OU to Honor Al Miller, Retired F.E.G.S. CEO, with Lifetime Community Service Award, April 6

07 Mar 2008

OU TO HONOR AL MILLER, RETIRED AS F.E.G.S. CEO, WITH LIFETIME COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD AT 110TH ANNIVERSARY NATIONAL DINNER, APRIL 6 IN NEW YORK

The Orthodox Union will present its Lifetime Community Service Award to Al Miller, who retired after 31 years at the helm of F.E.G.S. Health and Human Services System. The presentation will take place at the OU’s 110th Anniversary National Dinner, Sunday, April 6 at the Grand Hyatt New York.
Mr. Miller has been the OU’s partner in the ParnossahWorks program, in which the OU and F.E.G.S. have worked together to place many hundreds of unemployed and under-employed members of the Jewish community in meaningful jobs.

In his three decades of service, Al Miller built F.E.G.S. into one of the largest and most respected not-for-profit health and human services organizations in the United States. F.E.G.S., which had a budget of $300,000 when Mr. Miller joined the organization, now has a budget in excess of $270 million, has a system of 14 subsidiaries (half for-profit, half not-for-profit), and provides services to over 120,000 individuals and families each year in over 300 locations in the metropolitan New York area.

ParnossahWorks provided the Orthodox Union with the opportunity to work with Mr. Miller on a regular basis.

“Growing up in an Orthodox home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Al Miller was raised in an atmosphere devoted to Jewish learning, tzedakah and parnossah,” declared OU President Stephen J. Savitsky. “There was an ingrained sense of Jewish values and responsibilities, which bore fruit in Al’s career success. At the OU we are delighted that he was able to bring his wide range of skills, based on Jewish values, to bear on alleviating unemployment and underemployment in the Jewish community, through the F.E.G.S. partnership with the OU in ParnossahWorks. As a reflection of that partnership, we are delighted to honor him with the Lifetime Community Service Award.”

At the dinner, the OU will also present its Lifetime Rabbinic Achievement Award to seven rabbis — Rafael Grossman, Joseph Grunblatt, David Hollander, Gilbert Klaperman, Ralph Pelcovitz, Fabian Schonfeld and Max Schreier – who in their combined 350 years of service played a major role in building Orthodox life in America and fostering its extraordinary growth.

The OU will honor Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten of Indianapolis, IN with the Lifetime Achievement Award; Jonathan Mell of Teaneck, NJ, with the Young Leadership Distinguished Service Award; and Osem USA, the American branch of Israel’s largest grocery, frozen and chilled food products manufacturing company, with the National Kashrut Leadership Award.

Emanuel J. Adler of Teaneck is Dinner Chairman. “The success of our ParnossahWorks program owes a great deal to Al Miller and to our partnership with F.E.G.S. Anyone who was touched by this program should join us in paying tribute to this wonderful man.”

For further information on attending the dinner or placing a journal ad, contact Malka Laks at 212-613-8144, or malkal@ou.org.