WESTPORT – Chabad Lubavitch of Westport will pay tribute to two local couples at its Chabad-Lubavitch Annual Gala on Jan. 29 Ken and Allison Gruder of Fairfield and Brian and Leslie Gold of Westport will be honored at the annual Fairfield County fundraiser, to be held at Westport’s Inn at Longshore.  Both couples have played vital roles in the Center’s mission of promoting education and growth.
“Ken, Allison, Brian and Leslie have made major impacts on the success of our programs – through their participation, leadership and generosity,” the center’s Rabbi Yehudah Kantor said.
Allison and Ken Gruder will receive the center’s Community Service Award. Ken Gruder is an attorney with Goldman Gruder & Woods in Norwalk. Allison Gruder is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing in Westport.
Leslie and Brian Gold will receive the center’s Champion of Children Camp Gan Israel Award. Brian Gold is currently a research executive at Bridgewater Associates in Westport. In addition to Chabad, Leslie Gold is active in the Westport Young Woman’s League, the Temple Israel Caring Committee, and King’s Highway Elementary School.
“The gala is our big fundraiser for the year,” said Dina Kantor, co-director of the center. “It helps fund scholarships for our summer day camp, Camp Gan Israel, which we believe is especially critical in this economy.”
According to Kantor, the gala also helps fund a series of educational programs at the center, including its new family library, which will feature author events, children’s story time and Jewish literacy programs, a women’s adult bat mitzvah discovery course, iTeens classes, weekly women’s Torah study, Jewish Learning Institute adult education classes, bar/bat mitzvah tutoring, parenting seminars, and a documentary on Jewish life in Fairfield County being produced by the Center’s teen program.”
For more information about the gala call (203) 226-8584 or visit www.chabadofwestport.com.