Flatbush

Temple Sholom honors pillars of the Flatbush community

Local Leaders Gather for Evening of Food and Dance

April 4, 2017 By Andy Katz Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Temple Sholom Past President, Ritual Vice President and honoree Hy Bogatch. Eagle photos by Andy Katz
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Rabbi Eliseo Rozenwasser of Temple Sholom presided over a dinner and dance at the Flatbush Conservative synagogue to honor Democratic Party District Leader Sue Ann Partnow, Millennium Group Executive Director Paul Curiale, Sholom Ritual Vice President Hy Bogatch and attorney Susan Master for their efforts in strengthening both the congregation and community at large.

Also on hand for the late afternoon soiree were King’s County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Seddio, City Councilmember for District 46 Alan Maisel, Thomas Jefferson Club of King’s County President Henry Bolus, King’s County Supreme Court Justices Carolyn Wade, Larry Knipel and David Vaughan, Bergen Beach Civic Association President Michael Benjamin and many others.

“My dad always had a strong worth ethic,” Linda Bogatch explained while presenting her father Hy Bogatch with his award. “No matter what job or project he was involved in, he always put one hundred percent of his effort in it.”

“I’ve had great relations with the many rabbis and cantors that served our temple,” Bogatch, a one-time Sholom Temple president and member since 1963, told the audience. “My children complained I spent too much time at the temple … but we worked it out, and I’m here.”

“How many people remember that show, ‘This Is Your Life’?” quipped Councilman Alan Maisel when introducing Paul Curiale. Maisel went on to describe Curiale and Millennium’s intervention on behalf of Temple Sholom’s senior center after a previous provider lost its contract. “Millennium Development agreed to come in and operate the center at no significant cost to the organization. A lot of what he’s put in is not being reimbursed.”

“I’m blessed,” Curiale said, “because God has given me the strength each and every day to serve. And that one word is what keeps us going [and] keeps us here tonight.”

Susan Master organized the Marvin Master Memorial Blood Drive in conjunction with the Knights of Pythias and Maimonides Medical Center in honor of her later father Marvin Master. “One of the Ten Commandments is to honor thy father and thy mother,” friend Marlene Podell said while introducing Master. “Susan has really taken this commandment to heart.”

“If you think about it,” Master told the audience, “life is a volunteer job … We all have something to contribute.”

After joking that the food at Sholom was splendid, lacking only the addition of Parmigiana, Party Chair Frank Seddio took his turn to introduce District Leader Sue Anne Partow. “Sue Ann has the fortitude, the intelligence, the confidence to make things happen time and time again,” he said. “We’ve given her many titles, but the one I’d like to give her is ‘Woman of the Year’!”

Focusing her remarks on the number four, Partnow explained: “I am lucky to be part of four families: my Temple Sholom family, my senior center family, my political family — the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club — and, of course, my own family, the people that light up my life — my husband Mark, my sons Mitchell and Brandon and my daughter-in-law Mary.”

Mistress of ceremonies Marcia Schiff concluded the presentation by calling for a celebratory hora and tarantela on the auditorium’s dance floor.

 

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