MARCH 2011

Hebrew Institute Dinner to
Honor Five Congregants

Five congregants will be honored when the Hebrew Institute of White Plains conducts its 61st annual testimonial dinner on Sunday April 10 at 5 p.m. at Temple Israel Center in White Plains.

Honorees are retiring President Dean Ungar and his wife, Ellen Ungar; Lara Siegel, and Selvia and Leonard Weinstein, all of whom will be cited for their leadership, service and outstanding commitment to the synagogue.

Dean Ungar will step down in July after two years as president. He has served on the synagogue board for 12 years and previously was financial adviser, gabbai and vice president. He also co-chaired with Debbie Schwartz the cantor selection committee that resulted in Yitzy Spinner joining the staff.

Ellen Ungar served both on the synagogue Board and Management Committee. An accountant, she was treasurer of the shul for five years. She also co-chaired the annual dinner, the mishloach manot program and shul retreat.

Lara Siegel, who does freelance work in public relations, has been a congregant for eight years. She is a member of the HI Board and organized the Women’s Rosh Chodesh Group. Also, she helped spearhead the Women’s Online Learning Group and is a co-leader. The latter group focuses on the weekly parshah.

Her husband, David Siegel, is a past member of the Board and past co-chair of the Educational Committee. They have three children, Yair, Nadiv and Marni.

Leonard and Selvia Weinstein have been members of the Hebrew Institute since just before Rosh Hashanah in 1985. His grandparents, Joseph and Fanny Weinstein, were among he founding members of the synagogue in 1915.

Both Selvia and Leonard have been very involved in the life of the synagogue, attending virtually every one of its activities. Selvia, who was born in Basra, Iraq, and forced as a child of 7 to flee with her family to Israel, attended nursing school there and became a pediatric nurse. She came to the United States in 1970 and worked as a seamstress and eventually became head of the alterations department at B. Altman & Co. Among her volunteer activities at the Hebrew Institute is helper in the Thrift Shop.

Leonard Weinstein, who had worked in the family drug store in Katonah and later as a salesman for pharmaceutical companies, serves a chairman of the synagogue’s Bikur Cholim Committee that visits Jewish patients at White Plains Hospital Center bi-weekly, including after services on Shabbat. The committee distributes holiday bags to the patients on Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah and Purim, and to congregants forced to be at home.

Abbreviated services are conducted on Yom Kippur for hospital patients and staff. Both Leonard and Selvia also volunteer at the Morse Geriatric Home in West Palm Beach when staying at their winter home in Boynton Beach.

Chairing this year’s dinner are Debra Kamerman and Audrey Reich. Chairs for the Journal directory are Cari Rosenberg and Liz Gabor. To attend the dinner call 948-3095.

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