Nina Malinak

  Sandy Zians is our special volunteer. Sandy and husband Sam were members of Beth Israel for four months when they stepped up and took on the responsibilities of Ritual Co-Directors. Sam retired after 2 years and Sandy continued with all of the duties of the Director.

It comes as no surprise if you “know” Sandy Zians that she jumped right into volunteering. She has always been a volunteer even when she was teaching special needs children in the Youngstown schools for 32 years and typical children for 8. She continues to share her love of education and children by substituting in our local schools. She volunteered in her congregation in Youngstown, Ohio and became the President. She and Sam gave their time to the American Cancer Society by working on the Relay for Life and chairing the Annual Cattle Barons Ball, a major fundraiser for ACS.

Sandy has always said that Beth Israel is her home. She has made homentaschen for our Purim celebration since she arrived. Her kugels are well known at the pot luck meals as are her pastries. Sandy does not know how to say NO. When we needed someone to handle the Yahrzeit lists she said “I will”. Little did she know it was a yeoman’s job to update the files, but she doesn’t quit easily. William Shakespeare wrote: “although she be but little she is fierce”; he must have had a premonition as to the character of Sandy Zians.

Congratulations Sandy for being Beth Israel’s Special Volunteer.

Sandy has been active in Jewish life for over 50 years. She was involved in many organizations in various capacities in Youngstown, Ohio prior to her family’s relocation to Tampa three years ago. She served as President of the local and district Hadassah chapter, was a board member of the Jewish Community Center, Jewish society, serving as Chairman of the Relay for Life and Co-chair of the American Cancer Center Cattle Barron’s Ball.

At the age of 60, Sandy became a Bat Mitzvah and within her synagogue, El Emeth Temple, served as President from 2012-2014 and Funds Vice President of the Sisterhood.

After moving to Tampa, she immediately assumed the position of Ritual Co-chair alongside her husband Sam. She organizes religious activities with grace and charm and is an asset to the Sisterhood and synagogue. Sandra and her husband have four children and six grandchildren.

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Paul Spiegal, our Beth Israel’s special volunteer, has given so much to our congregation. Not only does Paul join the rummage sale crew in making things happen, but he shleps in his jewelry and sets up tables outside or inside and sells his jewelry giving Beth Israel most of the proceeds. Not only did he chair the fund-raising committee for many years shortly after he and Marlene arrived here, but he still continues to help with that committee when he is in town. Not only does he attend services on a regular basis, but you can usually find him schlepping the garbage out to the curb. You might call Paul a consummate shlepper!

Paul and Marlene moved to the SCC area in 2006. He was raised in the Boston area (check out the accent) and began his career there. Paul has been involved in Jewish community nonprofit work his entire life. He doesn’t know what it means not to volunteer. He has been the CEO of Federations and JCCs in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Lancaster, PA, Binghamton, NY, and Canton, OH. His heroes are the volunteers of each of the organizations he has been involved in; he knows and appreciates the work each volunteer gives to the organization.

Paul firmly believes that being a volunteer for Beth Israel is more crucial than most organizations because many of our congregants are physically unable to help out. He encourages everyone who can, to “step up to the plate and help out.”

Congratulations Paul for being Beth Israel’s Special Volunteer.

The purpose of this Congregation is to promote the fundamental and enduring principles of Judaism and to ensure the continuity of the Jewish people, to enable its members to develop a relationship with God through communal worship, study of Torah, and assembly; and to apply the principles of Judaism to the values and conduct of the individual, and the society in which we live.

2018 marks the thirty year anniversary of  Beth Israel the Jewish Congregation of Sun City Center’s building at 1115 Del Webb Blvd E.  Numerous events have been scheduled throughout the year to commemorate this event as we remain the beacon for Jewish life in Sun City Center.

Unveiling the new Arc Curtain Shavuot May 20, 2018

Sunday, August 19th 4:00 PM Unveiling of the Legacy Board

Beth Israel’s legacy started 30 years ago when our building was completed and we became the beacon for Jewish life in Sun City Center.

Pictured in front of painting by Harvey Berman (L-R) Paul Spiegal, Marlene Spiegal, Barry Friedman, Barbara Nova, Dick Marshall, Marsha Marshall, Joy Rosen, Sandy Zians, Shirley Bergman (Temple founding member), Jeff Beller, Martin Hurwitz (Temple founding member, Sandra Hurwitz (Temple founding member), Rochelle Lafer, Nina Malinak, Sam Sudman, Joanne Sudman

Wealth lasts a lifetime, legacy lasts forever

Friday, September 7, 2018 Unveiling of the new Ner Tamid

Our 30^th Anniversary celebration continued with the dedication of a new Ner Tamid on Friday, September 7^th.  The Ner Tamid was designed by our own Sid Goldstein and donated by Barbara Grossman and her family in memory of her husband Dick.  Technical expertise was contributed by Bob Cobe, Jon Gamson, and Bernie Katz

The Jewish people were commanded by God to have an eternal flame, Ner Tamid, constantly burning on the altar of the Mishkan and that was continued when the temple was built in Jerusalem.

This permanent flame is a symbol of God’s eternal presence amongst Israel. But the flame symbolizes more than that.  It is the symbol of the light of the Torah. It teaches the lesson of eternity – of the long view of life and events, and of the unquenchable love between God and our people and of the Jewish people and our Torah.

30th Anniversary Celebration October 26, 2018 4:00 PM

Dr. Michael A. Meyer PhD

HUC/JRC, Cincinnati

            Michael A. Meyer was born in Berlin, Germany and grew up in Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. (with highest honors) from UCLA.  His doctorate is from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

From 1964 to 1967, he taught at the Los Angeles campus of HUC.  Since 1967 he has been on the faculty of HUC, Cincinnati, where he is currently the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus. From 2000 to 2008, he also taught every fourth semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem campus of HUC

Professor Meyer’s books have won three Jewish Book Awards.  They include The Origins of the Modern Jew:  Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824 (1967;  Response to Modernity:  A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (1988);  Jewish Identity in the Modern World (1990); and a collection of essays entitled Judaism Within Modernity (2001).  Among books he has edited are Ideas of Jewish History (1974); the four-volume German-Jewish History in Modern Times (1996-1998); Volume six of the collected writings of Leo Baeck (2003); and Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi: An Autobiography–the German and Early American Years (2007). He has published more than two hundred articles and longer reviews.

From 1978 to 1980 Professor Meyer was president of the Association for Jewish Studies (the American professional society of Judaica scholars) and from 2003 to 2006 chaired the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History in New York.  From 1991 until 2013 he served as international president of the Leo Baeck Institute, a scholarly organization devoted to the historical study of German Jewry that has branches in Jerusalem, New York and London.  He is a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research and has been a fellow of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1996 Professor Meyer won the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Scholarship Award in Historical Studies for major influence on colleagues and students in his field.  In 1997 he was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in the summer of 2000 a guest professor at the Aby Warburg House in Hamburg, and in 2001 received an honorary Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.  In 2008 Jewish historians from the United States, Israel, and Europe honored him with a jubilee volume entitled Mediating Modernity:  Challenges and Trends in the Jewish Encounter with the Modern World.  In 2015 The Leo Baeck Institute presented him with its Moses Mendelssohn Award for lifelong dedication to teaching and publishing about German-Jewish history and culture. In 2014, he was a fellow at the Katz Center in Philadelphia.

Though himself proudly a layperson, his wife, Margaret J. Meyer is a Reform rabbi (now retired), as is his oldest son (in Israel), and his son-in-law (in the Boston area).