November 19, 2003

OU Yachad National Tribute Dinner to Honor Jeff Braverman, Forman Family, Jimmy Libman and Rabbi and Dr. Yaish

Tuesday, December 2, 2003
New York Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway at Times Square
New York City
Reception 6:00 p.m., Dinner 7:00 p.m.

The Yachad National Tribute Dinner in support of the Orthodox Union’s National Jewish Council for Disabilities (NJCD) will take place on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at the New York Marriott Marquis.

The reception will be at 6:00 p.m. with dinner to follow at 7:00.

NJCD operates many programs, including its flagship "Yachad," which provides unique social, educational and recreational programs for individuals with developmental disabilities; and "Our Way," which offers similar opportunities for the hard of hearing and deaf.

In addition, NJCD includes the “National Resource and Inclusion Center,” which provides resource information, referral services, consultation and direct services to individuals, families and agencies regarding inclusion and support for all disabilities; and the “National Association of Day Schools for Exceptional Children,” an association of yeshivot and day schools serving students with special needs.

The National Tribute Dinner will have four (sets of) honorees:

• Jeff Braverman, Director of Camp Nesher in New Jersey, will receive the Community Leadership Award. Mr. Braverman is being honored for successfully integrating special needs campers into the Camp Nesher program to the benefit of all campers.
   
• Alan, Fanny, Talia and Rachel Forman, will receive the Achim-Gam Yachad (Brethren Together) Family Award. Alan Forman, an investment consultant at Janney Montgomery Scott, LLC, is an active NJCD Board member. His wife, Fanny, a fashion designer, is also heavily involved in Yachad activities. Their daughter, Talia, has been a Yachad member for 10 years and participates in all of its programs, including Yachad’s “My” Sleepaway Camp Program at Camp Morasha. She is also enrolled in NJCD’s IVDU pre-vocational high-school for girls, located at Touro College in Brooklyn. Talia’s sister, Rachel, takes part in Yachad activities at the Yeshivah of Flatbush, where she is a junior and was a high school student participant in the very popular Yad B’Yad Summer Tour, which takes select high school students and Yachad members on a five-week summer program to Israel.
   
• Jimmy Libman, who is deaf, will receive the Our Way Achievement Award as the co-founder of the highly successful “Gimmee Jimmy’s Cookies” company in New Jersey, where he employs other deaf people, providing them with all-too-rare opportunities for employment.
   
• Rabbi and Dr. Ronn and Rayzel Yaish have been involved with Yachad since high school and met through their Yachad participation. They have held a wide range of Yachad positions and as recently as this fall they presented leadership training sessions at the First Annual Yachad High School Leadership Seminar. As a result, they richly merit the NJCD Young Leadership Award.

“The honorees totally understand, reflect and strive to achieve the meaningful inclusion for all people which Yachad and National Jewish Council for Disabilities is all about,” declared NJCD National Chairman Steven W. Spira.

Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman, National Director of NJCD, added, “With his superb camping program, Jeff Braverman has done exceptional work to mainstream young people with disabilities, while at the same time enriching the experience of the entire camp population. The Forman Family reflects how Yachad not only serves young people who have special needs, but at the same time involves entire families in its wonderful work.”

“Jimmy Libman has not let deafness stand in the way of being a successful businessman, while at the same time providing vital employment opportunities for other hearing-impaired people. And Rabbi and Dr. Yaish have been involved for years with Yachad, demonstrating constant devotion to its members and to the ideals for which it stands,” Dr. Lichtman said.

Dinner Chairmen are Cyrus and Judy Abbe; Howard and Sandra Blank; Philip and Lynne Jacob; Aaron and Toby Kinderlehrer; Rabbi Ezra and Emily Labaton; Thomas C. Lambert; and Martin and Beth Stafeld. Honorary Chairs are Mel and Sylvia David and Ira and Rona Kellman.

For further information on the dinner and its journal and on NJCD programs, contact Elaine Salvit Grossman at 212-613-8350, or grossmane@ou.org.

The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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