Three Askonim to be Honored at Upcoming Agudath Israel Dinner

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weinreb-yatiThree outstanding askonim – and one outstanding effort – will be receiving major awards at the 88th Annual Dinner of Agudath Israel of America, scheduled to take place at the New York Hilton on Sunday evening, May 9, 2010, it was announced at the Agudah’s national headquarters this week.

Jacob (Yaty) Weinreb will receive The Rabbi Moshe Sherer Memorial Award for lifelong devotion to Klal Yisroel; Rabbi Chaim Aaron Weinberg will be presented with the Hagaon Rav Aharon Kotler Memorial Award for distinguished service to Torah; and Eric Stern, Esq., will receive the Moreinu Yaakov Rosenheim Memorial Award for distinguished service to Agudath Israel. The Reb Elimelech Tress Memorial Award for the preservation of the legacy of the She’aris Hapleitah will be presented to “Project Witness,” an organization under the leadership of Mrs. Ruth Lichtenstein dedicated to Holocaust education and awareness.

Reb Yaty Weinreb, one of the pillars of the Orthodox community on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is an active member of Agudath Israel of America’s board of trustees. He also sits on the boards of numerous other mosdos, including Bayit Lapleitot, an orphanage in Israel; Refuah V’Yeshua Hospital in Ashdod; Slobodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak; Chochmas Shlomo and Shiras Devorah, a prestigious Talmud Torah and girls’ school, respectively, in Yerushalayim; the Novominsker Yeshiva; and Mikvah USA. Mr. Weinreb maintains a deep involvement in the Boyaner Mosdos, as well, and enjoys a very close personal relationship with the Admor mi’Boyan. His selection as the Rabbi Moshe Sherer Memorial awardee reflects the longstanding friendship between the late Agudath Israel leader and the Weinreb mishpocha.

Rabbi Chaim Aaron Weinberg has served as menahel of Yeshivat Ateret Torah since its inception in 1980 and has been instrumental, together with the school’s Rosh HaYeshiva, Rabbi Yosef Harari-Raful, in making the institution a bastion of Torah in the Brooklyn Sephardic community. The honoree is also a longtime member of the Vaad Hachinuch of Talmud Torah Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz, was one of the founders of Ichud Mosdos Hachinuch of Brooklyn and has for the last twenty years served as the menahel ruchni at Camp Rayim in the Catskill Mountains. He is an active member as well of the Telshe Alumni Association and is a popular speaker who has inspired many thousands of Jews from all walks of life.

Mr. Eric Stern, an employment law attorney at Sack & Sack, has become part of Agudath Israel’s “go-to team” for defending the rights of Jewish employees to observe their religious practices on the job. Mr. Stern has also provided legal guidance and advice to many yeshivos and mosdos, including Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah. Most recently, he became a board member of the newly formed Agudath Israel Legal Services Network. Mr. Stern also serves on the Board of Directors of Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island, in Woodmere.

Project Witness, a non-profit Holocaust resource center directed by the renowned publisher and historian Mrs. Ruth Lichtenstein, makes available to students, researchers and the public a wealth of serious and thought-provoking educational material about Churban Europa – most notably, the highly acclaimed textbook Witness to History, which has earned acclaim from Gedolei Yisroel, mechanchim and historians. The Project’s activities – which also include teacher training and community programming -aim to help ensure that the millions of Jews who perished during that Jewish national catastrophe will never be forgotten; to provide an accurate record of pre-war Jewish life in Europe and the rebuilding of the Torah community in America; to transmit and keep alive the many wartime stories of Kiddush Hashem; and to inspire commitment to Torah and mitzvos as a way of honoring the victims and perpetuating their legacy.

“Our major honorees this year,” says Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel’s executive vice president, “are a very special group – extremely diverse in their respective contributions to Klal Yisroel, yet united by their tireless devotion to it. They bring honor to all of us – and it is most appropriate that we give honor to them, at the same time that we provide support for the activities of Agudath Israel.”
Those activities, explains the organization’s executive director, Rabbi Labish Becker, range “from advocating on behalf of yeshivos and yeshiva families to fighting for religious freedom in the workplace to continuing efforts on behalf of unemployed baalei parnassa and Jews in all kinds of need to standing up for kvod Shomayim wherever and whenever it comes under attack.”

But, Rabbi Zwiebel adds, “there are other important reasons to participate in the Agudah dinner, not the least of which is to give the dozens of government officials in attendance a first-hand look at the vast numbers of people who share our goals and values.

“To elected officials, numbers do count-and exposing them to the ko’ach ho’rabim of our community often results in tangible benefits to the mosdos haTorah whose interests we advocate.”
It was also announced at Agudah headquarters this week that a special video in tribute to the late and beloved Agudath Israel askan Reb Chaskel Besser will be presented at the upcoming dinner.

The dinner will be chaired by well-known askan Howard Tzvi Friedman, a former chairman of AIPAC and one of the leading members of the Baltimore Jewish community.

{Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}


5 COMMENTS

  1. Kol hakavod. Finally. Honoring normaleh mentchen. These are people we can be proud of! I like this change.

  2. I AM SHOCKED TO SEE THE PRESIDENT OF AIPAC AS A DINNER CHAIRMAN . AIPAC CAUSES MUCH ANTI SEMITISM WORLD WIDE! AS A TORAH BASED INSTITUTION THEY SHOULD KEEP UNDER THE RADAR …

  3. I was in camp rayim with Rabbi Chaim Aron Wienberg him for years. he has such an ability to dicipline. but yet those close to him know he has such a heart og gold and cares for everyone like his own. he would do anything to help someone who needs help.

    we must show him the true kovod he deserves.

    and im not a sefardi….

  4. Thrilled that Ruth Lichtenstein is being honored this year – Her contributions to all of Klal Yisrael (and I mean from every single hat type and lifestyle! There is not ONE jew left out…)are too numerous to mention, but all who know her well know that she is an overflowing wellspring of intelligence, responsibility, ambition, and the most caring and giving soul! This honor is well deserved and being applauded worldwide!

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