{"id":7318,"date":"2013-05-23T10:44:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T16:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=7318"},"modified":"2013-05-29T02:21:12","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T08:21:12","slug":"kullmans-honored-at-touro-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/kullmans-honored-at-touro-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Kullmans honored at Touro dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By DEAN SHAPIRO, <em>Special to the CCJN<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It was a night to long remember for the Kullmans \u2013 Ruth and Larry. Members of their family and their many friends, including two mayors and three rabbis, were present among the 200-plus people on hand to pay tribute to the couple for their many years of service to the congregation at Touro Synagogue.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7319\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7319\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7319 lazyload\" title=\"01_Chalice_edit\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit-1024x718.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/210;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7319\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7319\" title=\"01_Chalice_edit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/01_Chalice_edit-1024x718.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7319\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rabbi Alexis Berk presents an engraved glass chalice to Larry and Ruth Kullman at the L&#39;Chayim Dinner last Sunday night. (Photo by Dean Shapiro)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Kullmans were honored at the L\u2019Chayim Dinner at the synagogue on May 19 and were presented with a symbolic glass chalice by Touro&#8217;s Rabbi Alexis Berk. Her two predecessors at Touro, Rabbis David Goldstein (now rabbi emeritus) and Andrew Busch, were also effusive in their praise for the work the couple has done for the synagogue in many capacities. Goldstein, who retired after 27 years in 2005, \u00a0spoke in person and Busch, who led the congregation in the immediate post-Katrina years, sent his best wishes via a recorded video from his present home in Baltimore.<\/p>\n<p>Honored guest speakers included former mayor Maurice &#8220;Moon&#8221; Landrieu with wife Verna and their son and current Mayor of the City New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu with his wife Cheryl. The Landrieus are longtime friends of the Kullmans, as well as employers both past and present. Larry Kullman, a practicing attorney, worked in City Hall during the elder Landrieu\u2019s administration and followed him to Washington, D.C. in 1978 when Moon Landrieu was named Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Jimmy Carter. Ruth Kullman is Mitch Landrieu\u2019s current Director of Finance.<\/p>\n<p>Moon Landrieu and his wife, Verna, served as honorary co-chairs of the event, while congregants Lou and Susan Good chaired the synagogue&#8217;s L&#8217;Chayim dinner committee. The Kullmans&#8217; three children were also in attendance at the guest of honor table.<\/p>\n<p>All who were present at the $100 and up per-plate dinner raised their glasses in a L\u2019Chayim champagne toast offered to the Kullmans by Goldstein, and they gave a standing ovation to the couple when they were presented with a symbolic chalice by Berk.<\/p>\n<p>The guest speakers, in turn, praised the Kullmans\u2019 dedication to the ongoing work of fundraising, community outreach and \u2013 especially \u2013 the restoration work that had to be done to the house of worship after Hurricane Katrina. Ruth Kullman was synagogue president during the year the storm hit and the two of them labored intensively to get the century-old synagogue back up and running.<\/p>\n<p>During his brief testimonial, Mitch Landrieu alluded to the visit of the Dalai Lama that same weekend, during which the Tibetan Buddhist leader declared that \u201cGoodness comes from within.\u201d The current mayor noted that the description also applies to the evening\u2019s honorees, \u201cTwo very special spiritual people,\u201d as he termed them.<\/p>\n<p>The evening, however, wasn\u2019t all just speeches and tributes. There were moments of levity and humor as well. Rabbi Goldstein told stories of practical jokes he and Larry Kullman played on each other and the Landrieus told some funny stories about the Kullmans as well.<\/p>\n<p>But the biggest laughs of the evening came during a video presentation put together by one of the congregants in which the Kullmans\u2019 faces were Photoshopped onto other people\u2019s bodies at noteworthy events throughout history.<\/p>\n<p>The opening shots of the presentation showed Larry Kullman\u2019s face superimposed over that of Superman and Ruth Kullman\u2019s face was superimposed onto Wonder Woman\u2019s. They were \u201cseen\u201d at such events as the moon landing, the inauguration of President Obama, the O.J. Simpson trial and even accompanying The Beatles as they walked across Abbey Road on the cover of their 1969 album. There were visual references to the biblical Book of Ruth and the non-biblical \u201cBook of Larry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Probably the picture that got the most laughs was the clip of Larry\u2019s head superimposed over that of Larry Fine, in between Moe and Curley Howard in the opening credits of an early Three Stooges film short.<\/p>\n<p>The Kullmans themselves added a few moments of levity to their acceptance speeches. Jokingly referring to their respective roles in the operation of the synagogue, Ruth told the audience, \u201cHe raised the money and I spent it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the serious side, however, the honorees both spoke about how touched they were by the tributes paid to them by the previous speakers. \u201cWe did what we had to do in the wake of Katrina,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cWe knew that the synagogue was an anchor in very choppy waters. It was important to us and for all of us that it have a future. So we\u2019re doing work that we absolutely love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Kullmans%20honored%20at%20Touro%20dinner\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8889,2833,8890,8790,8795,8867,8811,8891,8788,8860,8786,8892],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7318"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7392,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7318\/revisions\/7392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}