Temple family news
BY JOAN PERRIN
A heartfelt yasher koach to Phil and Sima Paskowitz who have been dedicated volunteers to many communities for four decades.
You may know that at Temple Beth Emeth, Phil chairs the Adult Education, Tikkun Olam and Ritual committees. He has been treasurer of the TBE Men's Club for many years. Phil is also one of our volunteer Bat and Bar Mitzvah tutors. Sima is a director of our temple's Sisterhood. She spearheads the mahjong card fundraiser for the Sisterhood each year.
What you may not know is that Phil has volunteered as a CPR instructor for the Red Cross. He was on the board and volunteered for a shelter in Concord, NH, where he sometimes picked up abuse victims and their families and brought them to the shelter. He was a volunteer educator for Planned Parenthood in Dallas, where he organized fundraising walks for AIDS when he was the secular principal for the Solomon Schechter Academy there. On Long Island, he volunteered for Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk County and has served as a New York State ombudsman for nursing home residents for the past 14 years. He has also volunteered for a mental health hotline, which included relaying TDD messages for deaf people.
Phil and Sima belonged to PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays). They've started food drives in their condo community for six years, collecting food three to four times a year. They have provided hundreds of bags of food for pantries in Suffolk County.
For these efforts and more, Phil is going to be honored by Suffolk County at the Celebrating Jewish Legacy and Achievement event planned for Dec. 3 at the Suffolk Y JCC in Commack. Both he and Sima should be saluted for their great contributions to our community and temple.
Please email Joan Perrin at perrinjoan@aol.comwith any special news you'd like to share with your temple family. She'd like to pass along your birthdays, anniversaries, new jobs, retirements, family milestones, requests for healing and news of personal losses.
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