JEF’s Annual Event celebrates honorees
By GARY MICHAEL SMITH
The Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana (JEF) honored several exceptional members of the New Orleans Jewish community for their philanthropy and professional service at its Annual Event on Sunday, April 17 at noon at the Westin Canal Place in downtown New Orleans.
Federation president Dr. Edward Soll presents the Tzedakah Award to Betty Meyers. (Photo by Gary Michael Smith)
JEF executive director Sandy Levy presented the Young Family Award for Professional Excellence to James Spiro. This award is given for demonstrating extraordinary concern for the needs of the New Orleans Jewish community through wise counsel.
As a fully licensed investment professional for over 30 years, Spiro is a managing director with Morgan Stanley. He has also served as a member of the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana’s Board of Directors since 2010, and currently serves as vice chair of JEF’s Investment Committee.
On accepting the award, Spiro reminisced: “When I was asked to join JEF I said sure, and it has turned out to be a wonderful experience, seeing people I’ve known and meeting new people I should have known. And when coming to events such as this, I’m reminded that the food is quite good.
“When I was a kid growing up, my dad was a family physician so was in and out, and we didn’t always eat together. But we always made the effort to have breakfast as a family. My mother loved smoked salmon, and so when it was $2.99 to $4.99 a pound, we had it with coffee and scrambled eggs. When it was $10.99 a pound, we just had scrambled eggs.”
Edward Soll, the president of Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans presented the Tzedakah Award to Betty Meyers, which is given for unselfish, meaningful service to the community, especially to and through JEF.
Meyers’ involvement with the New Orleans Jewish community began when she joined the Lemann-Stern Young Leadership Program. She and her family have had a long association with charitable and philanthropic work in the State of Israel. She annually sponsors the former Betty and Phillip Meyers Leadership Development Alumni Event program, which is now known as the Katz-Phillips Leadership Development Program.
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present. And a present is a gift, so let’s be grateful and use it wisely.” Meyers offered in accepting her award. She ended with a final wish: “May all your pains be champagne.”
Wendy Goldberg accepts her Helen A. Mervis Jewish Professional Award. (Photo by Gary Michael Smith)
The Helen A. Mervis Jewish Community Professional Award was presented to Wendy Goldberg, associate director of the New Orleans Jewish Community Center, by Andi Lestelle, a former recipeint of the Young Family Award for Professional Excellence.
Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Goldberg came to New Orleans following graduation from the State University of New York Buffalo State. She has spent her entire career at the New Orleans JCC, first as Young Judaea city director and later as the camp director, the program director at the Metairie campus, the assistant director and obtained her current appointment in 2011. With the help of a JCC Association Graduate Education Scholarship, Goldberg achieved her Masters in Social Work degree from Tulane University.
The keynote speaker was Mike Rogers, a former U.S. Representative from Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, who chaired the powerful House Intelligence Committee and served on the Energy and Commerce panel. He is a noted authority on national security, counterterrorism and cybersecurity.
Currently the host of the nationally syndicated “Something to Think About with Mike Rogers” on Westwood One, he is also a former member of the U.S. Army and an FBI special agent.
In addition, Rogers is a Distinguished Fellow at the prestigious Hudson Institute and serves on the Board of Trustees at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.
Rogers spoke about coming up through the ranks from the FBI to Congress. Many of his anecdotes regarded military intelligence gathering in his work as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Rogers concluded with a discussion o the issue of Iran joining the community of nations.
Following his talk, Rogers was asked to give his take on the upcoming presidential election, offering, “My biggest fear is that someone who’s running is going to win.”
