Please join us on Thursday evening, May 4, 2023 for the Hebrew College Annual Spring Gala! We are excited to celebrate this year on our new shared campus at 1860 Washington Street in Newton, MA.
6:30 p.m. Welcome Reception
7:30 p.m. Program
8:30 p.m. Dessert Reception
Our program includes uplifting live music; delicious food; reflections from teachers and alumni on education, history, and hope; blessings for our honorees, Andy Offit and Dan Miller; presentation of the Esther Award to Nancy Schön, internationally-renowned public art sculptor; and live music with Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer, Hebrew College Rabbinical School, Class of 2014.
> RESERVATIONS, TRIBUTES & CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS
The 7:30 program will be livestreamed.
Honorees
ANDY OFFIT
In the spring of 2017, Andy Offit embarked on a journey as Chair of the Board of Hebrew College. This was his goal: Hebrew College to be in a new home, debt free with a balanced and sustainable budget for the first time in over 25 years.
Andy enjoys a steep learning curve and a good challenge. He also demands hard-working and high-energy partners, honest reflection for necessary adjustments, vision, detailed plans, and collaboration with an eye on the numbers. Andy is a numbers guy. Andy also likes to accomplish his goals. And he did. Hebrew College affirmed his skillset—and an opportunity to learn many new skills!!
He chaired the Hebrew College board while taking the LSAT, applying, attending and graduating from law school, and passing the bar. And as Hebrew College stepped into its strong and healthy future, so did Andy as a lawyer, his third professional iteration.
Andy’s passion for learning includes voracious reading about American history, United States presidents, his beloved New England Patriots, the criminal justice system, and anything his three adult sons are also interested in. He loves boats, trucks and bicycles. He has dedicated energy and time to understanding and mitigating the structures that create inequality and instability in this country. Andy’s other past board work includes Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston, Social Innovation Forum, My Life My Choice, Courageous Parents Network, and Beaver Country Day.
Andy was born and raised in Pikesville, MD, surrounded by a big, warm and loving family. He attended Emory University, and with his CPA, worked in public accounting for three years in Atlanta. He attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania followed by 13 years at Fidelity Investments as an analyst and portfolio manager. He enjoyed 12 wildly successful years as a partner at Wellington Management. He left the investment business after 25 years influenced by his wife’s soulful and meaningful work as a second career, Hebrew College Rabbi. Andy then graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a MPA degree, followed by working for the City of Somerville as special assistant to Mayor Joe Curtatone for seven years. The eye-opening experience led him to believe that change in the system happens in the courtroom. In spring of 2021, he graduated from Suffolk Law School. He is admitted to the bar in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Andy is adored by and devoted to his three sons, Adam, David and Yoni, and his wife, Rabbi Suzanne Offit `09.
DAN MILLER
Dan is the founding supporter, in memory of his late wife, Betty Ann z”l, of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership at Hebrew College, where he is a past Board member and current Finance and Investment Committee member. He is also a 1999 Me’ah graduate.
Among his other philanthropic interests, Dan is a long-time supporter of the Rashi School, where he sits on the Board of Trustees and is a member of its Budget & Finance Committee. Dan helped establish the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Jewish Healing at Jewish Family & Children’s Service, also named in memory of his late wife. He has also been a long-standing member of the Investment Committee of the Squam Lakes Association, one of the country’s earliest non-profit conservation organizations dating back well over 100 years.
Dan is a Partner and Director of Equities at GW&K Investment Management in Boston where, for the past 14 years, he has managed all aspects of the firm’s global equity business, including portfolio management, research and trading. This follows a career of over two decades at Putnam Investments, where he was the Chief Investment Officer of the firm’s Specialty Growth Equity Group and managed the mutual fund of the decade in the 1990s. He began his career in the late 1970s as an analyst at Morgan Stanley. Dan received a BS with highest honors from the University of California Berkeley in 1979 and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1983. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1986 and is a member of the CFA Society Boston and the CFA Institute.
Dan spends his weekdays in the Boston area, although he and his partner, Deborah Ancona, spend as much free time as possible at their lake home in New Hampshire where they particularly enjoy hiking and biking. Dan’s two sons, Adam and Matthew, attended the Rashi School, and were Prozdor students in their teen years.
Esther Award and Dedication of Sculpture
International sculptor Nancy Schön’s newly commissioned sculpture will live in the Hebrew College Courtyard to honor generations of Hebrew College donors. Schön created the famous “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture in the Boston Public Garden (and another one in Moscow) and has created over a dozen prominent public sculptures and many for private collections.
Proudly Featuring
Jessica Kate Meyer is a prayer leader, storyteller, vocalist, and rabbi, who served as rabbi-hazzan at Romemu in NYC, and most recently, at The Kitchen in San Francisco. She has studied sacred Jewish music with masters from Ashkenazi and Mizrahi traditions and has performed as a vocalist with ensembles in the United States and Israel. In a previous life, Jessica appeared in film, theater, and television projects in Europe and the United States: most notably, as a principal role in the Oscar-winning film, The Pianist.
Reservations & Tributes
>> MAKE YOUR RESERVATION HERE
Reservations and sponsorships of certain levels (see below) include the opportunity to celebrate our community with a digital tribute “ad” or message. The deadline for sharing your predesigned tributes, text, and/or logos is April 17. Kindly submit your materials to mtavan@hebrewcollege.edu.
Dimensions for predesigned files (full color 300+ dpi JPEG, PDF, or EPS):
Full-page: 7.5″W x 9″H
$100,000+ Meyasdim/Founders: full-page tribute, 10 admissions
$36,000 – $99,999 Bonim/Builders: full-page tribute, 10 admissions
$20,000 – $35,000 Talmidim/Lifelong Learners: full-page tribute, 8 admissions
$10,000 – $19,999 Shutafim/Partners: full-page tribute, 8 admissions
$5,000 – $9,999 Haverim/Friends: full-page tribute, 6 admissions
$1,800 – $4,999 Yedidim/Companions: full-page tribute, 4 admissions
Half-page: 7.5″W x 4.25″H
$1,000 – $1,799 Supporters: half-page tribute, 2 admissions
One ticket and one-line tribute message:
$500 – Our Cup Runneth Over
$360 – Join Us & Support Us
$180 – Join Us
Student price:
Current Hebrew College student: $54
Corporate Sponsorships
Support an incredible community while gaining exposure to over 11,000 households. All Corporate Sponsors at or above $1,800 receive a full-page ad with the giving level banner in our virtual tribute book, recognition at the event and online, entrance to the in-person celebration, and access to the livestream link.
Shutafim/Partners: $10,000 to $19,999
Haverim/Friends: $5,000 to $9,999
Yedidim/Companions: $1,800 to $4,999
Supporters: $1,000 to $1,799
Additional levels and benefits are available. Please contact Mia Tavan at mtavan@hebrewcollege.edu with questions or to submit your high-resolution logo and tribute book text. Thank you!
Event Committee
Nancy Kaplan Belsky
Rabbi Neal Gold
Rabbi Jessica Lowenthal
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman
Susan Schechter
Myra Snyder
Host Committee
Geraldine Acuña Sunshine and Gabriel Sunshine
Julie Altman and Alex Sagan
Deborah Ancona
Rabbi Sharon and Shimon Cohen Anisfeld
Mark Atkins and Miho Sato
Rabbi Marc Baker
Beverly Bavly
Chester and Diane Black
Michelle and Darren Black
Rabbi Danny Burkeman
Harvey and Marsha Chasen
Carol and Carl Chudnofsky
Carol and Stephen Cohen
Lisa Popik Coll and Arieh Coll
Leslie and Alan Crane
Karen and Robert Deresiewicz
Suzanne and David Diamond
Rabbi Jevin and Dr. Janine Eagle
Deborah and Ronald Feinstein
Renée and Steven Finn
Fern Fisher and Jack Eiferman
Ronald Gluck and Liz Brody Gluck
Shira Goodman and Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz
Lillian and Richard Gray
Louis Grossman and Amy Gerson
Beryl and David Hoffman
Elizabeth and Daniel Jick
Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, Inc.:
Nancy and Mark Belsky, Susan B. Kaplan, Scott K. Belsky, Gila Belsky Modell
Rabbi Jamie and Harold Kotler
Debbie and Todd Krasnow
Lizbeth and George Krupp
Lydia and Bernie Kukoff
Alice and Rabbi Van Lanckton
Sara Lee
Marcia and Alan Leifer
Anne and Rabbi Rim Meirowitz
Yael Miller and Stuart Cole
Tara Mohr and Eric Ries
Beth and Michael Moskowitz
Sara Moss and Michael Gould
Myra Musicant and Howard Cohen
Rabbi Suzanne Offit
Suzanne G. Offit
Priebatsch Family:
Suzanne G. Priebatsch, Seth Priebatsch, Daniella Priebatsch Place
Amy and Bob Rands
Cantor Hollis Schachner
Susan and Bob Schechter
Pamela and James Schwartz
Ellen and Steven Segal
Nancy Antonacci Shaich
Susan Shevitz and Lawrence Bailis
Amy and Ross Silverstein
Myra and Robert Snyder
Sarah Sonnenfeld Noked and Ori Noked
Carol and Steven Targum
Diane Troderman and Harold Grinspoon
Stephen and Susan Wilchins
Arnee R. and Walter A. Winshall
Rose Zoltek-Jick
List in formation
Corporate Sponsors
Let’s celebrate Jewish learning together! Our Hebrew College community of learners will come together on Monday evening, February 27 at 7:30 pm on Zoom with 
Rabbi Toba Spitzer has served Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton since 1997. She is a past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, and the co-chair of the Massachusetts chapter of