Thank you to all of those who supported our Spring Benefit and to all who celebrated with us this year! It is the incredible generosity of our members and friends like you that sustains our synagogue community and enables us to do all that we do.
It was a such a joy to gather together and honor Melissa and Ken Glassman and Robert A. Caro. For any who were unable to join us, video of Melissa and Glassman’s Shem Tov Award acceptance speech and of Robert Caro’s conversation with Lizzie Gottlieb is available here.
Photos by Lenny Medina / RetroLenz Photography
SHEM TOV AWARD HONOREES
MELISSA AND KEN GLASSMAN
When MELISSA and KEN GLASSMAN decided to raise their children to be proud Jews, they chose Stephen Wise Free Synagogue as their spiritual home. A pediatrician and breastfeeding medicine specialist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Melissa has dedicated her career to supporting new mothers and their infants while expanding access to care, especially for low-income, Medicaid-insured patients. Ken oversees investments for a family office and is deeply engaged in civic life as the former chair of Arbor Rising and former vice chair of Ethical Culture Fieldston School’s board of trustees. Their children, Lilah and Noah, are alumni of our Early Childhood Center and Religious School and now volunteer as madrichim (teaching assistants), supporting our staff and serving as role models to their younger peers. The Glassman family enriches our community through their commitment to philanthropy and activism — and they inspire us with their dedication to Jewish life and service.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
ROBERT A. CARO
For the first time since 1997, our synagogue conferred a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, reserved to recognize those whose life’s work has changed our world for the better.
For his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson, ROBERT A. CARO has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, twice won the National Book Award, three times won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has been awarded virtually every other literary honor for “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York” and his four-volume biography “The Years of Lyndon Johnson.” His groundbreaking work in chronicling the lives of these powerful figures has left an indelible mark on our understanding of our city and country. In addition to his being an American literary icon, he is also a dedicated member of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. Robert grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he lives and works with his wife, the historian Ina Caro, who has written two classic books of her own.
During this year’s Spring Benefit, Robert sat down for an intimate conversation with Lizzie Gottlieb, director of “Turn Every Page,” which explores the author’s 50-year relationship with his longtime editor and Lizzie’s father, Robert Gottlieb.
