ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY

National Dinner

Sunday, June 5, 2005 – 28 Iyar 5765

New York Marriott Marquis Hotel
1535 Broadway, New York City

Harriet & Heshe Seif
Keter Shem Tov Award

Rabbi Hershel & Rebbetzin Shoshanah Schachter Ben Zakkai Ezra Ben Tzion Lightman Z”l Memorial Award

Sylvia & Mel David Yachad National Founders Award

Abbott’s Ross Products Division Gary E. McCullough, President National Kashrut Award

A Special NCSY Dedication in Memory of
Mikey Butler Z”L

Dr. Shimmy Tennenbaum
Dinner Chairman

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For more information, please contact Malka Laks at 212-613-8144

Each and every day, countless individuals across North America, in Israel and around the world, benefit from the work being done by the nine major divisions of the Orthodox Union:

• Community & Synagogue Services
• Kashrut
• NCSY—National Conference of Synagogue Youth
• Seymour J. Abrams OU Jerusalem World Center
• National Jewish Council for Disabilities—Yachad & Our Way
• Institute for Public Affairs
• Joseph K. Miller Kharkov Torah Center
• Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus
• Communications & Website

The OU National Dinner celebrates them all.
 

Harriet and Heshe Seif
Herbert Seif, known to all as Heshe, is the Treasurer of the Orthodox Union. In this position he led the extremely important effort several years ago to solidify the OU’s finances and to provide the organization with the financial management and strength to enable it to meet its ever-growing challenges on behalf of the Orthodox Jewish community. In his other leadership roles in the Jewish world, Heshe is a member of the Board of Yeshiva Har Etzion in Jerusalem, a member of the Executive Board of NCSJ, an organization which advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia, and a member of the International Board of Mesorah Heritage Foundation. He was Chairman of the Washington Internship Program of the OU’s Institute for Public Affairs and was on the board of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood.

Currently Heshe is a Managing Partner of Epic Asset Management located in Fort Lee, N.J. He was formerly a Managing Director of UBS, the largest Swiss bank, to which he and his partners sold their trading business, the O’Connor Partnerships, in 1991. He has a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

Mrs. Harriet Seif is a member of the National Board of Amit Women, an organization where she has also served as Englewood Chapter Treasurer. In addition, she is a member of the Board of Yeshiva Har Etzion in Jerusalem and she serves on the Finance and Religious Services Committees of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, NJ. A graduate of Brooklyn College with a B.S. in accounting, Harriet received an MBA from the Graduate School of Business Administration of Baruch College, City University of New York. Harriet is a self-employed CPA with offices in Manhattan.

Harriet and Heshe, who live in Englewood, N.J., are the parents of Yehuda, who is married to Orit Barnea. They are the proud grandparents of two year old Abie. Orit and Yehuda are the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative couple on Campus at the University of Pennsylvania. Orit is pursuing a law degree at the Temple University Law School, while Yehuda has a fellowship at Penn in the PhD program in Jewish History.

Rabbi Hershel and Rebbetzin Shoshanah Schachter
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, an internationally renowned Talmudic scholar, has had a distinguished career with the Yeshiva University-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) for more than 35 years. He joined the faculty in 1967 and, at the age of 26, was then its youngest Rosh Yeshiva (professor of Talmud).

Rabbi Schachter directs RIETS’ Marcos and Adina Katz Kollel (Institute for Advanced Research in Rabbinics) and also holds the Nathan and Vivian Fink Distinguished Professorial Chair in Talmud. He has been Rosh Kollel there since 1974. In addition to his teaching duties, Rabbi Schachter lectures, writes, and is highly regarded and consulted as a posek (decisor) on critical issues of Jewish law, in particular for the OU Kashrut Division.

Rabbi Schachter is the author of four sefarim, two on the teachings of the late and revered Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, z”l, and two on his own Torah insights. His articles in Hebrew and English have appeared widely in rabbinic publications. Born in Scranton, PA in 1941, Rabbi Schachter graduated from the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1958, earned his bachelor’s degree at Yeshiva College in 1962, and his M.H.L. degree from the Bernard Revel Graduate School in 1967. He was ordained at RIETS that same year.

When he was 22 years old, Rabbi Schachter was appointed assistant to Rabbi Soloveitchik and today he is considered to be one of the major disseminator’s of the Rav’s philosophy and teachings.

Rabbi Schachter is married to the former Shoshanah Shapiro. Rebbetzin Schachter is a familiar figure at the OU office as a member of the staff of the Kashrut Division. Besides her involvement in the Bikur Cholim in Washington Heights, and her work designing and decorating mikvaot, the Rebbetzin devotes great time and attention to giving practical advice to young men and women on the all-important issues of dating and marriage.

Rabbi and Mrs. Schachter reside in Washington Heights and have nine children, six of them married, and three of whom reside in Eretz Yisrael.

Sylvia and Mel David
Sylvia and Mel David lived in Far Rockaway, NY and were members of the “White Shul,” Congregation Kneseth Israel, for 35 years. They retired from their furniture business, made aliya and now live in Jerusalem. They are joined in Israel by two married children and four grandchildren. Sylvia and Mel’s involvement with the special needs population started with the birth of their son Mordechai, 40 years ago. Much of their energy has been channeled into creating and developing programs for the developmentally challenged population in the Orthodox Jewish community. Sylvia has been an active member of the Yachad Steering Committee for over 20 years.

When Mordechai was a teenager, Sylvia and Mel were instrumental in starting a social/recreational Sunday program at the Far Rockaway “Y” for teenagers with special needs. This group of teens formed the core of the original Yachad members who took part in the pilot Yachad Shabbaton in West Hempstead twenty two-years ago. Mordechai participated in this pilot program and has been a Yachad member ever since, attending its wide variety of programs. He has been fortunate to work in the Yachad office for l9 years and is a proud member of the OU family.

Because of the wonderful opportunities Yachad’s programs have afforded him, Mordechai was able to mature and develop socially and ultimately he met Tova Rothkopf at a Yachad function. With the encouragement of Elana Goldscheider, who was then the assistant National Director of Yachad, and Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, Yachad’s National Director, and with guidance from the Women’s League, Mordechai and Tova were married and have just celebrated their fifth anniversary.

The Davids are forever grateful to the Yachad leadership, staff and the wonderful coordinators and advisors who have contributed immeasurably to their family and to the special needs population they work with.

Abbott’s Ross Products Division
GARY E. MCCULLOUGH, PRESIDENT
Abbott’s Ross Products Division is committed to helping people of all ages meet their nutritional needs and advance their quality of life. The 102-year-old business is a longtime leader in the nutritional marketplace, well known for its trusted Similac® Advance® and Isomil® Advance® infant formulas, Pedialyte® and PediaSure® brands, and other pediatric nutritional products. Abbott pioneered the market for adult nutritionals more than three decades ago, and today the Healthy Living family of nutrition brands includes Ensure®, Glucerna®, ZonePerfect® and EAS®.

A more than 40-year relationship with the Orthodox Union has contributed to the success of Abbott’s Ross Products, whose use of the OU symbol on acceptable Kosher products has opened up marketing to numerous retailers and consumers.

Under the leadership of President Gary E. McCullough, the Columbus, Ohio-based Ross Products Division achieved record sales of $2.3 billion in 2004, nine percent higher than the previous year. Mr. McCullough, a nationally-recognized brand marketer, is leading a team of more than 5,600 people in making Ross Products the definitive nutritional company that surprises and delights consumers. He also serves as a senior vice president of the Division’s parent company, Abbott, a global, broad-based health care company. Mr. McCullough joined Ross in 2004 after four years with the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, where he was responsible as senior vice president for a $1.2 billion product portfolio throughout the Americas, and previous positions with Procter & Gamble. Mr. McCullough was a captain in the United States Army and was honored with the Meritorious Service Medal. He earned a BS from Wright State University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. The Orthodox Union takes great pride in honoring Abbott’s Ross Products Division and Gary E. McCullough with this year’s National Kashrut Award.

In Memory of Mikey Butler Z”L
Mikey Butler was an NCSY legend almost from the moment of his birth. The son of Danny, a former Central East Regional Director, and Nina Butler of Pittsburgh, Mikey was born with cystic fibrosis, a debilitating disease that affects both the lungs and the digestive tract. By the time he was in his early twenties, the disease created the need for Mikey to have a double lung transplant, a procedure which miraculously extended his life, but ultimately led to agonizing side effects, including cancer, which eventually took his life. When Mikey was just an infant, his father began sharing the details of his condition — both painful and inspiring — in soul-stirring sessions at Shabbatonim. And with each passing year, those sessions became more powerful, more amazing, as Mikey and his family overcame impossible diagnoses and frightening bouts of illness.

Countless times throughout Mikey’s life — from infancy up until his death at age 24 — NCSYers gathered together to pray for him.Towards the end of his life, many thousands of individuals were praying for his recovery, while many others devoted themselves to acts of kindness through the Mitzvah for Mikey program.

But Mikey was much more than just a legend. He was also an enthusiastic NCSYer, a drummer in the band, a techie with boundless energy and a trusted advisor who inspired teen-agers at their very core. He loved NCSY so much that he dreamed of one day becoming a regional director. Although he was not able to fulfill this dream in fact, he did so in essence by inspiring teen-agers and NCSY staff across the United States and around the world through his powerful speeches, his engaging manner and his example of how one can truly live life “day by glorious day.”

Mikey carried his enthusiasm with him to Yeshiva University, where, despite periodic hospitalizations that caused him to miss weeks of school, he managed to not only complete a bachelor’s degree with a double major, but to also become a prominent student leader.

And no matter how busy he was, Mikey always had time for NCSY, where he found wonderful friendships and the pervasive optimism and conviction that, whatever hardships we might endure, nothing in life is arbitrary and that Hashem is watching out for us. The world is a better place for having had the benefit of Mikey’s presence for 24 years, and his life continues to bring inspiration to many. For the thousands who knew him personally, or simply knew of him, he will never be forgotten.