
what seemed best for others. Finally, as a retiree, she yearned to focus on what made her happy. She prioritized her wants: • A viable Jewish community with “at least one kosher supermarket and a variety of synagogues that were large enough to sustain themselves.” • Transportation options. Enough, she decided, of California’s “slavery to cars.” • A walkable neighborhood. • At least one major university, providing access to classes, theater, culture and lectures. With her computer as research tool, Thomas first Googled “best places to OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
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live in the United States.” Then she plugged in her religious and other requirements. From the resulting list of nine or so options, she narrowed her choices to Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis and Kansas City. Since she’d grown up in Kansas City and also lived in New York City, blustery Midwest winters didn’t scare her. Her next question: “Where do I have relatives who matter most to me?” St. Louis emerged as the frontrunner. Her favorite first cousin, clinical psychologist Alan Blake, lived here. (Ironically, he’s since moved to Greenville, S.C.). Her parents’ close friends, archaeologists Carol DiazGranados and her husband Jim Duncan, are also St. Louisans. So are Thomas’ friends Debra and John Siegel, whom she met in Israel. After a series of exploratory vacations here, Thomas realized “the amazing cultural opportunities in St. Louis and how affordable they are.” Bleary-eyed after viewing some 20 properties in a single weekend, she found her present condo – 1,600 square feet, two floors and a ground-floor entry and garage, and 2 ½ baths. The sunlight alone, splashing through the uncovered windows, sold her. Thomas took up residence in the Central West End in spring 2011. “I savor every moment,” she says. She
Myra Mandel’s painting ‘ Spring in Galilee’ adorns this bedroom wall.
joined Bais Abraham, where she’s started a film series. Newly passionate about “systemic racism, in our community and the United States,” she enrolled last summer in the YWCA’s “Witnessing Whiteness” program, taught in conjunction with the National Council of Jewish Women. Now, as a trained facilitator, she helps lead “Witnessing Whiteness” classes at the NCJW and at Central Reform Congregation. Lectures, concerts, plays, classes, board meetings, gym membership and gallery visits fill her schedule. “I’m very busy and very happy,” she says. Love plays a vital role, too, though not without Thomas flexing her independence. Ten years ago on a dance floor in San Diego, she met handsome Yossi Hipshman. As dancers do, they danced
quite awhile before sitting down to visit. Names were not exchanged. Also not uncommon in the dance world, that venue closed. Not until sometime later did the dignified and initially reserved Thomas run into him again, at another event space. That time, they danced more and talked more. Afterward, when Hipshman ordered wine, he flabbergasted Thomas by ending his toast with “L’chaim.” “Where did you learn to speak Hebrew?” she asked, in Hebrew. “I’m Israeli,” he replied. Jewish, too. With his certainty their relationship could deepen, along with the thrill of their dance-floor moves, they pursued a shared fondness for salsa dancing,
See HOME, page 44
Congratulations to STLMGAC Volunteer
Harvey Wallace Thank you for all you and the rest of the Unsung Heroes do for our community.
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May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
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CHERISHED JUDAICA
A Wedding (Middle) Ages for the
By Susan Fadem • Special to the Jewish Light
T
he Jewish star-studded chuppah was the real thing. So were the sentiments expressed and prayers read. The fact that the bride, groom and many of the 100 guests wore newish attire, painstakingly reproduced from centuries-old designs, in no way lessened the authenticity of the day. According to Rabbi Brigitte Rosenberg, who at one point was asked if she’d ride in on a horse, the Medievalstyle wedding was like none she’d ever attended. Even minus an equine mount, nixed as one complication too many, the day was “100 percent true to what the couple wanted,” Rosenberg says. “It was very beautiful” and, in its own way, “very traditional.” More than a decade after they met, widower Wayne Ault, 58, married the former Laurie Seale, 50. Amid alreadyin-place armor, banners and tapestries, the ceremony and reception took place March 29 at the Henry VIII-themed Royal Dumpe restaurant/ dinner theater in downtown’s historic Laclede’s Landing. Days earlier, and after several years of study with close friend Jack Cohen and then with Rosenberg, Seale completed her conversion to Judaism with a ritual immersion at an area mikvah. A former U.S. Army cook and computeroperations specialist, she grew up in the
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May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
Wayne Ault and Laurie Seale incorporated their love of the Medieval period into the theme of their wedding, which included a chuppah of quilted Stars of David (opposite page), featuring personal messages from their wedding guests. Photos: Kristi Foster
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Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. Several years into her romance with Ault, he invited her to his then- temple, B’nai Torah, a former Reform congregation in St. Charles County. Conversion was not necessarily on his mind. “He wanted me to come and listen,” she recalls. “I enjoyed it.” An electronic engineer of Falstaffian proportions, Ault had converted to Judaism years earlier, prior to marrying his first wife, Cheryl, who was Jewish. Raised by parents “more likely to take us camping or fishing than to any religious thing,” he learned about and embraced his new faith. Beneath a chuppah at a synagogue, he and Cheryl exchanged vows. When the couple relocated from California to St. Charles County in 1998, so that Ault could work for McDonnell Douglas, they joined the fledgling B’nai Torah. Cohen was a founder and subsequent president, the latter a position Wayne Ault would someday fill. At the temple, Ault became the go-to guy. Whether grass needed mowing or the alarm mistakenly sounded, Ault took care of things. For the Aults, things mostly sailed along. Even when Cheryl Ault found herself breathless after romping with the two llamas that came with the couple’s 3 ½-acre spread, she had two
Wayne Ault and Laurie Seale, under the chuppah during their wedding in March.
stents implanted to help correct a 95 percent blockage in her coronary artery. A month later, she was at work. Wayne Ault, meanwhile, continued his involvement with the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), an international organization he and Cheryl Ault joined in California. From close combat and tournaments with bamboo swords (for safety’s sake) to wearing armor and other Middle Ages and Renaissance garb, the group, according to its website, is “dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts
and skills of pre-17th-century Europe.” For Ault, the spur to membership came in 1987 when one of his employers started an archery club. Ault showed up with the recurve bow, notable for tips that curve away from the archer when the bow is strung. He had made it in a high-school shop class. Impressed by Ault’s wood-crafting prowess, a colleague said: “I have some people you should come out and shoot (arrows) with.” The people turned out to be SCA’ers. Ault had never heard of the group but intrigued,
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he joined the society. At home in St. Charles County, the Aults turned the barn that came with their property into an armory. Ault and others stocked it with sufficient metal to help those SCA’ers who wanted to make mandatory elbow and knee armor, as well as helmets and throat guards. Seale, by this time a divorced mother of three with deployments in both the States and Germany, had completed her U.S. Army service and settled, in 1994, in St. Charles. On a break from Army kitchens where she helped prepare meals for up to 500, she had first glimpsed costumed members of the SCA in the 1980s, at the fabled Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. “They just happened to be there when I was,” she says. In St. Louis, Seale joined the SCA, where she fought in armor, as many of the organization’s women members do. She got to know Cheryl Ault. “We talked. I learned a lot from her,” Seale says. “She was a wonderful woman.” For many, however, Cheryl’s second diagnosis — ovarian cancer — proved an unrecoverable blow. Friends and family gathered at her bedside. Hospice workers visited. Seale organized a bring-a-meal schedule. Fifteen months after her diagnosis, Cheryl Ault passed away in 2004. She and Wayne had been married for 19 years. He sought solace in familiarity – at work, where he helped design Apache helicopter simulators, essentially flying tanks in which future pilots trained, and at B’nai Torah. His SCA friendships also brought comfort. It took a year before Ault was ready to resume something of a social life. As friends, he and Seale began seeing each other. Together, they laughed easily. “He was neat to be around,” she says. Seale, by this point, had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disorder characterized by pervasive musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. Yet in her vocabulary, “No, I can’t do it” scarcely exists. Nor do such words come easily for Ault.
Though not believers in invincibility, they’re both convinced that “limitations are only in your mind,” as Ault puts it. When fascinated, each delves deeper and deeper, with one project giving birth to another, and another. Therefore, it came as no surprise that one outcome of Ault inviting Seale to temple was her enrollment in Cohen’s adult-education classes. “The more I learned, the closer I felt to Judaism,” she says.
Conversion to Judaism likewise appealed. By 2014, when B’nai Torah merged with Congregation Shaare Emeth, Seale had already begun studying with Rabbi Rosenberg, of United Hebrew Temple. Neither Seale nor Ault remembers exactly how he proposed. Did he ask, “Will you marry me?” Was it something closer to, “What kind of wedding
See WEDDING, page 44
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Israeli lemonade inspires bundt cake BY TAMI GANELES-WEISER THE NOSHER VIA JTA
This cake is inspired by the uberpopular Israeli sweet lemonade that’s always punched up with fresh mint called limonana. Limonana is really just a simple drink, but it has taken Israel by storm over the last 25 years. It’s a delicious, super sweet lemonade — tooth-achingly sweet — like a good Mississippi sweet tea. What makes it unique is the addition of a copious amount of bright, verdant, incredibly fresh mint leaves. It’s a snappy addition that takes the lemonade from good to great. Israeli Hebrew is often marked with anglicized words, but not this drink. Without even naming it through an official Ministry of Made-up Words (with apologies to Monty Python, it actually has existed), it’s a clear amalgam of lemon in Hebrew (limon) and mint in Arabic (nana). But it’s all about the taste, which is bright and lively and endlessly refreshing. You can find limonanaflavored sorbets and sherbert, and the lemon and mint — or even a lime and mint — would be a great foil for a granita. Light and delicate, this lemony chiffon cake is lovely paired with a minted whipped cream and candied mint. A few tips: • Superfine sugar, also called caster sugar, is granulated sugar that has been ground into very fine crystals. It dissolves quickly and is excellent for use in drinks, 14
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
Read Tami Ganeles-Weiser’s recipe for Limonana-Inspired Lemon Chiffon Bundt Cake on page 16. Photo: Tami Ganeles-Weiser
meringues, puddings, candies and lighter baked goods such as angel food cakes. If a recipe specifies superfine sugar, do use it; it makes a difference. If you don’t have any, just grind your granulated sugar in a food processor for 2 minutes until it is very, very fine. • To make your own mint oil, heat 1 cup canola oil in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat, add the mint and cook for about 5 minutes until the oil is very warm (if you have a candy thermometer, it will read about 180°F). It should not boil or sputter; it is, essentially, poaching. Set up a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth over a medium-sized mixing bowl. Remove the pan from the heat and let stand until the oil reaches room temperature. Then, using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. (You can also
do this in a regular blender.) Pour the blended mixture through the sieve and let it slowly drip through. The oil can used immediately, or kept refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. • When beating egg whites, an impeccably clean bowl is a must; even a bit of grease can keep them from firming up to form soft or stiff peaks. Find the recipe for LimonanaInspired Lemon Chiffon Bundt Cake on Page 16. Tami Ganeles-Weiser is a writer and editor, recipe developer, culinary educator and caterer. She is a regular columnist for JoyofKosher. com, and contributes to Moment Magazine and TheHomeMonthly. comRecipe Box. Visit The Nosher food blog at thenosher.com.
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Jewish Federation of St. Louis makes connections to the programs and people you care about. Help us continue to deepen our roots in the community, build connections and strengthen the branches that ensure a bright future.
learn more about building your community at buildjewishstl.org Congratulations to Harvey Wallace, Jewish Federation of St. Louis Campaign Chair, on being recognized by the Jewish Light as a 2015 Unsung Hero for his generous volunteer efforts in support of the Jewish community.
OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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ose flour,
e (caster
ature,
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Limonana-Inspired Lemon Chiffon Bundt Cake INGREDIENTS:
For the cake: 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting 1¼ tsp baking soda ¼ tsp fine salt ¾ cup plus 1 tbsp superfine (caster sugar, see Kitchen Tips) 4 large eggs, room temperature, separated ¼ cup good quality olive oil Zest of 4 lemons (about 2 tbsp ) Juice of 4 lemons (¼ cup) ¼ cup lemon vodka or water Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean pod ½ tsp cream of tartar
For the candied mint leaves: 2 bunches fresh mint leaves 1 egg white ½ cup superfine (caster) sugar
For the mint whipped cream: ½ cup heavy cream or whipping cream 2 Tbsp superfine (caster) sugar, sifted ½ tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste ¾ tsp mint oil, store-bought or homemade DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray a 7-inch bundt pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray and dust it lightly with flour. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and ¾ cup of the
sugar and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, vegetable oil, lemon juice, vodka or water, lemon zest and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and whisk for about 1½ minutes, until smooth and thick. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or if you are using a handheld electric mixer, in a large mixing bowl), beat the egg whites at medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat for about 1 minute, gradually increasing the speed to high, until soft peaks form (see Kitchen Tips). Gradually add the remaining tablespoon of sugar and beat for about 2½ minutes at high speed until stiff peaks form and the eggs are stiff and almost dry. Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter and gently stir to lighten the mixture. Add the next third, folding carefully, leaving some white streaks. Add the last third and fold gently until the last white streaks just barely disappear. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an offset spatula, smooth the top. Bang the pan on the kitchen counter once. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean and the cake is golden. While the cake is baking, make the candied mint leaves (see “A few tips” in story on page 14 ): Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the leaves on it in a single layer, With a pastry brush, brush the leaves very lightly with
the egg white. Sprinkle with half the sugar, allow to dry for 5 minutes. Turn the leaves over, brush with the egg white, sprinkle with the remaining sugar and allow to fully dry. Remove the cake from the oven and gently invert it, still in the pan, onto a cooling rack and let stand until fully cooled and the pan is cool enough to touch. Turn the pan right-side up. Run a knife between the cake and the side of the pan. Place a serving platter that is slightly wider than the pan over the cooled cake, so that the bottom of the platter faces up. Holding the pan with one hand and pressing the plate firmly onto the pan with the other, invert them so that the plate is on the bottom. Lift up the cake pan to reveal the cake. Just before you are ready to serve, make the whipped cream (see Kitchen Tips): Using a stand mixer, electric mixer or whisk, pour the cream into a mixing chilled bowl. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. (If using an electric or stand mixer, beat the mixture on high for about 60 seconds.) Add the sugar, vanilla and mint oil to the cream, and whip just to combine. Serve slices of cake garnished with whipped cream and candied mint leaves. — Tami Ganeles-Weiser
Our EVERYDAY HEROES make a lifelong difference! Abused and neglected children need a CASA volunteer to speak up for them. A child is waiting for you.
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It is not what one says, rather what one does, that makes a difference. Ethics of the Fathers 1:17
CONGRATULATIONS TO Amy Fenster Brown, Tali Stadler and Harvey Wallace, and THANK YOU to more than 1,800 other volunteers who donated more than 30,000 hours to the J in the past year. It’s with your help that we can continue to make a difference in our community!
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INTRODUCING THE JEWISH LIGHT’S
2015 UNSUNG HEROES CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Debbie Caplin, Sherri Goldman, Tali Stadler, Amy Fenster Brown, Dorothy Meyerson, Harvey Wallace, Wayne Kaufman, Mark Rodgers, Don Roth, Volunteers of the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry READ THEIR PROFILES ON PAGES 20-43
OY! Magazine Magazine -- St. St. Louis Louis Jewish Jewish Light Light May May 2015 2015 OY!
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Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY SUSAN FADEM SPECAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
In this technologically advanced world, it’s refreshing to know that one man, with age-old communications savvy, can still make a difference. Don Roth, retired after 40 years in sales, is such a man. For more than 20 years, he’s met weekly with 8- to-17-year-old males. “I share my life experiences,” he says. “I sort of sense the chemistry that might be between us.” These alleged law-breakers are in custody at the St. Louis County Detention Center because authorities consider them a threat, either to themselves or the community. Typically, they wait days or months until the Family Court of St. Louis County hears their case, or alternative arrangements can be made. Where others might predict dismal outcomes, Roth, a Korean War veteran, sees hope. This despite the fact that he’s a volunteer, and a small part of the county’s program of supervised educa20
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
DON ROTH Age: 87 Home: Creve Coeur Family: Widowed after a 40-year marriage to Louise Roth. Two sons, two granddaughters Occupation: Retired after 40 years in sales, all with the former Central States Diversified, a manufacturer and distributor of packaging materials Fun Fact: Buoyed one year by the number of times he won table-tennis matches against male juveniles in detention, he signed up for the Senior Olympics. Clobbered by a far superior player, he went home with a complimentary T-shirt and a vow “to never enter another athletic contest again.”
tional, recreational and social activities for detained youngsters. In 60 to 90 minutes each week, Roth does both one-on-ones and interacts with groups of up to 15 boys. A naturalborn storyteller and gentle joker, he
aims to make each boy feel heard. Touched by the attention, one youngster wrote: “I like that you told me about your life and then you wanted to know a little about me. I also enjoyed your humor. I know you think not everyone thinks ‘your’ funny, but I do.” Years ago, Roth was moved by a column by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Greg Freeman. According to the Unsung Hero, Freeman wrote that day that lay people should share their wisdom with residents at the juvenile detention center. “That turned me on,” Roth says. Previously, Roth considered himself “pretty lopsided.” He liked bird watching, an avocation he passed along to his two sons. But mostly, he enjoyed selling. Thus, a chance to share lessons learned on the job, with young men in need of positive role models, particularly appealed. Roth contacted the county’s detention center and met the director. No
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program, such as the one columnist Freeman envisioned, then existed. No matter. Roth was invited to tour the facility and to start volunteering. Like an owl to a coniferous forest, a robin to a nest, Roth found himself unexpectedly at home. To help lower barriers he’d likely encounter as an older and law-abiding white man, his skin dotted by freckles and not tattoos, Roth played table tennis, as he had as a kid, but this time with the detained boys. His prowess amazed him. “I really became quite skilled,” he concedes. “They were waiting in line to play with me.” Sometimes, he “let the boys win.” In the detention center’s gym, Roth — a citizen deputy juvenile officer — and the young men also played basketball. Again, more than scoring was at stake. If the boys viewed him as a coach or grandfather figure, he concluded, they’d more readily absorb his life lessons.
NARI Congratulates Wayne Kaufman as one of this year’s Unsung Heroes. We thank you for your long standing service to the NARI Chapter. With Best Wishes, NARI of Greater St. Louis
Roth talks to the boys about myriad topics. When necessary, he tweaks his stories to underscore his lessons. One constant, however, is his advice to expect failures but remain focused on lawfully achieving success. The boys, in turn, inspire Roth. Pumped up by their admiration for basketball, he researches and makes phone calls. And although it took him a year to finalize, he arranged — as a surprise for the boys — a visit last June by St. Louis University Billiken’s men’s basketball team. For two hours at the detention center, players demonstrated and shot baskets with the young men and talked with them about the importance of higher education. The team’s visit was “phenomenal,” reports Cheryl Campbell, director of detention with St. Louis County’s family court. The “hope and faith” brought by the players gave the boys “new opportunities to succeed in life,” she adds.
For Roth, the visit was “a defining moment in my life.” But satisfaction wasn’t enough. Wanting other of the 1,300 National Collegiate Athletic Association teams to influence detained youths elsewhere, he wrote the executive editor of the NCAA Champion Magazine. The upshot was that in the publication’s 2015 winter issue, the Billikens’ trip to St. Louis County’s detention center received a lengthy paragraph of coverage. A grandfather of two and widowed for 15 years after a 40-year marriage, Roth seems never at a loss for ideas. SLU athletic officials, he says, have assured him the Billikens will return. Meanwhile, he’s contacted the Harlem Globetrotters and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame to see if detention center visits and shared materials might be possible. With his sales background, the Congregation Shaare Emeth member says: “I don’t give up.” Indeed.
Congratulations
to
Harvey Wallace! Wyman appreciates your continued dedication and generosity.
With Gratitude, Your Friends at Wyman
OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
H
elping others, something he learned early on by observing his father, is now just part of who Harvey Wallace is. “My dad, who ran the warehouse for Sands Drug, a chain of retail drugstores, was a volunteer fireman in University City and a member of the Jewish War Veterans. Though he didn’t have money, he always helped people out,” Wallace said. “That’s how I learned that you give back. Over the years it became obvious to me that those of us who can, should. It’s natural. It’s fulfilling. Now it’s just part of who I am and what I do.” Exactly what does Wallace do? In their nomination letter, Cathy Goldsticker, a partner at Brown Smith Wallace, and Sandy Jaffe, a friend and client of Wallace’s and a past Unsung Hero himself, wrote: “Harvey has contributed to growth in the local Jewish community as well as not-for-profits and businesses throughout the St. Louis area. He selflessly gives of his 22
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
HARVEY WALLACE Home: Creve Coeur Family: Married to Madeleine Elkins, CFO for a law firm. Two sons, four grandchildren Occupation: A founder and managing partner of Brown Smith Wallace Hobbies: Racquetball and tennis in the winter; golf in summer
time, money and talents to organizations, clients, friends and family members. In doing so, he inspires those around him to do the same.” Wallace has served on the board of directors for the Jewish Community Center since 1988. Since 2002, he has been actively involved as a member of the board of directors for the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, where he currently serves as the vice-chairman for the 2014 and 2015 Annual Campaign. He is a former board member for Jewish Family and Children’s Service. A devoted grandfather, Wallace has
served on the board of directors at the Magic House in Kirkwood since 2011 and was board chair from 2013 to 2014. “Harvey has a big heart when it comes to being supportive of helping children and he has a wonderful leadership style,” said Magic House CEO Beth Fitzgerald. “The fact that he is a grandparent makes a big difference to people on the board because when we see the Magic House through children’s eyes, we see joy and wonder.” Wallace also is a supporter of and board treasurer for the Wyman Center, an organization that “enables teens to lead successful lives and build strong communities.” He serves on the community advisory board for St. Louis Public Radio and is on the board for the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital. How did Wallace come to be involved in so many good causes? “I have difficulty saying ‘no’ because it’s such an honor to be asked,” Wallace said, laughing. “It’s one thing to be asked for money but when you are asked to participate, told you have something of value to contribute, it’s
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difficult to say no. I am very fortunate that people have asked me to get involved.” Wallace added that he also has learned by example. “I have had the good fortune to work with two clients who became friends — the late S. Lee Kling and the late Marvin Wool — both philanthropic people,” he said. “When you rub elbows with people like that, good things rub off. Both men influenced me a great deal.” The only child of Mary and Sydney Wallace, the first volunteer job Wallace took on was as a coach for his older son’s soccer team at the Olivette Athletic Association. “That was just a natural thing to do, sharing my passion for sports with my kid,” he said. “Around the same time, I began to think I needed to get more involved in the community.” Shortly after Jeff Smith started a public accounting firm in 1972, Wallace joined him. “One of the ways in the late ‘70s to grow a business was to get out in the community, and because of that I ended up in a couple of volunteer positions, including one at Covenant House, though I don’t recall my exact role,” Wallace said. Today, Brown Smith Wallace has more than 225 employees. The company supports a number of local events including the Jewish Book Festival, various charitable golf tournaments and fundraisers, including the gala at Wyman Center. The firm also donates business consulting services to area entrepreneurs through Gateway Venture Mentoring Service and Arch Grants. Last year the St. Louis Business Journal honored Brown Smith Wallace with an Innovation Award for contributing more than 500 hours per year of pro bono work to startup companies. “The way I see it is that I am very fortunate to have had opportunities to give back, and I have seized them. I hope the organizations I am involved with are maybe a tiny bit better off,” Wallace said. “And I’m not finished yet.” OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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harlie Chaplin Caplin likely is the best source for information about Debbie Caplin’s years of volunteer work with Support Dogs, Inc., a nonprofit agency that uses trained assistance dogs to improve the quality of life for people with special needs — but the two-year-old Portuguese water dog is silent on the subject. Fortunately, Cindi Blanke, programs coordinator at the agency, spoke right up. “Debbie is a wonderful handler, very conscientious, and she has very sweet dogs,” Blanke said. “Debbie and her dogs see kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and patients at the Missouri Baptist Cancer Infusion Center and they also participate in our Paws For Reading Program.”
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May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
DEBBIE CAPLIN Age: 59 Home: Ladue Family: Married to Dr. David Caplin, a plastic surgeon. They have three grown children. Occupation: Retired teacher Fun fact: Caplin rescues Pekin ducks as well as dogs
For the past decade, Caplin also has spent time training dogs, protecting dogs and rescuing dogs. She is a founding member of the volunteer advisory council at Support Dogs, Inc., and also helps evaluate dogs whose owners apply to the TOUCH therapy program. Plus, she serves on the board of the
Animal Protective Association of Missouri, where she also volunteers, taking trained dogs to assisted living communities and to schools. Caplin’s love for dogs is not new. “I’ve had pets all my life,” Caplin said. “I grew up in St. Louis, and I’ve had every type of dog imaginable. As a child, my first dog was Gigi, a poodle. I had a dog in college, I had a dog when David and I met, we had dogs when the kids were little. It wasn’t until they got older that I started hoarding. Oh wait – don’t print that!” Today Caplin and her husband share their home with five dogs, including Sookie, also a trained therapy dog. About eight years ago, Caplin and a friend started rescuing dogs. “I’ve found dogs on the street and placed them, and people call me when they need a home for a dog. We have a net-
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work of people,” Caplin said. “We’ve probably placed 25 dogs.” Six years ago, when Caplin got Sookie — also a Portuguese water dog — Caplin determined that the animal would be ideal for therapeutic outreach work. “Sookie is so compassionate and so loving,” she said. “That’s when I got involved with Support Dogs, Inc. and went through training with Sookie to get her certified as a therapy dog. We have been a team since 2011.” Support Dogs, Inc has three divisions: Assistance Dogs, TOUCH and the Paws for Reading Programs. The TOUCH therapy program integrates pet-assisted therapy into treatments for patients. The organization reports that pet therapy “decreases patient recovery time and advances speech and language therapy.” Plus, the TOUCH program “encourages smiles, comfort, and patient/canine interaction from the people served.”
“I loved the TOUCH training so much,” Caplin said. “Sookie and I started in the infusion center at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, and now I am the coordinator for the hospital visits. We have 14 dogs visiting patients there, almost every morning and afternoon.” Caplin said Charlie Chaplin Caplin currently handles the duties at Missouri Baptist and Sookie visits hospitalized children and older folks at some assisted living facilities. “People are so happy to see these trained dogs, especially people in assisted living who had to give up their pets. They always want to talk about their dogs while they pet ours,” Caplin said. “Not a day goes by that people don’t say ‘thank you’ for helping them remember a good part of their lives.” Caplin and her dogs also are part of a program at the Adolescent Behavioral Health Center at Mercy
Hospital and they have taken part in the Paws For Reading Program at Glenridge Elementary School for the past three years. At the school program, the dogs are used as an incentive to help struggling students read. Sometimes, Caplin and her dogs work two or three times a week, and sometimes, it’s every day. That’s OK with Caplin. “It’s so wonderful that I can share my animals and make people happy, make a difference in someone’s life.” Beyond her work with Support Dogs, Caplin has been an active volunteer with a variety of organizations in both the secular and Jewish communities, including Gateway to Hope, Jewish Family and Children’s Service, Jewish Fund for Human Needs, Jewish Federation-Women’s Division, the Komen Race for the Cure, AMC Cancer Research, and The Riga Project, a program to modernize three large public hospitals in Riga, Latvia.
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May 2015
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Amy Fenster Brown at home with her husband, Jeff, and their sons, Davis and Leo. Photo: Lisa Mandel BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN SPECAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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my Fenster Brown’s reaction when she learned she was to be honored as an Unsung Hero was this: “Who would be delusional enough to nominate me?” She found out soon enough: Jennifer Deutsch, Fenster Brown’s best friend since first grade, and Jenny Abeles, a close friend Fenster Brown met as an adult while volunteering with the National Council of Jewish Women – St. Louis Section. “So many people have volunteered for so many years, people who do much more than I do,” Fenster Brown said. “I am blown away that they would think to nominate me, and this just may be the nicest thing anyone has ever done.” In her nomination letter, Abeles 26
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
AMY FENSTER BROWN Age: 45 Home: Chesterfield Family: Married to Jeff Brown. Two sons, ages 8 and 9. Occupation: Circulation manager for St. Louis Bride Magazine Fun Fact: Amy bakes gluten-free treats for family and for friends’ special events
wrote, “Amy Fenster Brown is an extremely talented individual who devotes a tremendous amount of time to her community, whether she is volunteering, helping organizations with their communication plans or sharing her love of desserts.” Fenster Brown willingly owned up to all that. “OK, I have served on committees, co-chaired projects and fundrais-
ers and have helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for nonprofits. But selfishly, it’s fun, a way to do something social with friends,” Fenster Brown said. “Of course, you’re not just going to lunch — you’re working on a project,” she continued. “Volunteer work is catered to what you’re good at and what you like, and my strength is getting publicity.” Fenster Brown does know her way around the media — she spent 14 years working in local television news at Channels 30, 4 and 5 and garnered nine Emmy nominations. Organizations that have benefited from Fenster Brown’s expertise include NCJW, the Young Professionals Division of the St. Louis Jewish Federation, West County Day School, J Associates, Congregation Temple Israel, the Josie Foundation, Highcroft Ridge Elementary School, AMC Cancer Research Center, the Judevine
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Center, the Make-a-Wish Foundation and Toys for Tots. For the NCJW, in the past decade Fenster Brown has served on the board, co-chaired Trivia Night, chaired the publicity effort for the Back-toSchool! Store, co-chaired the national convention in St. Louis and served on the nominating committee. She has served on the YPD board. For J Associates, she has co-chaired the annual luncheon and co-chaired publicity for Dancing in the Loop. She has served on Temple Israel’s board and also co-chaired the prayer book fund. Fenster Brown emphasized that a group effort is required to help nonprofit organizations. “I’m just a little piece of it, but being part of the machine is a good feeling,” she said. “When I find out the dollar amount we’re going for, I am pumped.” When others talk about the color of the napkins needed for an event though, Fenster Brown says she just sits still. “I’m only passionate about the green – the money that will roll in.” Volunteering has always been part of her life. “My mom, Marge Fenster, volunteered at my school and our synagogue, and currently volunteers for NORC and the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center,” Fenster Brown said. “I started volunteering with the YPD when I was in my 20s. That’s when I first found out how much I liked doing good while being social.” Eleven years ago, at a happy hour for a fundraising event, Fenster Brown met the man she would marry. “How Jewish is that,” she said, laughing. Jeff Brown is a logistics systems information specialist for Boeing. “Jeff volunteers, too,” Fenster Brown said. “Talking about all this reminds me I must tell him how much I appreciate him. He literally affords me the opportunity to work three days a week and have a couple days to do volunteer work, be active at the kids’ school and do fun stuff with our boys, Davis and Leo.” As the owner of Brown Sugar Baking, Fenster Brown also makes
time to bake gluten-free treats. “It started out as a hobby, part of my quest to be the perfect wife and mother, at which I was failing miserably,” she said, laughing again. “Now people that I know buy desserts from me because there is always a gluten-free kid or guest at every event.” Abeles’ nomination letter made a final point about why so many people have come to value Fenster Brown.
“Her involvement goes way beyond her official positions within an organization,” Abeles said. “Everyone knows they can call Amy when they are in a pinch and need help. Everyone knows they can count on her.” What does this generous, out-going, good-hearted woman think of that? “Actually, I am really humbled,” Fenster Brown said, “and even feeling a little shy.”
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OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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DOROTHY MEYERSON Age: 86 Home: University City Family: Late husband Charles Meyerson; Three children and six grandchildren. Occupation: Retired teacher Fun Fact: Meyerson loves to read and has traveled extensively to Europe and Asia
BY DAVID BAUGHER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
A
s someone who taught Flynn Park Elementary School’s youngest students for nearly two decades, Dorothy Meyerson is quick with a joke about her lengthy tenure. “It took me a long time to get out of kindergarten,” she laughed. Even today at age 86, the Temple Israel congregant still hasn’t quite gotten out of school. She volunteers her time one day a week at the Miriam School and Learning Center, an institution that specializes in educating children with learning disabilities. “She is my inspiration,” said Candi Chiburis, a special educator at the school. “She’s outgoing, friendly. She’s funny and so knowledgeable. She’s been a mentor to me. She’s been like a grandma to the kids.” Meyerson helps Chiburis by assisting the children in assembling books they’ve written. Meyerson said that usually the topics include favorite pets or interesting trips the kids have taken though, sometimes, more complex topics pop up. “This year one kid wrote about the Constitution and I was just floored,” said Meyerson. “They had talked about it in class. He’s really blossomed.” That’s exactly what Meyerson loves to see and why she’s pursued the challenging field of shaping young minds ever since being hired to teach second grade for a year in the Ritenour District. Later,
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May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
the native St. Louisan would work at a Farmingdale, N.Y. school before returning to Missouri where she began volunteering at Flynn Park in the University City School District. It wasn’t long before her efforts were noticed. “One day, the principal said the kindergarten teacher was leaving,” recalled Meyerson. “Did I want the job? “That was my interview,” she chuckled. The short interview resulted in a long placement. She’d spend the next 18 years working with kindergarteners. The U. City District even named her teacher of the year in 1989-90. She’s also taught Sunday School at Temple Israel for about 20 years. However, after retirement, she still wanted to stay involved. That’s when
she began giving her time at Miriam. “She’s here today. She came even though it was storming,” said Joan Holland, Miriam’s head of school. “Her commitment to working with our kids is so sound and steady.” Holland described Meyerson as dependable, patient and knowledgeable as well as always warm to the children and staff alike. She’s also a constant presence at fundraising events. She’s even helped the school with other projects like assembling the directory. “She’s a gift to us,” said Holland. “We’re just so lucky to have somebody here who cares so much.” Chiburis concurs, noting how important she is to the students. “What an amazing woman she is and how much she gives back not just to the Miriam community but to the St. Louis
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community as a whole” said Chiburis. “She’s just a great, great lady.” But for Meyerson, being an Unsung Hero isn’t hard work at all. She enjoys her time with the kids just as she likes engaging in her other volunteer work. She gives a day each week at the Missouri History Museum, something she started doing with an exhibit on the World’s Fair. She’s also a part of the 1904 World’s Fair Society. “They needed people to guide visitors. I volunteered for that and I’ve stayed on,” she said. “Some of the exhibits at the museum are just so interesting. I love telling people about them.” She also loves the museum’s work in promoting the city’s recent 250th anniversary. “That was just fascinating,” she said. “I think it is wonderful that we have a place like that where there is the history of St. Louis because it has a lot of history in it.” Yet her main love continues to be the future rather than the past, something that only working with children allows a person to do.
Dorothy Meyerson works with student Tucker Dias at the Miriam School and Learning Center in March. Photos: Lisa Mandel
“What’s interesting is that I still see some of the kids who live in St. Louis,” she said. “It is wonderful to see what they’ve done as they’ve grown up.” She said she was stunned to hear that someone wanted to recognize her efforts with an Unsung Hero Award.
She was just doing what came naturally, helping children to secure a better tomorrow. “When [the Light] called, I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m speechless,’” she remembered. “And that doesn’t happen very often to me. I feel very honored.”`
OUR 2015 UNSUNG HEROES JOIN THOSE
RECOGNIZED AS UNSUNG HEROES IN YEARS PAST • Dr. Rebecca Aft • Jan Baron • Charles Baron • Maris Berg • Lolle Boettcher • Phyllis Cantor • Leslie Caplan • COAST (Chabad Ohr Atid Sunday Torah) • Marshall Cohen • Fran Cohen • Jack Cohen • Derek Cohn • Herb Eissman • Phillip Fox
• Sarijane M. Freiman • Margaret Gillerman • Girls of Block Yeshiva • Dan Glazier • Josh Goldman • Merle Hartstein • Zubaida Ibrahim • Fritzi Lainoff • James M. Lemen • Elsie Levy • Marion Lipsitz • Samantha Lurie • Rachel Miller • Carl Moskowitz • Dr. Harry Offenbach
• Larry Opinsky • David Oughton • Jewish Prison Outreach • Judy Pearlstone • Marilyn Ratkin • Steven Rosenblum • Rick Rovak • Ken Rubin • Nancy Schmidt • Ben Senturia • Sandy Silverstein • Pat Simons • Ahavas Chesed Society • St. Louis Food Rescue • Joy Sterneck
• Rita Swiener • Dotty Tepper • Marvin Beckerman • Toddy Goldman • Dr. Bob & Judy Hellman • Sanford (Sandy) Jaffe • Sam Klein • Kathy Lebedun • Sanford (Buddy) Lebman • Neil Marglous • Myra Rosenthal • The Crown Center’s Home Delivery Volunteers
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU’VE DONE AND ALL YOU CONTINUE TO DO OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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At the NCJW offices, Sherri Goldman is pictured in front of a quilt with photos of children helped through the Back to School! Store. Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY RICHARD JACKOWAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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herri Goldman is apprehensive. Fidgeting in her chair, she casts about for the right words. Goldman isn’t used to the spotlight. In all of her many volunteer endeavors she has only reluctantly taken the titles of leadership, but given many hundreds of hours to the work of making people’s lives better. So as she is interviewed as one of the Light’s Unsung Heroes of 2015, she predictably would prefer the spotlight to be on the work rather than on her. Her friends and colleagues have no such reservations. They know that without people like Goldman thousands of young people would have gone to school without proper supplies. Abused women would have a more difficult time putting their lives back together. And cancer patients would not have much needed support. “Sherri does not just do projects but has to do the projects, just as an artist must paint,” says Barb Goldberg, director of the Cancer Education and Information Center at Missouri Baptist 30
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
SHERRI GOLDMAN Age: 66 Home: Chesterfield Family: Married to husband Rick for 42 years. The couple has two adult sons and four grandchildren. Occupation: Major volunteer Fun fact: Goldman loves to travel with family, cook and bake. Her favorite restaurants are The Crossing in Clayton and Elaia in south St. Louis.
Medical Center. Longtime friend Susan Witte agrees. The two grew up together in Ohio and both ended up in St. Louis, where they have worked side–by-side on many volunteer projects. “Sherri sees her roles as a job. She takes it so seriously,” Witte says. “And she is so totally dependable. When Sherri says she is going to do something, she is going to do it.” Continuing the theme is Ellen Alper, executive director of National Council of Jewish Women-St. Louis Section. “She does what she says she is going to
do, and usually more, and as a volunteer that’s a wonderful thing. I never have to worry that a job won’t get done if Sherri has agreed to do it.” Finally, Goldman’s nomination for Unsung Hero comes from Marilyn Ratkin, who, as a nonprofit management consultant, knows a thing or two about the importance of volunteers. “Sherri Goldman is the consummate community volunteer. Every project/ task she undertakes is accomplished with grace, skill polish, and to perfection. And, in so doing, she gives credit to all those around her, always shying away from the spotlight,” Ratkin wrote in the nomination letter. Goldman had a personal connection that she brought into her volunteer work with cancer patients, first at the Miriam Foundation where she chaired the Cancer Service Committee and then, for the past 13 years, at Missouri Baptist, where she volunteers in the Cancer Support Center and in the Look Good, Feel Better Program. Goldman’s mother volunteered with cancer organizations before she succumbed to the disease herself. “I wanted to continue her work,”
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Goldman says. A Chesterfield resident, she has also volunteered extensively in the Parkway schools, where her sons Josh and Ben attended, and at Congregation Shaare Emeth, where she and husband, Rick, are active members. Of all of her volunteer work, she holds a special place for NCJW, where she has volunteered for 20 years. “I have love, love, loved it,” she says. “Their mission is to improve the lives of women, children and families and what could be more important? I’m more involved in community service, but I support all of the advocacy that they do.” With NCJW, Goldman has been active in the Back to School! Store, which provides back to school essentials for more than 5,000 children each year. And she is co-chair of Lydia’s House, an innovative program where Goldman helps register domestic violence survivors for all the household items they need to set up a new place to live and then purchases the items through donations. Finally, the volunteers spend a weekend morning transforming the previously undecorated apartment into a new home. “You go into this bare, not fancy apartment, and you walk out knowing you have created a home for somebody,” she says. In talking to people about Goldman one of the comments that comes up is the way she makes other volunteers feel about volunteering. If you are on a committee she is chairing, expect to be thanked and appreciated. In doing so, she makes any volunteer organization she works with that much stronger. Longtime friend Witte summed it up. “Sherri is so good about showing appreciation to people. She is the one who will always write thank-yous. Not everyone does that, but sets a very great example,” she says. Goldman has advice for anyone looking to volunteer but not sure where to begin. “Step your toe in and give it a try. If it’s the wrong project you’re not committed for life,” Goldman says. “But I guarantee, no matter how much you give will get more out of it than you will give. I know I have.”
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Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY DAVID BAUGHER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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ayne Kaufman may be receiving the Unsung Hero Award but it’s really his late brother Ralph in whose memory much of his work is being done. “His passion was helping people in general, mainly a lot of children’s charities,” said Kaufman of his sibling, who served in the Air Force. “I took on that role after he passed to raise money to help veterans, their families and children’s charities. Last year, we actually formed our own 501c3 (tax-exempt nonprofit) called the Kaufman Fund.” The Kaufman Fund is new but a golf tournament in honor of Ralph Kaufman has been going on since 1990 with the goal of helping returning veterans gain access to a wide variety of services, including housing, employment or psychological help for post-traumatic stress disorder. The organization even works to lend a hand with home repairs for those who have served and bolsters 32
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
WAYNE KAUFMAN Age: 66 Home: Creve Coeur Family: Married to Gloria Kaufman; Two children and four grandchildren. Occupation: Semi-retired from the home improvement industry Fun Fact: Kaufman loves the sport of golf
scholarship funds for their children. From assisting vets who want to visit the Washington D.C. Memorial Wall to giving holiday parties at the Missouri Veterans Home, the group opens many possibilities for the people who have defended our freedoms. “We’re involved in over 20 different veteran organizations here in Missouri,” Kaufman said. “We raise the money and decide what organizations we want to contribute to and how much we can give them. In the last 20-some years, we’ve probably raised well over a million dollars and have given it all away.”
A Vietnam veteran himself, Wayne Kaufman, who will turn 67 in June, served with distinction in the U.S. Army earning the Bronze Star and Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster. Fellow veteran Dr. Jerry Becker can easily sum up the importance of what Kaufman does. “May God bless his work,” he said. Becker said that all too often veterans end up forgotten by a nation that made them many promises. Those are the kinds of promises men like Kaufman want to deliver on. “He’s very good at giving, servicing, helping out and going the extra mile with veterans and their families,” said Becker. “He does a lot of it largely on his own. He has been a lightning rod of hope and vision for a lot of veterans.” Given Kaufman’s history, he sees the cause of vets as a passion though it isn’t the only effort in which he’s been involved. He’s also been part of the board of Rebuilding Together St. Louis for nearly two decades. “It is a really great organization,” he said. “One day a year, we fix up homes
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in the St. Louis area for people who are either low-income, elderly or disabled. We do that for free.” He’s also been involved as a board member of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, Old Newsboys, 1904 Charitable Foundation Veterans Affairs and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of St. Louis. He has chaired Vet Net and been president of the Rotary Club of Ferguson. His career has been equally impressive, earning him the presidency of the St. Louis Remodeling Association and a board membership at the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. “The reason I thought it was so important for him to be considered for this recognition is that he is so low-key about what he does,” said Cary Mogerman, a local attorney who nominated Kaufman for the unsung honor. “You never hear about it.” Mogerman said he was surprised to learn the extent of Kaufman’s giving. “I had no idea how many people were involved, how much work they do every year and how much they’d given away in the last 15 or 20 years,” he said. “When I learned about the level of effort and the level of help they provided under his leadership, I really felt that that’s the kind of work that many more of us should try to aspire to do.” He said Kaufman emanates warmth and friendliness and had a strong commitment to assisting others. “He has a very deep level of curiosity and interest in the community around him,” said Mogerman. “A lot of us live in a community and partake in parts of it but he is a guy who is just very energetic and active in the community in which he lives. It makes him an exemplar of the kind of person we should all try to be.” Kaufman said while honored to be receiving an Unsung Hero award, it isn’t why he does what he does. “I don’t really feel like I’m a hero,” he laughs. “It’s nice but that’s not what it’s all about. That’s not what I’m looking for.” What he’s looking for is clear enough. “I just like helping people,” he said. “It’s real simple.”
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Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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or Mark Rodgers, it’s all about water. He canoes, he kayaks, he fishes and his career goal is to become a marine biologist. Now Mark is being honored as an Unsung Hero because he has spent time – a lot of time – in a local pool, helping a 12-year-old boy with autism learn to swim. For over three years, Mark has volunteered as one of 17 ‘swim buddies’ with Super Swimmers Academy, working primarily with Matthew Henke. “Mark has taught swim skills to Matthew that I, as a seasoned swim instructor, wasn’t able to teach,” Sarah Jane Marx wrote in her nomination letter. Marx founded the program 35 years ago. The volunteer work is just one part of Mark’s life. He is finishing his junior year at high school, he plays football and he teaches kids to play tennis. Mark also participates in the Cultural Leadership program, a yearlong program that teaches Jewish and African-American teens to be leaders 34
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
MARK RODGERS Age: 17 Home: Clayton Family: Son of Janet and Lee Rodgers Occupation: Student at John Burroughs School Fun Fact: Sarah Jane Marx taught Mark to swim as a youngster
“who will fight for social justice, inclusion and an end to discrimination.” Still, Marx said, “Mark always finds time to be with Matthew for his weekly swim lesson.” Why? “It’s really rewarding and also challenging,” Mark said. “I’ve been with Matthew for so long, watching him grow, seeing him change. It’s really nice to still be there with him.” Mark first volunteered with Super Swimmers Academy for his bar mitzvah project. Helen, one of his older sisters, previously had volunteered for the program. Mark has another older sister,
Hannah, and the family belongs to Central Reform Congregation. From the beginning, Mark was especially good with kids. “I noticed early on Mark’s excellent interpersonal skills, including his ability to connect with and establish a positive rapport with children who have a variety of special needs,” Marx said. About half the students in the program are special-needs kids, she said, and some 300 have learned to swim there. Marx also praised Mark’s “intuitive sense,” his caring attitude and his maturity. Though Mark has helped a number of students learn to swim, he said he definitely has bonded with Matthew. “Trying to understand how to communicate with him both verbally and with body language, I’ve tried to learn how to make him feel like he is OK,” Mark said. “I’ve helped get Matthew get comfortable in the water.” Originally, Matthew balked. “He had a big aversion to putting his head under water. He would always swim on his back, with his head out. It was a big challenge,” Mark said. “Now Matthew swims underwater, and even
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Mark Rodgers volunteers as a swim buddy at Super Swimmers Academy. Photo: Lisa Mandel
goes to the bottom of the pool.” Mark credits his age with some of his success teaching Matthew to swim. “I think he feels he has more in common with a younger person. Also, I’ve spent time getting to know his personality, learning how he wanted me to act,” Mark said. “He’s a great kid.” Kathy and Paul Henke, Matthew’s parents, say the same thing about Mark. “Mark truly is a light in Matthew’s life, and we are grateful and feel most fortunate for his path to have crossed ours in this journey called life,” said Kathy Henke. Over the years, Mark’s and Matthew’s parents have become friends. One year, Mark gave Matthew a picture of the two of them together at the pool. “According to Matthew’s mother, Matthew says ‘goodnight’ to Mark in the picture before going to bed,” Marx reported. Mark said he knows about that, and he laughed softly, clearly proud. Developing friendships with others, especially those with special needs, is a real talent that takes work, Marx noted. “This has been a very concrete way for Mark to do tikkun olam. In addition, teaching your child to swim is also a commandment in the Torah,” Marx said, “so Mark has performed several mitzvahs at the same time.” One of Mark’s biggest concerns right now is what will happen when he
leaves for college. On those rare occasions when Mark was not at Matthew’s weekly swim lesson the past few years, Matthew would not get in the pool. “I remember when I first started, it was hard to get Matthew in the pool because he was really connected to his
previous helper. Being there for him has become an important part of my life, and before I leave for college, we’ll have to make sure there will be a smooth transition to a new helper,” Mark said. “We will have to make sure Matthew is comfortable and OK.”
“Your Place to Celebrate” The Lodge Des Peres 1050 Des Peres Rd. (314) 835-6150 desperesmo.org Located at I-270 and Manchester Rd. OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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Photo: Lisa Mandel
BY DAVID BAUGHER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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or Unsung Hero Tali Stadler, it wasn’t difficult to become a part of Jewish St. Louis. “I was always somebody who was very involved so it was easy for me,” said Stadler. “It was very natural.” It’s also been very rewarding – both for her and the St. Louis community. Today, Stadler is probably best known for her efforts in heading the annual Israeli Memorial Day observance, Yom HaZikaron. “That’s my baby,” she said proudly. As a native of Rehovot, Israel, and three-year veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, it is something she takes very seriously. While Memorial Day in the United States often seems dominated more by barbecues, mattress sales and the opening of pools, the Israeli version of the holiday is quite 36
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
TALI STADLER Age: 53 Home: Creve Coeur Family: Husband: Giora; Children: Roni, Ben and Gil Occupation: Real estate agent Fun Fact: Tali was once a research associate at Washington University Medical School
different. Sirens blow across the small nation and citizens stand at attention, even pulling over to get out of their cars on major roads. “Doesn’t matter where they are. If they are in a street side café or the middle of the highway,” said the 53-year-old. “They have ceremonies in every town in Israel. They have it everywhere.” That’s followed by the marking of
Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. “They do it like that so that we will know when we celebrate the day after, that the country wasn’t given to us on a silver platter,” she said. Bringing a taste of those observances to St. Louis is a big part of how Stadler contributes to the community. As director of the local Yom HaZikaron, she is in charge of the somber event, which features poems, songs and readings in both English and Hebrew and usually attracts around 400. Sigalit Vardi, who says that Stadler has become her best friend in the decade-and-a-half since Vardi moved here, notes that the event is a moving one. “It takes a lot of her time and energy and it is a very nice memorial, very respectful and she is deeply dedicated to it,” Vardi said. But Stadler does far more than just
The Jewish Light recognizes the following for their generous support of our Unsung Heroes event:
Enterprise Holdings Foundation BookSource The following organizations and individuals would also like to offer warm congratulations to the 2015 Unsung Heroes. Arch Grants Richard & Jan Baron Eric & Elaine Bly Brown Smith Wallace, LLC Michael S. Cohen Ed & Marla Cohen Congregation Temple Israel Kay Drey Suzy Elkins Rabbis Amy Feder & Michael Alper Marge Fenster Gateway to Hope Jackqueline Gerson Harriet & Larry Glazer Kim & Steve Goldenberg Harvey & Terry Hieken Holocaust Museum & Learning Center Holt Electrical Supplies The J Jewish Federation of St. Louis Jewish Light Publisher’s Society Raizell Kalishman Carol Kaufman Wayne & Gloria Kaufman
The Kaufman Fund Karyn & David Klein Myron Klevens Linda & Jerry Kraus Neil & Pam Lazaroff The Magic House Sue Matlof Miriam School NARI National Council of Jewish Women New Mt. Sinai Cemetery Arthur Noss Brenda Pereles Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose Judi & Ken Rotskoff Pam & Ron Rubin Stephanie & Larry Samuels Lloyd W. Schnieders Sheri Sherman St. Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer Harvey Wallace & Madeline Elkins John & Jane Roodman Weiss Wyman Zerman Mogerman, LLC
Your works within the community are GREATLY appreciated! Tributes received after this magazine’s deadline will be Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light recognized in the event program and the JewishOY!Light.
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that. In some ways, she is Israel’s unofficial ambassador to St. Louis. She participates in planning for Yom Ha’atzmaut and the Jewish Film Festival each year as well, the latter being a natural outgrowth of her love for both Israel and movies. “Anything that has to do with Israel interests me,” she said. That interest also includes helping individuals who relocate from that nation. “Anyone who comes new to this community, she is the one to welcome them,” said Galia Movitz, a fellow native of Israel who now resides in St. Louis. “Her home is always open to anyone. When new members come into our community, she is there to accommodate them, help them find housing. She is beyond belief.” It was more than 20 years ago when Stadler herself was the new arrival, coming here with her husband due to his work at Amdocs, a global telecommunications company. “In beginning to meet people from the community, we started getting involved in all these committees because we had a lot to offer since we had that connection to Israel,” Stadler said. Now, she helps others to get acclimated to the area, offering advice and a friendly ear to those who come to town. “I have so many people who call me even from Israel to ask me about St. Louis,” she said.
Tali Stadler and Bruce Michelson participate in the 2012 Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) ceremony at the Jewish Community Center. File photo: Andrew Kerman
Not only that, Stadler has created a piece of her old home in her new one. She was instrumental in the formation of the Israeli House in St. Louis, a point of contact for those who have come from the Jewish State. It is based off an idea by a former First Lady of Israel Ofira Navon, who hoped to see such facilities established in cities worldwide. “She thought this was something important for Israelis – to have a place they could go home when they are away from home,” said Stadler. Now housed at Congregation B’nai Amoona, the Israeli House was originally established at Temple Israel where it began a mini-Israeli film festival that is still hosted there. It is just one of the ways that Stadler has helped
transport a bit of the Mideast to the Midwest. “She is enthused, caring and puts unlimited hours in bringing the culture of Israel into our community,” said Movitz. “She is always there when asked.” Vardi agrees noting that Stadler’s dedication is just a part of who she is. “She’s a very friendly person with a very warm personality,” said Vardi. “She loves and accepts everyone as they are.” She added that her friend is deeply deserving of the Unsung Hero honor. “She is just a wonderful human being with a very optimistic outlook on life,” Vardi said. “She deserves to be recognized for what she is doing.”
The Staff and Volunteers of the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, in Memory of Gloria M. Goldstein extend our most heartfelt congratulations to all of our 2015 Unsung Heroes. Helping to better our community with unprecedented and prestige selflessness. 38
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
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THE VOLUNTEERS OF THE HARVEY KORNBLUM JEWISH FOOD PANTRY BY PATRICIA CORRIGAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
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ungry to help heal the world, 190 volunteers welcome clients, take deliveries and sort, package and stock groceries at the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry Monday through Friday so that individuals and families going through hard times have food for their tables. “The volunteers, men and women from all backgrounds, are totally dedicated to this organization. They work really hard to take care of the clients,” said Lenny Baer, who nominated the volunteers for recognition as Unsung Heroes. This was an inside job — Baer is one of those volunteers. Baer has volunteered at HKJFP for six years. “I’ve worked in the office, helped people coming in for the first 40
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
time, worked in the kitchen and helped as a shopper. You could say I’ve done everything but the outside windows,” Baer said, laughing. “We volunteers put in long days, serve a lot of people, and everyone who comes in is treated equally,” said Baer, a retired business owner who lives in O’Fallon, Mo. “I like that, and that’s why I nominated us.” Working in three- and four-hour shifts, between 20 and 25 volunteers are on duty at the food pantry each day, helping an average of 8,000 people each month and providing almost 18,000 hours of service annually. School groups, groups doing a mitzvah project and groups from sheltered workshops also help from time to time. Judy Berkowitz, food pantry director, said, “Simply put, we could not do what we do without the volunteers.” Marcia Mermelstein, coordinator at
the HKJFP, agrees. “The volunteers — most of them retirees — are lifting, hauling, walking and schlepping nonstop, doing work that they would not be doing at any other place in their lives, and yet they have such commitment, such passion for the work,” she said. “The volunteers give and give and give – their time, but also everything from sturdy shopping bags to scarves they have knitted for clients,” Mermelstein continued. “They truly are the most remarkable group of people I’ve ever worked with, and the warmest, funniest, kindest and most giving people that I have ever known.” The Light talked to some of the volunteers to learn what they give — and what they get — from their work at the food pantry. Carol Mitchell recently provided a cake to a client. “I was helping a woman make her next appointment
when she mentioned that the date would be her 25th wedding anniversary. She told me she had had no idea this would be the circumstances in the couple’s married life,” Mitchell said. “I went to the kitchen and arranged for her to get a cake so she would have something nice for their anniversary.” Mitchell, who lives in Chesterfield, has worked at the HKJFP for a year and a half. She said she had never had the opportunity to volunteer during the 30 years she worked for a computer distributor, and she signed up shortly after retiring. “I like talking to people, and I think this is important work,” Mitchell said. “I have been lucky all my life, and when I see so many people that need help getting food – well, I feel really lucky to be able to help. And how nice that now we volunteers are being appreciated.” The thought of a child going to sleep hungry has always troubled Dr. Mark Pultman, 70, a retired dentist. Five years ago, he started working at the food pantry. “I felt if I could do something to contribute to lessening hunger in this area, that would be a sig-
Volunteer tasks at the Jewish Food Pantry include: • Unloading deliveries • Stacking food in the warehouse or cooler • Checking expiration dates on canned food • Cleaning up fresh produce • Discarding over-ripe produce • Filling pantry shelves • Filing and making phone calls • Greeting and registering all clients • Assisting shoppers • Making future appointments with clients • Packing bags or boxes for delivery • Breaking down boxes • Cleaning food bins and carts
More information on volunteering: Visit http://bit.ly/HKJFP-Volunteer or call 314-993-1000 and ask for the volunteer coordinator.
nificant contribution,” he said. Pultman helps clients shop for groceries, pointing out what is available. Asked about any particularly touching moments, Pultman was ready. “When a client needs a can opener because they are living in their car, or
a client tells you they are going to eat in the parking lot because they are so hungry, or when a client tells you they don’t want anything that needs refrigeration because they are living in a motel room, it brings the reality of what some families are going through,” he said. “This past winter, a gentleman asked if we had any blankets because he was living in his car and was cold,” Pultman continued. “One of the young staff members took off his jacket and handed it to the man. A real mensch, huh?” Five years ago, Cheryl Stein chose to start volunteering at the HKJFP because she wanted to work within the Jewish community. “It has been really rewarding, and it makes me feel good that we have an agency that helps people,” said Stein, 59, a retired teacher from Creve Coeur. Stein registers clients, and she knows her work makes a difference. “One day I was out, in a store, when a woman came up to me and said she knew me,” Stein said. “I couldn’t place her, and then she said, ‘You are that nice person who helped me at the food LEFT: Nancy Winograd (left) and Helen Flegel volunteer at the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry in April OPPOSITE PAGE: A group of Jewish Food Pantry volunteers stands for a portrait before starting their Tuesday morning shift. Photos: Lisa Mandel
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A short history of the Jewish Food Pantry
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Sandi Dorrin (above) and Jean Srenco (below) volunteer at the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry in April. Photos: Lisa Mandel
pantry.’ And then she hugged me.” Dr. Gary Ratkin, a hematologist who retired from Missouri Baptist Medical Center, is one of several retired doctors who work as sorters in the warehouse. “It is such a wonderful experience,” he said. “We have volunteers and staff from all walks of life with all levels of education, and we all work hard and enjoy each other’s company.” Ratkin has worked at the HKJFP for about three years. He is 72 and lives in Creve Coeur. Once a week, Bill Levinson volunteers with his daughter, Judy Duneman. In 2005, after his wife, Ellen, died, Levinson returned to his native St. Louis from southern California, where he had worked as a camera accessory importer and distributor. He lives in Chesterfield. “I wanted to do something constructive, give back, do something I knew my wife would appreciate,” Levinson said. “You get a certain amount of gratification from helping take care of people.” Levinson, who is 88, said he may “have the honor of being the oldest volunteer” at the pantry. “I try to do whatever they need done.” Duneman, 63, said she started volunteering at the food pantry because it was a great opportunity to spend time with her dad. A former employee of American Airlines, she has volun42
May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
teered for about four years. Duneman lives in Creve Coeur. “I grew up in a charitable environment,” Duneman said. “My mom was a volunteer, even when she was working, and my grandma and her sisters volunteered too, with Hadassah, the League of Women Voters, the University City Day Care. Grandma always told me that if all you have is a quarter, give 10 cents.” Asked about being honored as Unsung Heroes, Duneman said,” It’s nice, but we all enjoy what we’re doing. None of us is doing this for a thank you.”
hen the Jewish Food Pantry opened in 1991, it was coordinated by one part-time staff member and served 40 families. Today, 11 paid staff members and 190 volunteers work at the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, which is open five days a week. Last year, the pantry served more than 36,000 people of all faiths and backgrounds. A local food pantry was Lou Albert’s idea, according to Judy Berkowitz, the director at the HKJFP. Albert, executive director of Jewish Family & Children’s Service then and now, recognized the need for such a service, particularly for low-income families who kept kosher, and he knew that a JF&CS agency in Toledo had successfully started a food pantry. Albert applied for and was awarded a Jewish Federation Planning Grant. In 2003, Harvey Kornblum made a generous donation that enabled the hiring of additional staff to address the ever-increasing need, and the food pantry, then situated in the basement of the JF&CS’ Allan R. Hoffman Building at 10950 Schuetz Road, was renamed in his
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honor. In 2012, a donation from Max and Drew Erlich allowed the HKJFP to move into a much larger facility at the Erlich Center Building at 10601 Baur Boulevard. The 24,000-square-foot location, which opened in November 2012, is six or seven times larger than the previous space. “It is a beautiful, welcoming facility,” said Berkowitz. Two food banks, Operation Food Search and the St. Louis Area Food Bank, serve the HKJFP. “We also have connections with grocery stores and commercial donors on Produce Row,” Berkowitz said. In addition to providing food and personal items to clients who come to the food pantry from all over St. Louis County, the HKJFP also delivers boxes or bags of food to clients at senior housing centers and makes some home deliveries as well. Donations of pet food from local businesses helps clients feed their pets. Funding to support the HKJFP comes from private foundations, a small federal grant and individual
Congratulations to Harvey Wallace
The Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry’s Max and Drew Erlich Center on Baur Boulevard.
donations, Berkowitz said. Community members also support the pantry through purchasing table centerpieces and bimah baskets, which are created by some of the food pantry volunteers. Today, all the volunteers at the HKJFP are being honored as Unsung Heroes. Berkowitz recalled a rewarding moment that took place recently at the
food pantry. “Lou Albert was giving a tour when a woman in the reception area approached him. She told him the food pantry had made a difference in her life, helped her when she needed help the most,” Berkowitz said. “She asked to become a volunteer.” — Patricia Corrigan
1947-2015 • 5708-5775
Congratulates all of our
Unsung Heroes! 2015 Unsung Hero Thank you for your commitment to the St. Louis Jewish community!
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WEDDING
continued from page 13 do we want?” Regardless, their imaginations collectively soared. Seale, a life-long seamstress and crafter, remembered she and a friend had stashed away some lush fabrics. For Ault, she transformed fleur-de-lis material into a onepiece garment, trimmed with a fox pelt and based on an 11th-century Scottish design. For herself, she sewed a 17th-century Italian sky-blue satin chemise topped by an off-white brocade outer dress. The latter, she handtrimmed with pearls. Despite her need for extra sleep and difficulty standing for long periods, Seale continues to label her fibromyalgia “a blessing.” It’s an opportunity, the grandmother says, to sit and study, and sit and sew. During one book perusal, she chanced upon a quilt with a tumbling block pattern. From this image, she envisioned a chuppah of quilted Stars
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May 2015 OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
of David, their white hexagon centers surrounded by smaller blue triangles. On the couple’s wedding invitations, Seale and Ault asked guests if they’d like to embroider, paint or otherwise decorate part of a Jewish star, destined for their chuppah. From a painting of Ault’s first wife,
HOME
continued from page 8 meringue and bachata (from the Dominican Republic). As the years went on and Thomas began talking more seriously about moving to St. Louis, it was self-assured Hipshman – divorced for some time from his American wife and a father – who was floored. Her response: “San Diego is a really nice place to be in January.” And thus was born their schedule of visiting each other monthly, usually in their respective cities. A general contractor, Hipshman, 76, put Thomas’ condo switches on dimmers. He tinkers and builds. He puts things together. Thomas, 69, and a member of the first wave of Baby Boomers — born from 1946 to 1964 — grew up knowing what it meant to spread her wings, but
her mother sent a photo transfer, now near the quilt’s center. Seale’s father contributed copies of the nine-century-old Bayeux tapestries, depicting events leadings up to the Norman conquest of England. Still other invitees sent prayers, which Cohen and also a computer program helped translate
also to return home, for as many years as necessary, when others needed her. Now, four photos in her condo capture her and Hipshman dancing – bodies elegantly and sensually wrapped, limbs in sync. Gathered in a single frame, the photos show Thomas with long blonde hair, as she used to wear it. In St. Louis, as part of her easy-care lifestyle, she gets her hair cut short by students at a nearby salon/school. She’s stopped dyeing her hair, letting the silver and gray show through. Nonetheless, as part of what she considers the best of both worlds, she and Hipshman continue to dance as if — some have said — they were intended to spend life in each other’s arms, every time they’re together. Neither one, at this stage, is interested in marriage. In their respective cities, they have their friends, pursuits and living quarters. “I couldn’t be happier,” Thomas says.
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into Hebrew. Although Seale continues to sit and embellish, sit and stitch and quilt the various sections, she made sure the chuppah cover was complete enough, pre-wedding, to be safety-pinned, design side up, to a four-pole canopy. Even though no women rabbis were formally ordained until the 20th century, Rosenberg’s anachronistic presence was a must for Seale and Ault. The rabbi’s research indicated that today’s Jewish wedding ceremony “really is what it’s been. It hasn’t changed a lot.” Before the newlyweds were introduced as Lord Wayne of the Heights and Lady Laurali of Bowden, as they’re known in the SCA, several men turned the canopy on one side, making its colorful chuppah top visible to guests. With Yiddish and Hebrew songs, entertainers Leslie Caplan and Andrew Bollinger serenaded. As a gift from Seale to her husband, guest Hanne Abendschein composed and
LEFT AND OPPOSITE PAGE: Wedding guests were asked to contribute personalized messages for the bride and groom, and they included an embroidered Tower of David. Photos: Kristi Foster
sang “The Ballad of Wayne.” The Bella Noche ensemble performed Baroque music, a tradition at Renaissance fairs. Because Seale preferred a necklace to a ring, Ault presented her with a Star of David on a long chain. As a remembrance of “the blessing that Cheryl was to both of us,” Seale says, the necklace came from Ault’s first wife’s family. As for the chuppah top, which Seale intends to fully hand-quilt, its ultimate resting place is still being decided. In a book, Seale recently saw a picture of a
centuries-old, probably Polish synagogue. “That’s really cool,” Ault says. “I think I could build one.” On the 18 acres he bought some years ago in Warrenton, Missouri, and uses as a Middle Ages re-enactment site, he and friends have already erected a minicastle, another building, main gate and turrets. “I can envision a synagogue there,” Ault says, “though probably not for a few years.” And no doubt with their Star of David chuppah top as a wall hanging.
Congratulations to Wayne Kaufman
2015 Unsung Hero The Executive Board of The Kaufman Fund thanks you for your continued dedication and hard work.
Gateway to Hope congratulates Community Volunteer and 2015 Unsung Hero, Debbie Caplin
Congratulations Harvey Wallace
and all the 2015 Unsung Heroes!
www.TheKaufmanFund.org
The Magic House is grateful for your dedication to the St. Louis Community! OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
May 2015
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Senior Living Your Way Senior living is what you make of it, so make it the best it can be! At The Gatesworth, the opportunities for leading a fulfilling life are as interesting and unique as the Residents themselves. Our Residents find a variety of choices such as fitness classes, lectures, book clubs and outings to support their physical, mental and educational well-being. Call (314) 993-0111 today to see how The Gatesworth can customize a lifestyle to fit you. The Gatesworth is committed to equal housing opportunity and does not discriminate in housing and services because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin. OY! Magazine - St. Louis Jewish Light
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