This year’s Torah Fund dinner, on Thursday evening, March 14, 2024, celebrates 81 years of Torah Fund at Temple Beth Am and honors Annette Berman, with the Marjorie Pressman z”l Leadership Award.
Annette and her beloved husband, Abe z”l, joined TBA in 1999, immediately becoming active in the Library Minyan. Over the years Annette has become a regular on the bima, reading Torah, chanting Haftarah and Song of Songs for Library Minyan and joint TBA services. Her reputation as a stalwart voice of Jewish feminism in Los Angeles followed her to Temple Beth Am, where she and likeminded people were integral in influencing the Daily Minyan’s egalitarian evolution. Over the years Annette has been active in Sisterhood programs, including Rosh Hodesh and Book Club, and she and Abe always supported Torah Fund.
TBA Sisterhood and Women’s League for Conservative Judaism strive to make a significant impact through scholarships and resources benefiting the students at the five Conservative/Masorti Jewish seminaries around the world. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we help committed Jewish students become the rabbis, cantors, educators, synagogue administrators, social workers, scholars, researchers, and lay leaders of tomorrow. When you support Torah Fund you align with those who value learning, knowledge, and providing the future generation with relevant skills to fortify the Jewish people.
The 2024/5784 Torah Fund commemorative pin highlights the word ‘arevut,’ responsibility. It corresponds to the theme from the Babylonian Talmud, Shevuot 39a, ” Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Ba’Zeh”, that all the people of Israel are responsible for one another. Torah Fund is the dedicated philanthropy that assumes that responsibility by providing scholarships and resources at the five Conservative/Masorti institutions of higher education.