Federation honors past, future at its new home
Jewish Federation of Monmouth County’s annual Major Gifts Celebration gave the organization a chance to show off its new Holmdel headquarters and honor some of its most dedicated supporters.
With the new facility at 960 Holmdel Road under construction, federation staff made jackets and jeans part of the dress code for the Sept. 6 event and handed out souvenir hard hats.
Guests were able to see a 3,200-square-foot office that appeared close to ready for the scheduled Sept. 24 move-in date. Major remodeling was completed, and all that remained was to furnish the space.
Welcoming the guests, the federation’s president-elect, Sheri Tarrab, said, “Moving out of a strip mall and into a professional office building in the center of Monmouth County makes us accessible to all of the county’s 75,000 Jewish residents.”
Tarrab told her listeners that the more professional setting also demonstrates how “upwardly mobile, positive thinking, and cutting edge” the federation strives to be and how it can become even stronger in the years ahead.
Federation president Joe Hollander presented an award to honorees Carl and Mary Gross of Monmouth Beach. He praised the couple’s generosity and hands-on involvement with numerous federation efforts and specifically cited Carl’s work with the Boy Scouts of America, Monmouth Council.
Accepting the award, Gross told of having been executor for the will of a close relative who left a sizable amount to charity and who allowed him considerable discretion in how to dispense the funds. “I was not heir to any part of the estate,” he told the federation audience. “But because of all the good I was able to do with the money, I think I benefited more than anyone.”
His wife, Mary, said she had heard the rabbi at Chabad of the Shore counsel his congregation, “We all have things, but things can be taken away from us. No one can take from us what we have given to others.”
Attendees at the Major Gifts Celebration have all given $6,000 or more to the federation’s Annual Campaign. During the celebration, they pledged to buy mezuzas at $1,000 and up for the entrance doorway and all major offices at the new federation headquarters.
The event was chaired by Judy Klein Premselaar of Manalapan, who earlier this year earned the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award from the Jewish Federations of North America and its Lion of Judah Society, which honors women who have made substantial commitments to their community’s annual campaign. Premselaar told New Jersey Jewish News that giving tzedaka was as natural as breathing in the home in Scranton, Pa., where she grew up. She said she is just emulating the pattern set by her mother and grandmother, Lions of Judah before her. She is proud that her example has rubbed off on her children. “We have been lucky in this life, and it is our duty to give back,” she said.
Featured speaker at the program was Avraham Infeld , a Jewish educator and former president of Hillel International.
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