Ten accomplished Jewish people, who have a connection to Brooklyn, including such luminaries as developer Bruce Ratner and singer Neshama Carleback will be inducted into the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative second annual Jewish Hall of Fame Ceremony and celebration.
The ceremony next Tuesday at the Brooklyn Historical Society Building In Brooklyn heights will include the Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams, making introductory remarks.
There will also be some entertainment by awardees who are performers, such as by Carlebach, daughter of the famous late singer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Neshama has performed and taught in cities worldwide, sung on the Broadway stage, sold more than one million records, and was a six-time entrant in the 2011 Grammy Awards. Neshama is currently touring with a new band and gospel choir and joyfully raising her two sons, Rafael and Micah.
Another female honoree in the performing arts is American actress and singer Lainie Kazan. She was born Lanie Levine in Brooklyn, the daughter of Carole and Ben Levine. Lainie was nominated for the 1988 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for St. Elsewhere, and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for My Favorite Year. She had previously received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the film version of My Favorite Year (1982). Her other film appearances include The Delta Force (1986), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Beaches (1988), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016).
Like Lainie, honoree Jake Ehrenreich, is a performer as well as a musician, and author. He is a Brooklyn born child of Holocaust survivors, and best known for his award winning show A Jew Grows in Brooklyn, which broke box office records at the historic Lambs Theater in the heart of Broadway. Brooklyn and the City honored Jake by proclaiming March 17, 2012 A Jew Grows in Brooklyn Day, and the Carnegie Deli followed suit by likewise naming a sandwich to honor the occasion. His writings appear in the Academic Anthology Summer Haven, The Catskills, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination alongside Isaac Bashevis Singer and Art Spiegelman.
Honoree Nicole Dweck is also a writer, and when her debut novel, The Debt of Tamar was published, it became a USA Today bestseller and received a fiction award from Writer’s Digest. She lives in New York City with her husband and children and is currently working on her second novel.
Another female that will be inducted into BJHI’s hall of fame is Alice Fisher Rubin. A graduate of Brooklyn Law school, she has had an auspicious career as an attorney and university professor. Rubin is a former President of the Board of Trustees of Brooklyn Public Library and currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Kings County Law Library, and the NYC College of Technology, CUNY Foundation, where she is also chair.
Like Rubin, honoree Raoul Lionel Felder has a career in the law. Born in Brooklyn, he is an American lawyer and matrimonial attorney. Felder has written eight books and has published numerous articles related to matrimonial law, politics and social issues. Felder is listed in New York Law Journal’s 100 Most Powerful Lawyers in America and in all editions of Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law and was profiled in the cover article of the May, 2008 issue of The New Yorker Magazine.
In 1961, he was appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and in 1964, appointed Special Assistant U.S. Attorney to argue appeal before U.S. Court of Appeals. Felder has practiced divorce law for more than forty years, and has represented many famous people such as Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Felder received the Defender of Jerusalem Award from Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in 1990.
Yet another law school graduate is honoree Bruce Ratner, who is executive chairman of Forest City Ratner, the developer of Barclays Center, the MetroTech complex and numerous other Brooklyn properties, as well as the former owner of the Brooklyn Nets, which marked the first time Brooklyn had a major sports franchise since the Dodgers left Brooklyn. Ratner is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University School of Law. He also holds honorary degrees from Brooklyn College, Medgar Evers College, the Pratt Institute and Long Island University. He also currently serves on a number of boards including Weill Cornell Medical College; the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, where he serves as Chairman; and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Long before Ratner brought the Nets to Brooklyn, honoree Jack Laub ’s incredible basketball career starting by playing Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, then to the University of Cincinnati and ultimately to the NBA, where he played for the Baltimore Bullets, the Minneapolis Lakers and the Scranton Miners, who won two championships during his tenure.
Laub’s life accomplishments also extend far beyond the hardwood court. In May 2010, the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Cincinnati honored Laub with the Distinguished Alumni Award for his contribution to the reduction of prescription drug costs for consumers, hospitals and insurance companies in the US. He also established the first mail-order pharmacy in New York and streamlined the purchase of generic drugs to consumers through his businesses.
Honoree Simon Bergson’s parents survived World War II’s holocaust. They settled in Coney Island, where his dad, Milton, bought a seltzer distribution center, which several business moves later became Manhattan Beer Distributors, which Simon now heads as CEO and President.
Like Simon, the Handwerker family has a connection to Coney Island, and is famous for founding the Nathan’s Famous food chain, starting with a Coney Island hot dog stand in 1916 that Nathan and Ida Handwerker began. Their grandson, Nathan will be receiving the Family Award on its behalf.
The awards ceremony is slated for 5:30 p.m., next Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights. It is free and you can rsvp at brooklynjewish.org. Questions: info@brooklynjewish.org or call 917.439.5126.
