CHAI rededicates two homes for adults with cognitive disabilities

Did you know that the Community Homes for Adults, Inc. (CHAI) hosted the rededication of their Miller I and Miller II homes on Sunday, Dec. 6?
The event, honoring CHAI’s founder, Carmen Miller Michael, and CHAI Task Force Coordinator Barbara Gutow, included a mezuzah hanging ceremony led by Rabbi Howard Wolk, community chaplain.
CHAI Board Member Brett Diamond said, “The rededication of Miller House and the mezuzah event is a great opportunity for us to invite members of the community to our CHAI home and introduce them to our amazing residents who live fulfilling and meaningful lives.”
The mezuzahs serve to remind people of the presence of God in the home. In Jewish tradition, they are placed at an angle at each of the doorways to and within the house. According to Lea Rosenthal-Bond, executive director of CHAI, “Miller Houses I and II first opened in 1984 and have been recently remodeled. We felt that it was time to rededicate the homes with this event and have new mezuzahs hung to celebrate the beauty of the new homes.”
CHAI is a nonsectarian, nonprofit corporation under Jewish auspices that provides programs and services to enable adults with cognitive disabilities to live full, rich lives in a safe environment and to meaningfully participate in the community.

Benji Rubin designated as BBYO future leader

Mazel tov to Benji Rubin, son of Terri and Gary Rubin, who was named one of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization’s Future 50 Leaders. A member of Rubin Kaplan AZA, Benji is a senior at Richardson High School, where he has been active in the Communications Magnet program. Benji won a high school short film festival; he is a lifeguard and swim instructor, and a service learning award winner. He is passionate about Holocaust education and would like to be a studio head one day. He is the moreh for Kaplan AZA.
Poker tournament Dec. 25 to benefit Golman/Dallen Fund
On behalf of the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund, Louis Zweig will host the first annual Lox and Bagels Poker Tournament on Friday, Dec. 25, 8 a.m. at the JCC, sponsored by HBR Technologies.
Entry fee for the day of the tournament is $50 cash (all fees paid out to players). In addition, a $150 fee, paid by check to the Golman/Dallen Fund, will cover a gourmet breakfast from Simcha Catering.
All proceeds will benefit the Golman/Dallen Fund, which funds teacher training and special needs resources in Jewish religious schools, day schools and early childhood centers throughout the community.
RSVPs should be made to lzweig@glazers.com to reserve your spot. You may also RSVP by fax to 972-702-8516. If you have questions, please call Louis at 214-213-5664.
Checks should be made payable to the Gladys Golman/Faye Dallen Education Fund and mailed to 5220 Ambergate Lane, Dallas, TX 75287.
Dallas Holocaust Museum names Alice Murray new CEO
Alice Murray, a highly-regarded executive in Dallas’ real estate and nonprofit communities, is the new chief executive officer of the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance.
Murray, who has served as president and CEO of DowntownDallas, the Downtown Improvement District and The Real Estate Council, Inc., assumes the newly created post at the museum effective immediately, said Jim Hogue, president of the board of directors of the Museum/Center.
“Alice Murray is a talented executive and a highly-respected community leader who is the right person at the right time to lead the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance,” Hogue said. “Her background and experience is critical for the museum as we put together plans for a capital campaign to realize the long-awaited construction of a best-in-class, nationally-recognized museum/center for all the citizens of North Texas.”
Founded 25 years ago in the basement of the Dallas Jewish Community Center, the museum moved to its interim location at 211 N. Record St. in Dallas’ West End Historic District in 2005. More than 40,000 students and teachers and another 15,000 visitors tour the museum annually. The museum has purchased land along the DART rail line, across from the Sixth Floor Museum, at the corner of Houston and Pacific streets for the new building.
“I am thrilled, honored and excited to have the opportunity to work with the museum board and staff to take the museum to its next level, especially the construction of a new museum,” Murray said. “The museum’s mission — to teach the moral and ethical response to prejudice, hatred and indifference — is unduplicated in its importance for all residents of our city and region.”
At the request of the museum board, current Executive Director Elliott Dlin, an internationally-recognized Holocaust expert, will assume the new title of museum director and focus his duties on its educational, archival and content-related programs and services, especially for the new museum. “When the new museum is built, we want it to be recognized as the finest teaching museum in the region, if not the country,” Hogue said.
In addition to her nonprofit background, Murray has extensive experience in commercial real estate. Her first development project was the remodeling of the historic Kirby Building, a Main Street fixture since 1913, into a downtown residential high-rise that reopened in 1999. Other development projects included the finish-out construction of the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences, as well as premier hotel projects in San Diego, Calif., and Milwaukee, Wis., which were accomplished during her service as vice president of development at Gatehouse Capital Corporation in Dallas.
Murray has logged thousands of volunteer hours as a member or officer of nonprofit organizations, including the board and Executive Committee of DowntownDallas, the Executive Committee of the State Fair of Texas, the Executive Committee of the Trinity Commons Foundation, the board of the Dallas Summer Musicals and many others. Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller appointed her to the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness from 2004 to 2006.
More information can be found at www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org.

Tina Wasserman on KERA

Did you see Tina Wasserman featured Tuesday, Dec. 8, on KERA’s “Think”? If you didn’t have the opportunity to hear her discuss her new book “Entree to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora,” you can visit www.kera.org/think to hear a replay of the broadcast.
If you’re lucky, you might be able to get a discount price on Tina’s newest cookbook ($35) at Temple Emanu-El’s Judaic Treasures. While supplies last, of course!