Adath Annual Benefit 2020

Adath Annual Benefit

Honoring Sally Appelbaum
for Extraordinary Service and Leadership in the Adath Community

Your amazing support has helped us raise $100,000 for our Adath community!

Meet Sally Appelbaum

For more than fifty years, Sally Appelbaum has exemplified Adath’s values of leadership, generosity and commitment to service. When she and Ken (z’l) joined the synagogue so they could enroll their kids in nursery school, Sally quickly agreed to serve as nursery school chairperson. A few years later she helped launch Adath’s Chevra Kavod Hamet, and then served for years as the Chevra’s bookkeeper. Sally and her family were active throughout the Adath community, including study groups, ritual life and social gatherings. She became an obvious choice to lead the synagogue, and was elected President in 1983.

As President, Sally led with an ethic of creative problem-solving and deep engagement, no matter how difficult the issue. “To be sure, there were some difficult and unpleasant experiences. But I have always believed that an honest assessment of the problems just comes with the territory, so it’s okay. I always want to look at it square in the face and go from there.”

Shepherding Adath through complex challenges became Sally’s forte, as she was later tapped to co-Chair the steering committee which led the move from Adath’s home on Dupont Avenue in Minneapolis to Hillside Lane in Minnetonka. “I was thrilled with the congregation’s vote to move, because I was a big fan of that scenario,” she recalls. “When asked to co-Chair the steering committee, I found I had a job for the nineteen nineties!”

Sally credits flexibility and collective commitment to a shared vision as keys to the success of the move. “You have to listen to your constituents and make some adjustments. And we always had so many people willing to get involved and do the work. While I might have stirred the pot, it took all of us together to get the deed done. And that’s just true of life.”

In addition to a lead gift to the new building campaign, Sally and Ken (z’l) have consistently blessed Adath with gifts supporting—among other things—family life education, the inclusion of LGBTQ Jews and other marginalized members of the community, TAMID, strategic planning, Holocaust studies at Talmud Torah, and permanent gifts to the Foundation’s endowment. In recent years Sally has guided the Adath Foundation as a member of its Board of Directors. “When I moved back to Minnesota in 2015, I couldn’t come back without a job! That was my time to get involved in the Foundation.”

Today as a resident of Knollwood Place Apartments, Sally is happy to represent Adath and continues to field questions, comments and concerns. “I can always listen to people,” she says. “It’s my honor. I just feel privileged to have been a part of the whole Adath experience. Whatever it was along the way, it was always the best job I ever had.” Adath is proud to recognize Sally Appelbaum for a lifetime of exemplary leadership, generosity, and service to the Adath community.

Thank you to our generous matching sponsors!

Presenting Sponsor

Sally Appelbaum

Headliner Sponsor

Steve & Sheri Lear and Affiance Financial

Backstage Pass Sponsors

The Mike and Linda Fiterman Family Foundation
Jeanne & Stan Kagin
Lynn and Ron Zamansky Family
Mort and Merle Kane

Last updated May, 15
click here to view sponsorship levels

For questions regarding donations or if you wish to become a matching sponsor contact Annual Benefit Chair Alexis Kessler at adathbenefitcommittee@gmail.com or call the office phone number at 952.545.2424.

Host committee

Debra Altschuler & Eric Hausman
Richard & Charlotte Berman
Andrea & Ted Blumberg
Joel Brand
Michael & Carol Bromer
Tobi Cooper
Dudley & Andrew Deshommes-Kohls
Cindy Dubansky
Rabbi Ryan & Hazzan Joanna Dulkin
Barb & Andy Fishman
Bill & Bev Fishman
Sharon & Bill Garber
Heidi Geller
Sandy Glassman
Leslie & Bernie Goldblatt
Judy K. Goldstein
Scott & Terri Gordon
Jason & Jacy Grais
Arlis Grossman
Alan & Evie Ingber
Susie Held & Dan Lieberthal
Risa, Steven & Alexis Kessler
Ross Kahn & Nancy Krawetz
Raleigh & Randy Kaminsky
Mort & Merle Kane
Sharon & Al Kaufmann

Chris Kellogg & Jack Leveille
Alexis Kessler
Boris & Erica Kopilenko
Rabbi Harold Kravitz & Cindy Reich
Gwyn Leder & Lenny Garber
Ella Meyerson
Ann & Todd Miller
Charlotte Nudell
George Nudell & Liba Casson Nudell
David & Jill Orbuch
Joyce & Martin Orbuch
Debra Orbuch Grayson & Scott Grayson
Larry & Barb Parks
Joe & Nancy Peilte
Paul & Freddie Pink
Michael Raymond & Aimee Orkin
Marty & Tema Rosenbaum
Lydia Roth-Laube & Herb Laube
Barbara Rubin-Greenberg & Barry Greenberg
Joy Sandler
Janice & Jeff Schachtman
David & Renee Segal
Jan Shark Frisch
Jeffrey Sherman

Sue Shrell Leon & Dave Leon
Risa Siegel & Siatta Dunbar
Anna Simon
Craig & Debbie Spencer
Stacie & Jeff Usem
Annette Walder
Rabbi Aaron Weininger
Ardis Wexler
The Zacks Family – Jennifer, Jeremy, Yoni, Noah & Eliana
Lynn & Ron Zamansky
Julie & Scot Ziessman
Sharon Zweigbaum

Benefit committee

Alexis Kessler, Chair
Hazzan Joanna Dulkin
Craig Spencer
Scott Gordon
Heidi Geller
Susie Held
Jeff Daniels

Erica Kopilenko
Nancy Peilte
Joe Peilte
Jeffrey Sherman
Marty Rosenbaum
Andrea Blumberg
Miranda Weisbuch

Dudley Deshommes-Kohls
Andrew Thomas Deshommes-Kohls
Jan Frisch
Eric Hausman
Annette Walder
Dorit Fishman