ORT America chapter raises $123,000 for students in Israel

Faith in the power of education to improve lives brought together more than 325 women recently at ORT America's "Lunch With A Daughter's View" at Bryn Mawr Country Club in Lincolnwood.

Featuring authors Sonia Taitz ("The Watchmaker's Daughter") and Patricia Volk ("Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli and Me"), the event raised $123,000 for ORT's Future Learning Spaces initiative to prepare students in disadvantaged areas of Israel for successful 21st century careers.

"We're educating students to solve the problems facing the world today and in the future," said guest speaker Iris Wolf, educational director for World ORT Science Journey.

Lori Kahn of Deerfield and Ellen Doppelt of Highland Park, president and executive vice president of ORT America Metropolitan Chicago Region, presented the inaugural Claire Mazur Tikkun Olam Award to popular book-group leader and longtime ORT volunteer Judy Levin of Riverwoods. ("Tikkun Olam" is a Hebrew expression meaning to make the world a better place.)

Honored with a standing ovation, Levin, who has moderated Lunch with a View author programs for the past 14 years, garnered praise for "elevating our understanding of literature and helping to bring characters to life."

Following lunch, authors Sonia Taitz and Patricia Volk shared glimpses of their paths to womanhood under the powerful influences of their parents' lives.

A child of Holocaust survivors growing up in New York, Taitz spoke of her "binocular" vision, serving up ever-conflicting views of life, like hope vs. the horrors of her parents' past, Yiddish-speaking home vs. English-speaking world, and a pervasive sense of "us" vs. "them".

Volk writes of an American childhood in the shadow of a beautiful, self-absorbed mother, surrounded by expensive clothes, haughty manners, well-ordered cocktail hours, temperamental outbursts and bizarre superstitions.

"Every writer is doomed to irritate their family," she said, on the perils of writing a memoir.

Founded in Russia in 1880 to teach job skills to impoverished Jews who were barred from most schools, trades and professions, ORT today funds schools and educational programs serving more than 300,000 students in America, Israel and many other countries. Educating students of all faiths and backgrounds for productive careers, ORT also works to build Jewish identity by offering classes in Hebrew and Jewish history and culture.

In Israel, ORT's Future Learning Spaces (FLS) initiative is creating technology-enhanced classrooms modeled on state-of-the-art business environments. FLS is designed to give a boost to students when they enter the job market by encouraging the critical thinking and collaborative problem solving required in today's jobs.

Raffle prizes included designer jewelry and Judaica, symphony and theater tickets, hotel stays, spa services, tennis lessons, a wine tasting party, restaurant dinners, one week at a lakefront home in Eagle River Wisconsin, and a White Sox-game party for 16 in a Diamond Suite at U.S. Cellular Field.

Roberta Goodman of Highland Park and Gail Joseph of Chicago co-chaired "Lunch With A Daughter's View."

Susie Rodriguez of Buffalo Grove and Susan Dorn of Highland Park served as raffle co-chairs.

Barbara Statland of Wilmette is director of ORT America Metropolitan Chicago Region, located in Northbrook.

For information, call (847) 291-0475, or visit www.ortamerica.org/chicago.

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