Annual Fund Dinner Dance 2011

Generation to Generation  דור לדור

Honoring

                            Rabbi Albert and Shirley Thaler       Rabbi Steven and Judy Kane       Renee and Mark Covitt                                                                                              Alumni Leadership Award Recipients

Saturday, December 10
7:30 pm
Temple Israel Center, White Plains, NY

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Honorary Chairs

Shelly Handel, Bennett Ashley, Dr. Neil Schluger, Michael Dittelman and Ilana Kahn
Dinner Chair, Dr. Hugh Pollack, Ira Leiderman and Adam Wallach
Development Chair, Miriam Feldstein
 

Shirley and Rabbi Albert Thaler

Rabbi Albert Thaler was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he also received a Masters degree in Hebrew Literature. Rabbi Thaler served as Rabbi of Queensboro Hill Jewish Center before coming to Temple Gates of Prayer in Flushing, NY in 1980.

Rabbi Thaler began his Ramah career in 1970 with Ramah in Israel leading a group of teens from Queens. In 1971, Dr. Gerson Cohen, then Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, asked him to serve as Director of the Ramah Day Camp in Nyack. He accepted the invitation and devoted twenty seven summers to developing the program which has become a model for the Ramah Day Camp movement. When he retired from that assignment some fourteen years ago, he was awarded the Rabbi Max Arzt Distinguished Rabbinic Service Award by Chancellor Ismar Schorsch. At Ramah, he educated and inspired a generation of children, teens, and young adults many of whom became leaders in the Jewish community as educators, cantors and rabbis.

Shirley Thaler earned a Bachelors Degree from Queens College. For more than twenty years she worked at The National Ramah Office coordinating Ramah’s programs in Israel. She was the New York voice and face of programs sending hundreds of teenagers to Israel every year. During the summers, Shirley supervised and coordinated the office staff of the Ramah Day Camp in Nyack for twenty seven years.

On behalf of the Women’s League For Conservative Judaism, Shirley served as National Chairperson of its Committee on Books, Library and Periodicals as well as National Chairperson of The Committee on Jewish Family Living.

The Thalers are a three generation Ramah family. Without exception, they, their children and grandchildren have been campers and staff members at Ramah camps. Among these are our camps in Nyack, Israel, New England, Berkshires, California and Wisconsin.

At Temple Gates Rabbi Thaler has served for thirty years with singular devotion, energy, and enthusiasm. He has engendered a strong sense of community within the congregation encouraging it to become child friendly and family oriented. He guided the transition to an egalitarian, participatory congregation and taught it to celebrate and enjoy Jewish life.  Mrs. Thaler has taught Hebrew to adults, led Israel folk dance classes, and taught at holiday workshops.. The congregation is blessed to have the Thalers in their midst. They represent the finest in Jewish life and their lives reflect Judaism’s noblest values and aspirations.

Judy and Rabbi Steven Kane

Rabbi Steve Kane has been the rabbi of Congregation Sons of Israel in Briarcliff Manor, NY since 1993.  He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1985 where he also received a Masters of Arts Degree in Judaic Studies.  He has a Bachelor’s of Jewish Literature from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and a B.A.  from Washington University in St. Louis.

In addition to his pulpit duties, Steve served on the Talmud faculty at the Jewish Theological Seminary and as Assistant to the Librarian.  He was also a member of the faculty of the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York.  He is a past president of the Lower Hudson Valley Rabbinical Assembly.

Steve served on the staff of Ramah camps in Wisconsin (3 years), Israel Seminar (1 year), Nyack (8 years) and the Berkshires (9 years).  He is most proud of the fact that when he arrived at Congregation Sons of Israel in 1993, there were two campers at Ramah Berkshires and a handful at Ramah Nyack. Today more than 30 people attend both camps as campers and staff. 

Judy Kane received her BA from Queens College in Early Childhood Education, and did graduate work at Bankstreet . When her parents ,Rabbi Albert and Shirley Thaler began working at the Ramah Day Camp, Judy began her lifelong career and love for Ramah, as a camper at Ramah Berkshires. She started in Solelim where her Rosh Edah, Eli Havivi, taught her how to  make her bed with hospital corners! It was at Ramah where Judy cultivated a love of Israeli dancing. Judy went on to work on staff at Berkshires, Wisconsin and Nyack. For the past thirty one summers, Judy has been Rosh Rikud at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, earning the name "Judy Rikudy."Judy has been an early childhood educator for many years-she prefers young children because they are all shorter than she is! Judy has been a kindergarten teacher at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester for the past eleven years. Her love and passion for Judaism, Israel, and children have made Judy a beloved teacher and colleague.

Judy and Steve met while both serving on the staff of Ramah camps in Wisconsin in 1980.  They have three children, Arielle, Tamar & Elan who collectively have spent 26 wonderful summers at Ramah Berkshires!

Renee Wankoff Covitt and Mark Covitt
Alumni Leadership Award Recipients

With a combined 50 years of involvement with Camp Ramah, Mark and Renee Covitt have spent the majority of their lives, both separate and together, within the Ramah community.  Mark’s first summer with Camp Ramah in the Berkshires was in the summer of 1985 as a Shorashim camper while Renee entered camp four years later as a Nitzanim camper.  Every summer thereafter, both Mark and Renee returned to camp reuniting with their Ramah friends.

The summer after their respective Gesher summers (Mark – Gesher 1990, Renee – Gesher 1995) they both traveled to Israel with Ramah Seminar.  Both Mark and Renee returned to camp after Seminar to work on Tzevet Mayim.  To avoid having to teach classes on the deep dock Renee agreed to date Mark in the summer of 1998. 

Unaware that Mark’s authority as Rosh Mayim ended after he handed in his whistle after his last summer in Camp, Renee agreed to marry Mark in May of 2007.  Their wedding capped off the merging of two fantastic Edot and was celebrated with a Horah that lasted over an hour and a half.  Renee and Mark welcomed Sienna Rose, into their family in January of 2010 (Gesher 2026).

Mark earned his B.A. in English from the University at Albany spending the next 12 years working as a restaurant and retail manager.  In 2008 he returned to school to earn an MBA in Corporate Finance from the Zicklin School of Bussines at Baruch College.  Renee has a BA from SUNY Binghamton and a JD from Fordham Law School.  She is an associate in the Real Estate group of Dewey & LeBoeuf.

Both Mark and Renee have been active members of the Alumni Association since they graduated from college.  They have both been members of the Labor Day Committee and have separately chaired the committee.  In addition, in 2010, Mark and Renee co-chaired Camp’s first annual Purim Carnival, where Sienna won the cutest costume contest.   Mark is currently serving on Camp's Development Committee.  Mark and Renee remain committed to Camp and the Alumni Association and look forward to Sienna being old enough to attend camp so they can have an excuse to visit Camp every summer.