CBT Torah Fund Luncheon honors Cyd Friedman

Congregation Beth Torah Sisterhood honored Cyd Friedman on Sunday, Feb. 6, at the annual Torah Fund Luncheon benefiting Conservative Jewish institutes of higher learning around the world. More than 75 people attended the event at the Marriott Quorum, with many more watching online.

Friedman is a past president of Beth Torah, as well as a current member of the Jewish Federation of Dallas board of directors. Lisa Miller, last year’s honoree who chaired this year’s luncheon, praised Friedman’s dedication to the synagogue and the Jewish community at large.

The Torah Fund, now in its 80th year, has raised nearly $106 million to support Jewish education. It currently supports scholarships and programming at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York; Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles; Schechter Institutes of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem; Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Zacharias Frankel College in Potsdam, Germany.

Learn how to bake challah with Shearith Israel’s challah guru Ellen Bond

Congregation Shearith Israel will host a Challah Bake at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, at the shul, 9401 Douglas Ave. A virtual option is also available.

“Jewish women have been following the Jewish ritual of making challah for thousands of years. Whether it’s your first time to make challah or you are an experienced pro, the SISterhood at Congregation Shearith Israel invites you to ‘Bond’ with us as we make challah together under the direction of our very own challah guru, Ellen Bond,” says committee member Kimberly Ross. Rabbi Shira Wallach will give a special presentation about the significance of challah.

A challah kit will be provided which includes all the tools and ingredients to make two small challahs. For those attending virtually, kits can be picked up at Shearith on March 8.

Cost of the event, which is for adults only, is $25 for current Shearith SISterhood members and $30 for non-SISterhood members. Space is limited. Please RSVP by March 3 at http://tinyurl.com/SISchallah.

Joining Ross and Bond on the Challah Bake Committee are Barbra Applebaum, Roz Benjet, Nancy Brickman, Ann Cobert, Leslye Geller, Amy Harberg, Dora Rudberg and Belindy Sarembock.

Faust, Becker to star at CBT Men’s Club OscarFest

Movie mavens James Faust and Stephen Becker will be the guest speakers at the annual Congregation Beth Torah Men’s Club/Sisterhood lox-and-bagels OscarFest on Sunday, Feb. 27.

The Oscar edition of the monthly breakfast features discussion about the upcoming Academy Awards and the changing state of moviemaking in general.

Faust, artistic director of the Dallas Film Society and the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, has served on juries and panels at film festivals around the world. “I’ve been in love with film since the day I snuck into a drive-in with my parents when I was 4 years old,” he told the website Art House Dallas.

Becker, a former arts editor at The Dallas Morning News, is senior producer of the popular KERA interview show “Think,” which airs on more than two dozen public radio stations. As KERA’s “resident film buff,” he reports and opines about movies on the air and on its website.

The public is invited to the lox-and-bagels breakfast, which begins at 9:30 and costs $10, $5 for students. Congregation Beth Torah is located at 720 W. Lookout Drive in Richardson, near the crossroads of Bush Turnpike and Central Expressway.

News and notes

Mazal Tov to Batsheva Tropper, daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Moshe Tropper, who was named a National Merit Commended Scholar. Batsheva is a senior at Mesorah High School for Girls. Batsheva will attend seminary in Israel following graduation.