JCC Association Honors Former Chair Esther Leah Ritz
In memory of Honorary Chair Esther Leah Ritz, JCC Association
has renamed its premier new-leadership training program in
her honor. The prestigious Esther Leah Ritz Next Generation
JCC Leadership Awards and Training Institute is the ideal
commemoration of a woman who exemplified the noblest tradition
of communal leadership. “Esther Leah Ritz's true gift,
among many that she gave to the JCC Movement, was her mentoring
of literally hundreds of professional and volunteer leaders,”
said JCC Association President Allan Finkelstein. “Her
legacy is clear in the many people who learned from her. This
program will assure that others will learn about her, and
from her, for years to come.” Over seventy leaders from
JCCs will participate in the training institute at this year’s
JCCs of North America
Biennial in Montreal on May 2-5.
Ritz, who died on December 26, 2003, distinguished herself
as an active Jewish leader in her local community of Milwaukee
and in the continental and international arenas. In addition
to holding the presidency of the Harry & Rose Samson Family
JCC of Milwaukee, she served as president of JWB, the forerunner
of JCC Association, from 1982 to 1986, served as president
of the JCC Association-Florence G. Heller Research Center,
chaired the World Confederation of JCCs, and was instrumental
in creating a sense of an international Jewish Community Center
Movement. She was the recipient of one of JCC Association’s
highest honors, the Community Builders Award.
Dynamically involved in the world around her to the end of
her life, Ritz once said, “I am proof that growing up
in a very small Jewish community with almost no Jewish education
does not prevent involvement in Jewish life as an adult.”
The Esther Leah Ritz Next Generation JCC Leadership Awards
will help many young Jews take their places at the forefront
of the JCC Movement.
JCC Association is the leadership network of,
and central agency for the Jewish Community Center Movement,
which is comprised of more than 275 JCCs, YM-YWHAs and camps
in the U. S. and Canada. JCC Association offers a wide range
of services and resources to strengthen the capacity of its
affiliates to provide educational, cultural, social, Jewish
identity-building, and recreational programs to enhance the
lives of North American Jews of all ages and backgrounds.
Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens connections
between North American Jews and Israel as well as with world
Jewry. JCC Association is also the only U.S. government accredited
agency for serving the religious and social needs of Jewish
military personnel, their families, and patients in VA hospitals
through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
Miriam
Rinn
Communications Manager
JCC Association
15 E. 26 St., NY, NY 10010
212-786-5092
fax: 212-481-4174
send an e-mail
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