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Kathy Freeman to receive NCJW award

The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Dallas Section, will recognize Kathy Freeman with its top honor, the Hannah G. Solomon Award, at its 97th annual Birthday Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 11:30 a.m., at Bent Tree Country Club. NCJW presents this award to individuals with a strong NCJW identity whose leadership efforts have changed the lives of others and motivated others to work for social change, and who have helped expand the role of women in community life.
“Kathy Freeman exemplifies the criteria of this prestigious award,” said Cheryl Pollman, section president. “She is, above all, a doer.”
Early in her volunteer career, Kathy worked with the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas to set up apartments for immigrants escaping from communist Russia. Not long after that, she became an NCJW tutor in DISD’s Travis Elementary School. She continued her NCJW career, chairing many major initiatives such as the Juvenile Mediation/Restitution Committee, for which she received the Advocate of the Year Award from the Juvenile Department of Dallas County. From 1998 to 2000, she served as the NCJW Dallas section’s president. Her most recent involvement is in two current major NCJW programs: one that tackles childhood obesity, and another that serves as a bridge support system for teens “graduating” out of foster care. She has been a force, as well, in programs battling domestic abuse in the Jewish community.
NCJW will also bestow honors on Linnie Katz, who will receive the Janis Levine Music Make-a-Difference Award, and Felise Leidner, who will be recognized with the Emerging Leader Award.
Linnie’s Make-a-Difference impact has been felt in many NCJW programs: Safeguards for Seniors, a program that helped seniors manage their medications; Kids in Court, which supports juvenile abuse victims during their court appearances; the Community Board Institute; and delivering Meals on Wheels. She has served as co-vice president of community service for two years, and currently serves as co-vice president of financial development.
The Emerging Leader Award recognizes Felise Leidner’s talents as a hands-on volunteer and a program leader. As co-vice president of community service, she oversees six major NCJW community service projects, yet still finds time to teach English as a Second Language to recent immigrants at Vickery Meadow Learning Center.
National Council of Jewish Women/Dallas Section is a progressive organization of women AND men who research needs in the community and seek to fill those needs through direct community service and advocacy. Examples of programs researched, initiated and then spun off by NCJW/Dallas Section include: LIFT, CASA, DISD Volunteer Program and the Meyerson Symphony Center Docent Program.
Luncheon tickets are $54. For more information, please call the NCJW office, 214-368-4405, or e-mail them at www.ncjwdallas.org.

Beth Torah Men’s Club welcomes Jeff Morris

Jeff Morris, the founder of a Web site that helps unemployed and under-employed people in the Dallas area find new jobs, will be the guest speaker at the Beth Torah Men’s Club breakfast on Sunday, Jan. 10.
Morris, a former manufacturing manager and career counselor, established careerdfw.com in November 2008. The comprehensive Web site includes advice, networking groups, job fairs, resources to get careers back on track and even humor to help people cope with tough times.
The goal, the Web site proclaims, is “giving you the tools you need to land your next great opportunity.” More than 50,000 people from 80 countries visited the site in its first year.
Morris also leads the North Dallas Career Focus Group, which helped place more than 150 people in new jobs in 2009.
The Men’s Club lox-and-bagel breakfast is open to the community. The cost is $10, but anyone looking for a job or unable to pay is invited to breakfast as a guest of the Men’s Club.
The breakfast begins at 9 a.m. Beth Torah is located at 720 West Lookout Drive in Richardson. For more information, call the synagogue at 972-234-1542.

Women’s self-defense workshop

Seconds count! The JCC is offering a life-changing clinic for women, 15 years of age and up, on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in the Mind Body Studio of the J Sports and Fitness Complex, 7900 Northaven Road. Teens and elders will learn simple, easy-to-retain self-defense techniques; defend against the most common grabs and holds; and understand how to use self-confidence and self-esteem to prevent attacks. Instructor Enrique Welcher, a certified karate instructor on the National Israel Karate Selection Team, was the 2007 World Champion at the World Union-Spain. He developed the Israeli Krav-Haganah technique, the method taught at the Israeli police cadets’ school. There is no fee, but space is limited and advance reservations are necessary by Jan. 13. For more information, please contact JCC Sport and Fitness Group Exercise Director Terri Arends, 214-239-7137 or tarends@jccdallas.org.

Orthodox Union to honor Dallas’ Rabbi Israel Lashak

The Ben Zakkai Honor Society of NCSY (National Conference of Synagogue Youth), the international youth program of the Orthodox Union, will induct Rabbi Israel Lashak of Dallas, director of the NCSY Southwest Region, at the 14th annual Ben Zakkai Honor Society Scholarship Reception, Jan. 10, 5 p.m. at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York. Rabbi Lashak, who moved to Dallas in 1990 to head NCSY, was a founding teacher at Yavneh Academy, where he taught for 13 years. The director of Jewish Student Union of Texas and involved in countless other organizations, he will also receive the Rebbetzin Elaine and Rabbi Pinchas Stolper Leadership Award.
“It is a wonderful achievement for nearly two decades of dedication to the teens of Dallas,” said Rabbi Yaakov Rosenblatt, administrator of NCSY. “Rabbi Lashak is passionate, fun and a burst of Jewish dynamism. He has been there for teens of all backgrounds and has been a source of inspiration to us all.”
Ben Zakkai Honor Society is an alumni “Hall of Fame” whose new members are nominated, and voted on, by its current members based on the nominees’ service to NCSY and the Jewish community. The society’s main function is to raise scholarship funds for high school NCSYers for summer programs in North America and Israel. For more than 40 years, the society has helped pay tribute to esteemed NCSY alumni and community leaders who have demonstrated their dedication to Torah and their service to the Jewish people.
Dinner proceeds will provide scholarships for NCSY members to continue their Jewish education after high school, or to participate in national NCSY programs, such as Camp Sports for Boys, National Yarchei Kallah, and Summer Experience for Girls.
The evening will also honor the legacy of Moses I. Feuerstein, who played an historic role in creating NCSY and the contemporary Orthodox Union. During Feuerstein’s 12 years as Orthodox Union president (1954–66), he took particular delight in mentoring future leaders. He was prominent in the business world yet deeply devoted to Torah and mitzvot, serving as a role model for his generation, teaching young Orthodox Jews that one need not sacrifice commitment to Torah to be successful in the secular world.

Robert Klein to perform at Addison Improv Jan. 12 and 13

Actor and comedian Robert Klein will perform his stand-up comedy routine at the Addison Improv on Jan. 12 and 13 in preparation for his ninth HBO one-man show.
Klein has entertained audiences for more than 40 years, and continues to have an acclaimed career in comedy, on Broadway, on television and in film. He has done eight one-man shows for HBO. He recently released “Robert Klein: The HBO Specials 1975–2005,” a collector’s special edition DVD box set containing all of his HBO comedy specials.
He was nominated twice for Grammy Awards for “Best Comedy Album of the Year” for his albums “Child of the Fifties” and “Mind Over Matter.” He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor and won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his performance in the hit Neil Simon musical, “They’re Playing Our Song.”
Klein co-starred in the hit NBC series, “Sisters,” and regularly appears on talk shows, making more than 100 appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Show with David Letterman” alone. He has also appeared in films including, “Hooper,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Primary Colors,” “People I Know,” “Two Weeks Notice” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” He will be seen in the upcoming films “Dirty Movie” and “Demoted.”
The Jan. 12 show is at 8 p.m. and the Jan. 13 show is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20. For more information, call 972-404-8501.