Moving and shaking

Temple Beth Am congregants Louis and Judith Miller have bequeathed $1 million to the Schechter Institutes’ TALI Education Fund in Israel. 

The Jerusalem-based Schechter Institutes provide pluralistic Jewish education to individuals young and old, Israeli and otherwise. The donation is the latest by the Millers. According to a press release, “Their generosity has helped to provide the engine for growth of the TALI School Network, which has more than doubled in size from 20,000 pupils in 2003 to 45,000 pupils in 2013.” The couple has previously provided an endowment to American Jewish University’s Introduction to Judaism program.

Louis Miller serves as a member of the board of trustees at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, a graduate school. 

Ameinu (Our People) honored Raphael J. Sonenshein with the Tzedek Award on Jan. 22. The award calls attention to those who have contributed significantly to the community and pursued social justice in the United States and Israel.

Sonenshein is executive director at the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. He is also a columnist for the Journal. 

An organization with progressive Jewish values, Ameinu runs campaigns, projects and events supporting social and economic justice in Israel and North America. Established in 2004, Ameinu describes itself as North America’s “leading grass-roots progressive Zionist organization.”

The ceremony, which was part of the decade-old group’s gala dinner, was held at Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel on Wilshire Boulevard.

“Pressman’s Got Talent,” a Jan. 25 gala dinner for Pressman Academy of Temple Beth Am, a Conservative Jewish day school, honored Beth Am supporters Wanda and Avi Peretz and Marshall Temkin. 

They are “dedicated lay leaders who have not stopped supporting our school in everything that they do,” Pressman day school administrator Deborah Kollin told the Journal.

Temkin and the Peretzes received the Etz Chaim Award. 

From left: Rabbi Joel Rembaum and honoree Marshall Temkin. Photo by Lee Salem

The evening also honored Pressman faculty members Bella Kapp, Rachel Klein and Noa Schechter. Kapp, a general studies teacher in the elementary school; Klein, head teacher in the early childhood center; and Schechter, a Hebrew specialist in the Hebrew school, received the Teacher Recognition Award. 

Mallory Lee, Pamela Levine and Yana Temkin served as event chairs.

Moving and Shaking acknowledges accomplishments by members of the local Jewish community, including people who start new jobs, leave jobs, win awards and more, as well as local events that featured leaders from the Jewish and Israeli communities. Got a tip? E-mail it to ryant@jewishjournal.com.