Friday November 30, 2001
Temple Israel, Tulsa, OK
President Harold Katz Remarks

For the past 25 years, Rabbi, you have served Temple Israel. You have led us spiritually and administratively. You have taught us. You have inspired us. You have comforted us and celebrated with us. And at times, you have even chided us for our shortcomings. But most importantly, you have always served us with a wonderful intellect and nothing but the highest integrity. You are a wonderful congregational Rabbi and Tulsa is fortunate that you call it home. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the UAHC, is but one of many who have written to congratulate you, saying "With quiet confidence and caring concern, you lovingly give of yourself to your congregation, bringing stability and a special sense of community. A gentleman in every sense of the word, you are a mensch."

This is your silver anniversary with Temple Israel. If we liken it to a wedding anniversary, it has been a marriage of two life partners, both of which have grown and changed over the years. Perhaps neither partner is perfect, although you do come close, but we are the perfect match.

As President of the Temple, it has been a pleasure and an honor to work with you. Given our By-laws, you have the honor and hopefully the pleasure of working with a new President every two years. Each comes in with his or her expectations, strengths, and weaknesses. To survive and thrive in such an environment, flexibility also needs to be counted as one of your virtues. Each of us has a tremendous amount of love and respect for you. And as a small token of those feelings, we want to present you with this certificate, which in part reads, "In recognition and appreciation of 25 years of distinguished service to Temple Israel congregation and to the Jewish people." It concludes with the Shehechiyanu, "We give thanks to You, eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this day of joy." Rabbi you are a blessing to this community; you have helped sustain us and this is a day of mutual joy. The certificate is signed by each of our congregation's surviving past-presidents, as well as myself.

Traditionally at a time like this, we would present some type of gift. You asked that we not do so, however, and we will honor that request. Instead, we want to make sure that your name is always a part of Temple Israel. At our next Temple Foundation Board meeting, I will be asking that the Members Helping Members fund be renamed the "Rabbi Charles P. Sherman Members Helping Members Fund". Members Helping Members helps underwrite our dues structure, allowing us to appropriately discount the dues of many of our congregant families. One of the goals of our upcoming capital campaign is to increase the fund to $1,000,000, a goal which will require an additional endowment of over $800,000. Members Helping Members represents congregational tsedakah, and I can't think of a more appropriate name for the fund than naming it in your honor.

A weekend like this and a night like tonight can only be brought about by the hard work of many. At the risk of being guilty of the sin of omission, I nevertheless want to recognize several individuals. First, the planning committee for the weekend included three of our most distinguished past presidents: Malcolm and Paula Milsten and Jeanne Jacobs. Each played a major role not only in planning, but also in hands-on work. Jane Zemel designed, wrote, and edited the beautiful invitations and programs that you have received. Greg Raskin made arrangements for the sound system and recordings. The Brotherhood and Willie Burger specifically, has taken care of the security and greeting needs. The Sisterhood, and Rose Miller and Zella Borg in particular, have prepared a wonderful Oneg for tonight. Your Board, each member of which is recognized by a boutonnière or corsage, fully supported this weekend. The Board's Executive Committee is serving as ushers tonight and other Board members will be serving as ushers on Sunday night. I want to thank Rabbi Daniel Sherman of Naples, Florida for making the long trip to provide tonight's sermon and to help us honor his father. I want to thank each of the cantors who have flown in from around the country to honor Rabbi Sherman on Sunday night. I want to thank Elliot Glazer, the Temple Israel Adult Choir, and the Boston Avenue Methodist Church Choir for honoring all of us with their beautiful melodies. And perhaps most importantly, I want to thank Cantor Amy Lefko for all of her work in putting together and coordinating the wonderful musical programs of tonight and Sunday night. And finally, in particular I want to thank Ronnie Schwartz, who graciously and generously offered the Foundation's Smulian Fund as an underwriter of this weekend's musical programs. The list could go on and I am sure that I have left some out and to those individuals, I apologize.

I am thrilled that we all could gather together to honor Rabbi Sherman. In reality, however, we honor ourselves as well. We have made Rabbi Sherman a life partner to our congregation. But Rabbi Sherman and Nancy also made the active decision to make Temple Israel and Tulsa their home. Each past and present congregant has contributed to that ongoing decision and for that I thank each and every one of you.

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