Public Employee Press

Celebrating Jewish heritage

By JANE LaTOUR

With Klezmer music from the Golden Land Orchestra setting the mood, the red-white-and-blue U.S. flag and the blue-and-white flag of Israel stood side-by-side as participants sang the Star Spangled Banner and Hatikvah (The Hope), Israel’s national anthem, to open DC 37’s annual Jewish Heritage celebration on May 6.

Jewish Heritage Committee Chair Dr. Leonard Davidman, the president of Psychologists Local 1189, welcomed more than 500 members and retirees to the annual affair, and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a member of Local 299 and a Fire Dept. Chaplain, offered the invocation.

DC 37 Secretary Clifford Koppelman, the president of Local 1070, and a member of the committee, offered remarks on behalf of Executive Director Lillian Roberts. “Celebrating our many different cultures is a tradition here at DC 37, and tonight we are celebrating the great Jewish culture, which goes back for thousands of years. We are proud of the important Jewish tradition of taking on bigotry,” he said.

“It’s a great honor and privilege to be here standing between these two flags,” said keynote speaker Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. “All of my life has been interwoven with the history of the young state of Israel.” Shalev had a full career as a reputed legal scholar, professor and author when she became ambassador in 2008. In her talk, she outlined the current events that are framing recent discussion about Israel and spoke movingly of her hopes for moving beyond today’s volatile situation.

Like dessert after a heavy meal, comedian Freddie Roman, billed as the “King of the one-liners,” repeatedly brought down the house with light and lively humor.

Night cap

There were jokes about growing older, beset by prostate problems and memory lapses, comments on the funny side of drugs like Viagra and TV commercials about new pharmaceuticals and their dire warnings about side effects, and stories of retiree life in Florida, “a suburb of anywhere cold, where the state bird is the early bird special.” All were able to partake of an abundant kosher meal. “It’s so important not to forget our Jewish heritage and to reach out to others,” said committee member Yonaton Pronman, who served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Germany, and Fort Hood, Tex., as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army.

Dr. Davidman thanked the large committee for their contributions to the program and noted that President Barack Obama had declared May as Jewish-American Heritage Month in a proclamation that said, “The Jewish American story is an essential chapter of the American narrative. It is one of refuge from persecution, commitment to service, faith, democracy and peace.”