Federation Centennial event venue changed

The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has announced a venue change for the kickoff of its Centennial Jubilee Celebration on January 15. The highlight for the event will be native New Orleanian Richard Berenson Stone, the current chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, engaging in a “conversation” with highly regarded author and lecturer Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

The location is now set for the Isidore Newman School Henson Auditorium, located at 5333 Daneel Street, just off Jefferson Avenue, with the time for the opening at 7:00 p.m.

An earlier newsletter had the event incorrectly listed as taking place at the nearby Jewish Community Center. The corrected venue listing can also be found on the CCJN’s Calendar listing of January 15, 2013.

A wine reception will precede the kickoff at 6:15 p.m. outside of the Henson Auditorium at Newman.

Telushkin, the author of the best-selling, two-volume “Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History,” is considered one of the foremost Jewish speakers in the nation. He has written a number of other books on Jewish ethics and Jewish humor and is a rabbi at the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. A graduate of the Yeshiva at Flatbush and Columbia University, Telushkin is the former director of education at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute and is also associated with the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He serves as a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Book Council.

Richard Berenson Stone

Stone, the president of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), which advocates for the Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union, is a professor on the faculty of Columbia Law School in New York City. A graduate of prestigious Harvard Law School, Stone’s career began in Washington, D.C. as an assistant to the Attorney General, eventually placed in charge of all tax cases being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served on several public affairs committees in and around the New York area and formerly served as a spokesman for the public policy arm of the Orthodox Union.

The Centennial Celebration is intended to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the New Orleans Jewish Federation on December 23, 1912. Several events, such as the establishment of an archives, have already been announced but will occur throughout the ensuing year of celebration.