Yorktown Jewish Center Wins Award for Excellence in Synagogue Programming

POSTED: JANUARY 2012

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism had announced that Yorktown Jewish Center has received a Solomon Schechter Award for Excellence in Synagogue Programming. The award goes to congregations affiliated with the United Synagogue that have distinguished themselves during the preceding two years in various aspects of congregational life. Winners were honored at the United Synagogue’s international biennial convention, held in early December at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in La Jolla, California.

“You must experience the event in order to appreciate the depth of feeling which our annual Yom Ha-Shoah commemoration evokes in teenagers and adults, alike” says Rabbi Seth Sternstein, spiritual leader of the congregation. “We focus less on the overwhelming sorrow of the Holocaust, and more on the preservation of Jewish life, despite brutal oppression. It is an outstanding memorial to surpassing courage, amazing perseverance, and enduring spiritual victory”.

The Solomon Schechter Awards, named after the founder of United Synagogue, have been awarded to hundreds of congregations since 1950. The awards were instituted both to recognize excellence in synagogue programming and to help spotlight models that other synagogues might emulate. This year’s selections were based on a variety of criteria, including imaginative and creative use of resources, as well as the program’s impact on the congregation’s membership.

Photo caption: Left to right: Rabbi Steven Wernick, USCJ Executive Vice-President; Sol Krongelb, YJC Yom Ha-Shoah committee chair; and Richard Skolnick, USCJ International President.

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