By Sharon Wisch-Ray

With Passover literally around the corner, you may remember some meaningful programs in years past spearheaded by the Dallas Jewish Community Relations Council and, more specifically, former director Marlene Gorin.
Last year, Marlene facilitated an interfaith community seder, held at Temple Shalom, which focused on ending hunger. In 2011, the JCRC along with the Rabbinic Association of Greater Dallas joined together to distribute a special Passover reading on hunger.
In honor of her 36 years of dedicated service to the Jewish and interfaith communities, Marlene was honored with the Jewish Council of Public Affairs’ Distinguished Service Award earlier this month at the JCPA’s annual plenum in Washington.

The JCPA is the national association of JCRCs and similar organizations.
JCPA national lay leadership and JCRC community directors and professionals joined in praising Marlene’s efforts and dedication in the areas of fostering intergroup relations and coalition building, conducting advocacy for Israel, promoting the government affairs and public policy agenda, and being in the forefront of calling attention to the many issues of social justice facing our society today.
At the presentation, Andrea Weinstein, past national chair of JCPA and a past chair of the Dallas JCRC, and Joy Kurland, president of the JCRC Directors Association and director of the JCRC of Northern New Jersey, spoke of Marlene’s efforts to build and create a partnership between professionals and lay leaders, which has greatly enriched both the Dallas community and the national Jewish community.
It was noted that Marlene served 18 years as assistant and acting director of the JCRC of Greater Washington and has just completed 18 years as executive director of the Dallas JCRC. During this time, Marlene served four years as national president of the JCRC Directors’ Association.

Munn earns place on Raymond James executive council

Irv Munn, a certified financial planner, was recently named a member of the Raymond James 2013 executive council. Executive council honors are presented only to those financial advisers who have demonstrated an extremely high level of commitment to clients through personal service and professional integrity.
Membership is based mainly on assets under management, education, credentials and fiscal year production. Re-qualification is required annually. This marks the sixth straight year that Irv has qualified for this important recognition.
Irv is the president of Munn & Morris Financial Advisors. The firm consists of a team of private wealth managers that help high-net-worth individuals manage and coordinate their financial affairs. Their proprietary investment process incorporates an exit strategy to mitigate the risk of large losses, and uses relative strength investing to take advantage of current market trends.
Irv received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and his master’s degree from the University of Texas. He is also a CPA, but recently sold his accounting firm to devote more time to financial planning. He has been a registered representative with Raymond James Financial Services for 15 years.

Save the date: May 5

Sunday, May 5 will be a big day for the Dallas area.
Michael Kimmelman will speak at the 2013 Dallas Design Symposium at 2 p.m. at the Nasher Sculpture Center, followed by a book signing of his most recent release, “The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa.”
Tickets are available at NasherSculptureCenter.org. Symposium-only admission is $35 for Nasher and Architecture Forum members; $50 for non-members. Cost for both the symposium and the reception is $100 for Nasher and Architecture Forum members; $150 for non-members.
Kimmelman is an author, critic, columnist and pianist. He is the chief architecture critic for The New York Times and has written on issues of public housing, public space, infrastructure, community development and social responsibility.
He was the paper’s longtime chief art critic and, in 2007, created the “Abroad” column, as a foreign correspondent covering culture, political and social affairs across Europe and elsewhere. He returned to New York in 2011, and his articles since have helped to reshape the public debate about urbanism, architecture and architectural criticism, according to a news release.
A fellow at the London School of Economics, he was born and raised in Greenwich Village, the son of a physician and civil rights activist. He attended Friends Seminary in Manhattan, graduated summa cum laude from Yale College and received his graduate degree in art history from Harvard University, where he was an Arthur Kingsley Porter Fellow.
A pianist who still regularly performs as a soloist and with chamber groups on concert series in New York and around Europe, he started as a music critic at the paper, then moved into art.
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and a 2012 Poynter Fellow at Yale, he also contributes regularly to the New York Review of Books.
Also on May 5, Texas Torah Institute will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a banquet honoring founders Rabbi Aryeh and Henny Rodin and Ivan and Melanie Sacks.
The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres followed by the dinner at 7:30 at the Westin Galleria.
For reservations visit www.texastorah.org or call 214-446-8821.
Mazel tov to TTI on its decade of educating young Jewish men in a warm Yeshiva environment.