News and Updates Committee of 100 ‘Family of the Year’

We Salute the Levine Family, selected as the Committee of 100’s 2016 ‘Family of the Year’

Each year, Temple Beth Am is proud to recognize an outstanding family of volunteers. Congratulations to the Levine Family — Dan, Lauren, Jaclyn and Ray — who have been selected as recipients of the Committee of 100’s 2016 “Family of the Year” Award, for their continued participation in our Temple community and their ongoing commitment to congregational leadership.

Dan is currently serving as Vice President of Youth & Education in his first year on Temple Beth Am’s Board of Directors and also serves on the Executive, Finance and Tikkun Olam Committees, and the Shabbos Sub-Committee. Previously, he was Chairman of the Youth Engagement Religious School (YERS) Board. He also served on the Rabbinic Search Committee, which in January 2015 completed its work in selecting Rabbi Jeremy Barras as our Senior Rabbi. Dan has been a regular participant on Monday nights in the Krav Maga Israeli Martial Arts class for adults. Along with his son Ray, Dan frequently manages the fire pits and BBQ grills at YERS events to ensure that no child runs out of hot dogs or s’mores! He and his local band, Cutler Stew, recently performed at YERS Live!, an annual effort to raise money for YERS scholarships to continue the tradition of making programs as accessible to as many children as possible. Dan and Lauren are among the Co-Chairs for (and hope to see you at) the upcoming Denim & Diamonds gala scheduled for April 9th.

Lauren Bronfman regularly participates in or volunteers for Temple events such as Mitzvah Day and Jog 4 Jenny. She recently helped clean up over 500 pounds of garbage and debris as part of a team of women from Temple Beth Am on a mission to clean up our local shoreline. She has hosted many Temple-related programs at the family home, including Chavurah events, get-to-know the Rabbi meetings, YERS kick-off parties and, of course, an annual “break-the-fast” every Yom Kippur that is open to all family, friends and neighbors regardless of congregation or faith. She has spoken at Beth Am in recent years as part of a panel comprised of breast cancer survivors.

Jaclyn, a graduate of the Temple Beth Am Religious School, became a Bat Mitzvah in October 2012 and now attends the Monday Night CHAI program. She is scheduled to become a Confirmand at the end of the 2015–16 school year and is excited to being accepted into the new “Fellowship Program” that the Temple will make available to selected 11th & 12th grade YERS students beginning in Fall 2016. Jaclyn is currently a 10th grader at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, and is a voracious reader, loves nature, animals and water-based activities, and practices a vegetarian-pescatarian lifestyle.

Ray also is a graduate of the Temple Beth Am Religious School. He became a Bar Mitzvah in August 2015 and holds the distinction of being the first B’nai Mitzvah at Temple Beth Am over which Rabbi Barras presided. Ray now attends the Monday Night CHAI program and enjoys the diverse offerings on Monday nights and the exposure to different teachers, including members of the clergy team. He really loves Krav Maga classes, but his current favorites also include Drama and the ever-in-demand Cooking class. Ray is a 7th grader at Miami Palmetto Middle School. When his homework is done, he loves bicycling, the local park and playing with/mentoring younger kids. He hopes to be considered for the Madrichim program at Beth Am when he is a little older. Ray is, literally, a guru on all things “Nerf” and loves physics and the sciences, in general.