{"id":13665,"date":"2011-05-11T14:59:59","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T14:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/around_the_dining_room_table\/"},"modified":"2016-11-30T09:42:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T14:42:26","slug":"around_the_dining_room_table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news\/around_the_dining_room_table\/","title":{"rendered":"Around the Dining Room Table"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1988, the world was shocked at the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, including Joseph K. Miller (z\u201dl). Miller, a lawyer and accountant who was active in Jewish concerns, had also been serving as the OU\u2019s treasurer. He was 56 years old at the time, lived in Woodmere, L.I. and had recently persuaded a gentleman by the name of Stephen Savitsky to \u201cget involved\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Savitsky, who attended his first <a title=\"Orthodox Union Convention\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/convention\">Orthodox Union Convention<\/a> in Philadelphia shortly before the crash, had already been active in his own community as a synagogue president and school board chairman; although leadership positions on a national level were not something he had considered pursuing. But Miller left an indelible impression on many individuals, and that included Mr. Savitsky. For the next 25 years Mr. Savitsky served on the board, ran dinners, traveled on missions, worked the steering committee, and was eventually elected as president. He then went on to serve three consecutive two-year terms, retiring the position this past January to the OU\u2019s new president, Simcha Katz. Retiring the presidential position, however, doesn\u2019t retire Stephen Savitsky, who continues on as Chairman of the Board, is a member of the Steering Committee, and actively represents the OU throughout the continent by extensively traveling to various communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people are under the impression that the OU is a New York centered organization,\u201d Mr Savitsky noted, \u201cbut we are absolutely committed to developing and supporting our relationships in communities across North America. I\u2019ve had, and continue to have, the great privilege of participating in liaison building weekends with over 40 orthodox Jewish communities both large and small.<\/p>\n<p>I also continue to engage in classes, getting-to-know-you forums and broader events such as the OU\u2019s annual Emerging Jewish Communities Conference. We had an amazing turn out at this year\u2019s EJC Fair in March; we were able to showcase 37 communities with 800 \u2013 1000 attendees. There was a very enthusiastic and positive response and we brought a huge amount of exposure to communities that we believe offer tremendous growth opportunities in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the course of his many travels and interactions, Mr. Savitsky came to the realization that some of the liveliest discussions concerning Jewish life take place around the Shabbat table. This sparked a creative idea for an audio discussion series which Mr. Savitsky established over three years ago, titled \u201cAround the Dining Room Table\u201d. According to Mr. Savitsky:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea was to enable the airing of important issues in Jewish life via a no-holds barred discussion format with reputable guest speakers. We try to produce a live, 30-minute audio segment every two weeks; there is no script, no editing, and no artificial staging of responses. We\u2019ve archived the episodes, so they are available for listeners at any time via the OU\u2019s web site or can be downloaded as <a title=\"free podcasts via iTunes\" href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/around-the-dining-room-table\/id162780516\">free podcasts via iTunes<\/a>. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>With over 84 episodes currently available, current titles include: \u201cThe Singles Crisis\u201d, \u201cTeenagers off the Derech\u201d, \u201cOutreach in America\u201d, \u201cScholarship Committees and Lifestyle Decisions\u201d, and \u201cChallenges Facing the Haredi World in the Next Decade\u201d. Two new episodes scheduled for airing include: \u201cPerpetuating Orthodox Life on College Campuses\u201d and \u201cThe Best of my Worst Dating Experiences\u201d<br \/>\n<i><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/i><i><b>To Download via ITunes, please visit:\u00a0<a title=\"Around the Dining Room Table, Free Podcasts\" href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/around-the-dining-room-table\/id162780516\">Around the Dining Room Table, Free Podcasts<\/a><\/b><br \/>\n<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1988, the world was shocked at the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, including Joseph K. Miller (z\u201dl). Miller, a lawyer and accountant who was active in Jewish concerns, had also been serving as the OU\u2019s treasurer. He was 56 years old at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":28183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Around the Dining Room Table - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everyone on Pan Am Flight 103 was killed including Joseph K. 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