2009 Movers & Shakers
It is time again to look at the Ledger's "Movers & Shakers" - some of the people throughout Connecticut's Jewish community who have made a difference this past year.
Joel Karp, Greater New Haven
Sydney Perry, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, asked Federation president Joel Karp to name what he perceived as his top five accomplishments in the Jewish communal work he has engaged in over the last 30-plus years. She was about to describe them to us but first wanted to know what Karp has most enjoyed. Here's what Karp came up with:
Being president of Camp Laurelwood when it became a member of the Jewish Federation in 1976 and when it koshered its kitchen. Being a VP of Ezra Academy in the 1980s and bringing Susan Wall to Ezra, which she was able to rebuild and strengthen. She was pregnant at the time of the interview, stayed with Iny and me, and was told by me that I wouldn't let her return to Israel until she committed to Ezra despite two other more lucrative offers in New York and New Jersey. She accepted the position!!! and was able to return to Israel. Being the chair of the Ezra Building Committee and building the addition to Congregation B'nai Jacob (Woodbridge). Working with Andy Eder and others on the ad hoc Committee in 1995-96 to renegotiate a discount of the $9,200,000 mortgage, raising the funds to have the mortgage "burned," and keeping the JCC alive at that time. Working with Boris Mizhen, Mark Sklarz, Donald Hendel, Scott Cohen, and with the "very special, fabulous, outstanding, famous, and irreplaceable executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, the one and only Sydney Perry," to merge the JCC into the Federation, and to start the rebuilding process that will make New Haven an outstanding Jewish Community.
Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray, Ridgefield
"Trail-blazer" best describes Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray of Temple Sheartih Israel in Ridgefield. A fourth-generation cantor, she is only the second woman to become a cantor in the Conservative movement, the first woman cantor at Congregation Beth El in Norwalk, and founder of the Women Cantors' Network, a 300-member international organization established in 1982.
This year, Kathcko-Gray added to her achievements the publication of a songbook and CD called "Katchko: Three Generations of Cantorial Art," that bring together three generations of cantors in her family.
The project represents two firsts: It shows modern cantors how they can use guitar in a new way with traditional music, something never done before in a classical cantorial tradition; and it is the first 'female-friendly' cantorial book, written in keys with which women cantors can be comfortable. The CD includes a recording that demonstrates how a woman cantor can sound like a hazzan - "a real cantor," Katchko-Gray says, "without sacrificing her feminine side."
A native of Stamford, "Cantor Debbie" is renowned in her own right. A teaching artist for national organizations including Hadassah, UJC Speakers Bureau, CAJE, Chautauqua Institution, and the Wexner Heritage Foundation, Elie Wiesel said of her, "Both perceptive and sensitive, Debbie is well equipped to translate Jewish experience in song and prayer. This she will do with grace and passion. Listen to her. Debbie will enable you to hear and feel the exquisite yet melancholy beauty of Jewish melodies that must never be forgotten."
Rabbi Yitzchok Adler, West Hartford
A lot has changed in the nearly 15 years since Rabbi Yitzchok Adler arrived from Jacksonville, Fla. to become spiritual leader of Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford. Not the least of which is the synagogue itself. thanks in large part to its forward- thinking rabbi.
"Beth David is a very open, progressive synagogue. We were looking for a rabbi who would, while having a strong connection to tradition, would have the same open, progressive mentality - a rabbi who would think of things differently and be willing to evolve in their thinking. Rabbi Adler showed that willingness to evolve - and he has," Martin Freilich, a past president of the Orthodox congregation, told the Ledger awhile ago.
Adler's willingness to be open can be seen in the opportunities for women that he has created at Beth David. He founded a women's tefillah group, a women's Megillah reading, and encourages girls to celebrate their bat mitzvahs at services on Shabbat.
"A hallmark of mine has been to never compromise on halacha, but to do everything creatively possible to take down barriers so that every human being feels comfortable in this sanctuary," Adler told the Ledger a few years ago.
Adler also stands out as a pulpit rabbi who administers to the needs of his congregation, but also sees beyond it to the broader Jewish community as well. Adler serves the community as a mohel, and has long been administrator of the Hartford Kashrut Commission. He is a founding board member of the Hebrew High School of New England, serves on the faculty of Yachad, the greater Hartford community Hebrew high school, and is a past president of the Greater Hartford Rabbinic Association. He served for several terms on the executive board of the Rabbinical Council of America, and is also a member of the steering committee of the new organization for Orthodox called The Rabbinic Fellowship.
Although there were no rabbis on either side of the family, a young Yitzchak Adler felt drawn to the rabbinate even before he was a bar mitzvah. "I can't tell you why I wanted to be a rabbi," he told the Ledger several years ago. "It is just something that always lived within my soul. It is probably among the top blessings that have been a part of my good fortune in life that I have always known what I wanted to do and have had the opportunity to actually do it."
Mark Bokoff, Norwich
No one in the Jewish communities surrounding greater Hartford - and then some - likes to think about what life would be like without West Hartford's legendary Crown Supermarket, a neighborhood fixture for close to 70 years. No worries. The supermarket continues to thrive, thanks to Mark Bokoff. The Norwich businessman bought the store this year, and immediately instituted a slew of changes that have customers smiling. Consider, for example, the kosher hotdog stand, the overflowing display of fresh, Connecticut grown produce just outside the front door, and the hanging plants and bouquets of bright colored flowers that graced the entranceway this spring... to say nothing of the expanded product line and, in many cases, lower prices.
Coming from a family that was involved in the supermarket business for years, and is also heavily involved in Jewish life, Bokoff feels deeply connected to the community he is there to serve. A day school graduate, his family were members of Beth Jacob Synagogue in Norwich. After returning home from college, he became a member in his own right and is a past president of the shul and remains its ritual chairman today. He is also president of Solomon Schechter Academy in New London where both his children attended school.
"Coming here for me has been a real return to my background, both personally and professionally," Bokoff told the Ledger. "It is a great mix for me. I love the environment, I love the idea of being involved in kosher, and I love the idea of being involved in a food market."
Ari Disraelly, Stamford
Ari Disraelly is out to change the Fairfield County-Westchester Jewish singles' scene. The 30-something entrepreneur and IT consultant sees partnering among organizations as the way to build a vibrant social and networking landscape for the many young professionals in the area. His new endeavor, JMIX.org, joined with NextGen at UJF of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien for a Krav Maga (Israeli self-defense) class and happy hour in Stamford, and again with UJF for its Body and Soul Cycle Challenge. He teamed up with Beit Chaverim Synagogue of Westport/Norwalk to create a community Passover seder, and with Temple Beth El's young professionals group. Disraelly is now part of a Jewish organizational committee to create a new singles and young professionals network.
"Working in the Jewish community is a passion," says Disraelly, whose family was one of the founders of Young Israel of Stamford. But it's important that events for Jewish 20- and 30-somethings, many of whom are unaffiliated or not interested in religious activities, be non-preachy and non-traditional, he says. He plans to partner with Jewish outdoor clubs in New York City.
Perhaps the most telling sign of Disraelly's collaborative spirit surfaced when his long-time plans for Matzah Ball 2009 were dashed by organizers of a similar event in New Haven, which drew sponsorship away. Inspired by Matzah Ball events in New York and greater Hartford, Disraelly had wanted to bring the Christmas-Eve Jewish singles event to Fairfield County for the first time. Now, he plans to attend the New Haven event and bring a bunch of co-organizers and friends. "And we encourage people to go out for Chinese food beforehand," he says, "as is our tradition."
Rhea Farbman, Stratford
Musician and music teacher Rhea Farbman can be found leading preschoolers in a Mexican Hat Dance at The Conservative Synagogue of Westport, or little ones in musical prayer at a Tot Shabbat at Beit Chaverim Synagogue of Westport/Norwalk, or students at Congregation B'nai Israel religious school in Bridgeport, as easily as she may be found performing pro bono at a convalescent home in the community with fellow members of the Schubert Club of Fairfield County, where she serves as president.
"She's a great person," says Shavon Wright of the TCS Preschool. "The children are always very excited to see her. She's very energetic, very positive, nurturing and warm."
Farbman also directs The Kesher Project, the longest-running Jewish program in Connecticut for developmentally challenged adults.
Created in the 1990s, the monthly programs at Congregation B'nai Israel in Bridgeport celebrate Jewish ritual and tradition and are often the only contact residents of group homes have with their Jewish heritage or the Jewish community.
Each monthly meeting, built around Shabbat or a Jewish holiday, features discussion, an art project, singing and dancing to live music, and traditional Jewish food.
"Because of the Kesher Project, members gain a familiarity with Judaism," Farbman says. "Year after year they become more fluent with the music and grasp the concepts of the holidays, Shabbat, tzedakah, tefillah, tikkum olam, and other Jewish values and traditions. Our meetings are like a bar- or bat-mitzvah: joyous, musical, nourishing on all levels."
"Even if we had an unlimited source of funding, service to this special population would not be possible without Rhea's unique combination of skill, dedication, and patience," says Steve Friedlander, executive director of UJA/Federation Westport Weston Wilton Norwalk, a substantial source of The Kesher Project's funding.
Rabbi Yehuda Brecher, Waterbury
He may not have arrived here in a covered wagon, but Rabbi Yehuda Brecher is the epitome of a pioneer nonetheless. In September 2000, Brecher and his wife Yocheved were among the nine Orthodox families and 35 young men - the first influx of students enrolled in the community's Yeshivah Gedolah post-high school program - who left their (mostly) New York City homes to settle in Waterbury. The group seemed unfazed by the lack of Jewish resources considered de riguer in other Orthodox communities: There was no kosher restaurant or bakery, no mikveh (ritual bath), no Jewish bookstore, no Jewish elementary or high school...even the supermarket carried only the most cursory kosher products. Nonetheless, the new arrivals soon managed to spruce up and revitalize the once dilapidated and economically depressed neighborhood that was now their home. It wasn't long before word got around and the community took off. Today, the community has well over 100 families, the supermarket shelves are loaded with kosher products, there are a couple of kosher eateries and a second mikveh recently opened.
When Brecher first arrived, he took a job teaching at the Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy in Bloomfield. The daily trek proved worthwhile. Brecher quickly won the hearts and minds of his students and, more than that, instituted programs that created a bridge between the Waterbury and Hartford area communities, such as the joint weekly study of Talmud and Torah with Jewish youth in Bloomfield, West Hartford and Fairfield.
And so, when the Waterbury families were ready to expand their small nursery school program, which opened in 2000 with eight students, Brecher seemed the natural choice to head up the effort. Serving as its principal, Brecher grew the school - literally. Instead of opening a full-blown elementary school straight out of the gate, he added one grade per year. Today, the Yeshiva Ktana of Waterbury is a thriving pre-Kindergarten through seventh grade school, with full dual curriculum and an enrollment of upwards of 160 students. A few years ago they added a library and the town of Waterbury began providing transportation services. In fact, families motivated to move to Waterbury from cities like New York, Boston and Houston, report that their number one motivation is the superior education that they know their young children will receive.
Joanne Goldblum, New Haven
Just five years after founding a charity that meets a baby's basic need, Joanne Goldblum has already been named ABC News "Person of the Week," one of People Magazine's "Heroes Among Us," the New Haven Register's "Person of the Year, " and has been featured in Time Magazine's "Power of One" column and "Good Morning America's" "AmeriCAN" series. She has received several honors for her work, including the Citizens Bank "Champion in Action" program, and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders award.
The social worker started The Diaper Bank when she saw some of her low-income clients reusing disposable diapers on their children, and learned that hygiene products like diapers and toilet paper are not covered by food stamps or WIC federal funds.
"Children who cry a lot are at greater risk of abuse, and we know that children with diaper rash cry more," Goldblum says. "Childcare centers require an adequate supply of disposable diapers and so if a parent can't provide that, that child can't go to childcare. A little thing like not having enough diapers for one day can make you not go to work, which can make you lose your job, which can make you lose your apartment."
Originally operated out of Goldblum's living room and car, The Diaper Bank started by distributing 5,000 disposable diapers a month around New Haven. The charity now distributes 200,000 disposable diapers a month to agencies throughout the state and employs two fulltime staff-members. Approximately 25 percent of the diapers are donated. Goldblum is the organization's fulltime, volunteer president.
She is lobbying the state and federal governments to provide funding to low-income families for disposable diapers.
"This experience has taught me that anybody can do something," she says. "If you get a group of people together who believe in something, you can make a real change."
David Jacobs, West Hartford
When David Jacobs arrived in West Hartford to take over as executive director of the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center - now the Mandell JCC - he was returning to his roots. A native of West Hartford, he got his start in the Jewish communal world while working at the JCC - he served as teen director, camp director and associate executive director at the JCC from 1978-1988. After stints as executive director of JCCs in California and Rochester, N.Y., Jacobs took the reins at the Mandell JCC in 2002. Since then, the Center has seen unprecedented membership growth. But more importantly, besides helping increase membership, implementing strategic planning and benchmarking efforts and spearheading the JCC's multi-million dollar capital campaign, Jacobs, a recipient of the Lewis Kraft Award for Jewish Communal Service, has brought Jewish programming back to life at the Jewish Center. Harkening back to his days at Camp Shalom, he has worked on strengthening summer camping and emphasizing the value of Jewish camping locally. He brought Jewish family summer programming to the increasingly popular JCC Swim and Tennis Club. He has helped to re-imagine the New Jewish Book Festival and other signature events, and the expansion of the Hartford Jewish Film Festival. He has added Jewish family and holiday programming: This Chanukah, the JCC took holiday programs to public spaces, like Macy's for a Chanukah Family Fest and Whole Foods for "Eight Days of Oil Tasting." Jacobs also helped establish The Family Room Parenting Center at the JCC, and has promoted emphasis on family fitness.
Audrey Lichter, West Hartford
Considered by many to be one of the foremost Jewish educators and advocates for Jewish education in the greater Hartford area, Lichter continues to keep a sharp focus on Jewish continuity as she builds and strengthens Jewish institutions, bringing national attention to the innovative and energetic programs she has created.
As a founding board member and past president of the Hebrew High School of New England (HHNE), she has helped the school grow from 18 pioneer students in 1996 to 75 this year. She founded The Jewish Day School Consortium of Southern New England, which enabled the area's three day schools - to engage in collaborative programming. And, fifteen years ago, Lichter founded Yachad, the Greater Hartford Jewish Community High School. As director of the school, she helped strengthen the Jewish identity of more than 1,000 teens at the crucial juncture between childhood and young adulthood. Yachad was recognized as one of the best Jewish community high schools in the country by the Jewish Education Service of North America.
At the end of the 2009 academic year, Lichter left Yachad to become executive director of a new national effort called "Chai Mitzvah." Founded by New York business and philanthropist Scott Shays, Hartford has been chosen as the launching pad for this innovative Jewish renewal program that encourages adults to reconnect with or deepen their Judaism every 18 years post bar- or bat-mitzvah. All 19 Hartford-area Jewish congregations are on board.
"Audrey is a fabulous thinker and one of the most gifted Jewish educators in the community," Henry Zachs, who has worked with Lichter on a number of projects, told the Ledger recently."
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Stamford
Those inclined to speak their mind and stick to their principles, ought to consider the wisdom of wearing a flak jacket. So might go the advice of Senator Joseph Lieberman, who took more than his fair share of low blows in recent months as a result of his decision to hold fast to his views on the proposed health care reform bill then before the Senate. Lieberman continued to brave the barrage of attacks with grace and good humor. "I don't think about that stuff," Lieberman told the blog POLITICO recently. "I'm being a legislator. After what I went through in 2006, there's nothing much more that anybody [who] disagrees with me can try to do."
Not that everyone agreed that Lieberman deserved bashing. Some thought he did the country a service. Take, for example, Bob Kerrey, the former Democrat Senator from Nebraska who now serves as president of The New School in New York City, who wrote in an editorial printed last week in newspapers around the country, including the Hartford Courant, "My own view is that Lieberman should be thanked by Democrats. Because on both the merits and the politics, Lieberman is leading his former party - and the Congress as a whole - in precisely the right direction."
Meanwhile, the Senator continued to go about tending to the affairs of state: In recent days alone, Lieberman, together with
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), released a framework for comprehensive climate change and energy independence legislation; together with Senator Chris Dodd, he helped secure $75,373,800 million for transportation, housing, environmental, defense, and other projects across the state; as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he examined U.S. Army personnel policies and information sharing procedures as part of the Committee's investigation surrounding the Fort Hood shootings; his Homeland Security Committee also approved a measure that would provide domestic partner benefits to federal employees by a bipartisan 8-1 vote. Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Senator Susan Collins of Maine are original cosponsors of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009 bill.
Jeremy Linder, Cheshire
When Jeremy Linder turned 17 last year, the then-Cheshire High School senior donated blood for the first time. Which isn't surprising, given that as soon as he was old enough to join the Cheshire Fire Department at age 16, he grabbed the opportunity.
"I was always interested in being a firefighter and helping out in the community," he says. "I wanted to volunteer and give some of my time back."
When we first learned about the teen last January, he was planning to apply to the construction management program at Central Connecticut State University. He became interested in the field after starting up Nutmeg Lawn Care, LLC, another venue to give back to the community. Last year, Jeremy donated Nutmeg's services to the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" auction in Cheshire. As of this month, Jeremy has met both goals: He just completed his first semester in construction management at CCSU, and advanced to Recruit at the Cheshire Fire Department. He plans to take the Fire One exam in the spring and become a full-fledged volunteer firefighter.
During the storm earlier this month, Jeremy was on call at the fire department and was up most of the night digging out the public swimming pool whose cover had collapsed under the weight of the snow.
"Now he's getting back to his community," says his mom, Harriet Linder, who recently found a copy of the Cheshire High School yearbook on her coffee-table, sent to Jeremy with a thank-you note for a donation he made to the team. Harriet says that her son still gives money to a variety of causes, most of which he doesn't tell her about. "That's just who he is," she says.
Dr. Joseph Olzacki, Bloomfield
Dr. Joseph Olzacki can name an upside to the hate-mail he receives regularly. "If I weren't doing something right," he says, "I wouldn't be getting so much of it."
That "something right" is The Identity Project which Olzacki, the director of visual and performing arts for the Bloomfield public schools, founded three years ago to help his students understand what happens when, as he puts it, "someone strips you of everything that makes you, you?" The answer, he teaches them, is genocide.
Olzacki, who is not Jewish, holds a degree in political science with a focus in Holocaust studies. He designed The Identity Project to make the idea personal for his students, most of them of Afro-Caribbean backgrounds. "They had to realize that they're important," he says, "that they could have changed or fixed something during the Holocaust, and that now they must stand up for others."
This past fall, Olzacki led the program's third day trip since 2007 to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The group comprised 53 students of color from the Bloomfield High School concert band, paired with "elders," among them local Holocaust survivors and Rabbis Philip Lazowski and Stephen Landau, town council, local Jewish community leaders, and members of the Hartford Symphony and Hartford Stage - nearly 100 participants in all.
Earlier this month, Olzacki was selected to take part in the Global International Leadership Training Programme to be held in Kigali, Rwanda in January 2010. Olzacki is one of 100 young leaders in the field of human rights worldwide who will take part in the regional forum, hosted by the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights, in collaboration with the National Commission for Human Rights in Rwanda.
Later in life, if Olzacki's students are witness to a hate-fueled incident, he wants them to be able to say, "'Someone told me about this and showed me where this could go.' I want my kids to be global partners in never letting this happen again."
Ellen Schapps Richman, Greenwich
According to Richard Richman, wife Ellen fits the adage, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person."
In addition to being in her third year as president of the board of UJA Federation of Greenwich, Ellen has kept several other plates spinning in the air. Before becoming UJA Federation president, she was active in the Women's Division, founding its Business & Professionals group.
Ellen and her husband were co-chairs of the finance committee of the 2000 and 2004 Democratic Presidential campaigns in Connecticut, and Ellen was one of the first people in the country to join the national finance committee for Obama's Presidential run.
She has served on the board of Planned Parenthood of Connecticut and is currently on the board of United Way of Greenwich. She is active in the Breast Cancer Alliance in Greenwich and the Greenwich Hospital.
Ellen was on the regional board of AIPAC and, together with Richard, is a supporter of ADL and recipient of the ADL's Daniel Ginsburg Humanitarian Award. She received the YWCA's 2008 Spirit of Greenwich award.
While the Richmans two children attended Greenwich Academy, Ellen was active on the parents' board and school board and chaired several fund-raising campaigns. When both children became students at the University of Pennsylvania, she joined the institution's parents' board.
Ellen earned her MBA at the NYU Stern School of Business and became one of the first women vice presidents at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (now part of Pfizer, Inc.). She has been a professor at Pace University's Lubin School of Business.
The motivation behind Ellen's service smacks of classic Jewish values. "If she doesn't serve, who will? That's her point," says husband Richard. "Many people in the past have built up these organizations and institutions and it's a rite of passage: when it's your turn or your time, if you have the means and recognize the institution's importance to the community, you do your part. If you and your family have benefitted from the generosity of people in the past, your contributions will help others in the future."
Deborah Salomon, Greenwich
Deborah Tarasow Salomon is a wizard. Using the magic of Jewish summer-camp experiences the warmth of her own childhood memories as the daughter of a rabbi and a Jewish educator, and her years of teaching Hebrew and Judaica to children and adults, she works to turn Jewish children into lovers of their heritage.
So it is not surprising that she is founder, director, and spiritual leader of the innovative Hebrew Wizards School and the Wizards Congregation in Greenwich, which first opened in 2005.
When Salomon's brother died of a brain tumor in 2002, she vowed to make her life "extraordinary" by creating a school that combined her passion for Judaism and her memorable Jewish experiences: a pilgrimage to Israel, the feeling of Shabbat, the excitement of "color war" at Jewish summer camp - all combining a hunger for Jewish knowledge and a love of being Jewish.
Hebrew Wizards counts 125 students and 75 families, some who are simultaneously affiliated with area synagogues. At its annual gala in October, UJA Federation of Greenwich presented the Weitzman Youth Award for Jewish Philanthropy to 11 teens, all Hebrew Wizards and also affiliated with various area congregations. They were honored for their work in the Teen Wizards program, using a tzedakah curriculum originated by the American Joint Distribution Committee to raise money for two organizations in Israel that help vulnerable children.
Gregory Schneider, Riverdale, N.Y.
Following an extensive national search, Connecticut native Gregory Schneider was selected to head the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). The Claims Conference represents world Jewry in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs. It administers compensation funds, recovers unclaimed Jewish property, and allocates funds to institutions that provide social welfare services to Holocaust survivors and preserve the memory and lessons of the Shoah.
"[Gregory Schneider] is unquestionably dedicated to serving Jewish victims of Nazism, with a drive and commitment that has resulted in payments to hundreds of thousands of them and groundbreaking social care in more than 40 countries," said Conference Chairman Julius Berman in announcing the appointment.
In accepting the post, Schneider noted that there are still Holocaust victims who have yet to be acknowledged with compensation payments, and tens of thousands who are increasingly in need of homecare and medical care.
Schneider, who grew up in Bozrah, joined the Claims Conference in 1995, serving most recently as its chief operating officer. Among his many contributions, he is credited with overseeing the creation and implementation of several Claims Conference individual compensation payment programs for Jewish victims of Nazism.
State Sen. Gayle Slossberg, Milford
Assistant Majority Leader and chair of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, Slossberg caught our attention as co-chair and now vice-chair of the Select Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
First elected in 2004, Slossberg (D-Milford) almost immediately set out to fill the empty space in the State Capitol Concourse, which houses memorials to Connecticut's war veterans - except those who served in the Korean War.
"I remember going down to the concourse and looking at all the various tributes and statues and memorials, and thinking it so odd that there was nothing for the Korean War," Slossberg says. "It's ironic that it's called the 'Forgotten War,' and here in the main Legislature building, it had indeed been forgotten. I thought that that was wrong and needed to be rectified."
The memorial was the brainchild of West Hartford resident Mark Gordon, who served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. He began lobbying for a memorial in 2000, an effort Slossberg enthusiastically embraced once she came to the General Assembly. The Korean War Memorial Sculpture was unveiled on Nov. 9.
Slossberg told the Ledger that the project has been "a labor of love" for all those involved, from concept to dedication.
"It's something I'm very proud of," she says. "When our citizens go to war, those who are lucky enough to come back carry that with them forever and that changes them. It's so important that we honor their service and remember their sacrifice. Ultimately, the most important thing we can do is pay tribute to those people who were called to action for our country and served honorably, so that they know their efforts are not forgotten."
Dr. Janis Abrahms Spring, Westport
Clinical psychologist Janis Spring helps her clients navigate the choppy waters of adult life: marital infidelity, forgiveness, intimacy, trust, caring for an aging parent. The difference is that she's usually in the boat with them, as passenger and crew all at once.
Spring writes lucid, honest books about life's Big Issues, simultaneously wearing the two hats of seasoned therapist and uncertain client, and mining her own life experiences to help "normalize" difficult times for others. Writing with her husband, Michael Spring, she first came to the public's attention in 1997 with "After the Affair: Healing the Pain and Rebuilding Trust When a Partner Has Been Unfaithful" and "How Can I Forgive You? The Courage to Forgive, The Freedom Not To," both selected as a Books for a Better Life Award finalist in three categories - Best First Book, Best Relationship Book, Best Psychology Book - and have sold more than 450,000 copies.
As a result, she has been a sought-after educator and speaker throughout the country and on popular media programs.
Now she tackles the challenges of shepherding her elderly father through his last years. Set largely in West Hartford and co-written with Michael Spring, "Life with Pop: Lessons on Caring for an Aging Parent" looks unflinchingly at the moments of hardship and grace that so many of us face while caring for our own parents.
Even in this most personal of accounts, Spring guides readers with her gentle, straightforward therapist's voice: It takes two - both parent and child - to ensure that the process is one of growing old gracefully.
"Caring for my father was like taking a course in becoming a good old person," she told the Ledger earlier this year. "I saw myself aging as clearly and inevitably as the seasons change from green to white. As a middle-aged person, I know I'm next in line and I think about who will care for me and how I'll survive old age, if I'm lucky enough to live that long."