The Jewish National Fund-Wisconsin Region will honor 13 community leaders at its annual dinner. The banquet will be held at Congregation Beth Israel on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 6 p.m.
Honorees are: Cantor David Barash, Cheryl and Mitchell Moser, Ali and Robert Ruvin, Nancy and Dr. Mitchell Sandler, Karen and Judge Charles Schudson, Dianne and Jerome Spector, and Dee Dee and Rodney Ugent.
“The coveted JNF Honoree Award is presented to show JNF’s appreciation to the honorees for their devotion to community causes, to the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” said Audrey Brooks, Wisconsin Region co-president with Narda Forman.
The dinner will also include special guest speaker Russell F. Robinson, chief executive officer of Jewish National Fund of America.
Madison native Cantor David Barash came to Milwaukee after nine years at Congregation Beth Shalom in Kansas City. He is currently serving his fifth year at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.
He studied cantorial music at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and completed his training at its Cantors Institute in 1992.
In addition to performing in local concerts and in Emanu-El’s “Torahpalooza: Shabbos with an Attitude,” a monthly all-musical service highlighting local musicians, he has recorded three CDs. He also serves as one of three chaplains for the North Shore Fire Department.
Cheryl Moser is a long-time Jewish community activist and teacher at St. Francis Children’s Center in Fox Point. A winner of the Ann Agulnick Young Leadership Award, she has served the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in many capacities, including as a board member, Women’s Division officer and Women’s Division campaign co-chair.
Additionally, she serves on the boards of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, B’nai Brith Youth Organization-Wisconsin Region and Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the federation. She is also active in volunteer activities at Stormonth Elementary School in Fox Point.
Mitchell Moser, an attorney at Quarles & Brady, LLP, is a member of United Jewish Communities’ National Young Leadership Cabinet and serves on the federation’s executive committee. Like his wife, Cheryl, he has received a young leadership award, and chairs and serves on a wide variety of federation committees.
Moser is also a member of BBYO’s adult commission, the JCC’s Steve & Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken board and is the Milwaukee Bar Association’s elementary school tutoring program chair.
Ali Ruvin is an attorney specializing in child custody and placement mediation.
She currently serves on the boards of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, the federation and its Women’s Division’s executive committee, National Council of Jewish Women and the Florentine Opera. She also is a United Jewish Communities cabinet member and co-chair of the federation’s Young Leadership Division.
Her husband, Robert Ruvin, co-founded Ruvin Brothers Artisans and Trades and has recently established Robert Construction & Development, which specializes in high-quality residential construction and renovation and commercial development.
Ruvin has served on the board of Keshet of Wisconsin and is a member of the Milwaukee Jewish Day School board. He is also involved in the federation and in community mentoring programs.
He is involved in the Mayor’s Round Table of the city of Milwaukee and the Green Team, an environmental initiative.
Nancy Sandler, a Shorewood native, is an elementary school teacher who has taught in Milwaukee, Glendale and Shorewood schools as well as MJDS.
She is also a community volunteer who has contributed her time and talent to Hadassah, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., the federation and Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.
Mitchell Sandler, a radiologist at Milwaukee’s Clement J. Zablocki Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. He is a member of Emanu-El’s Brotherhood board.
Karen Schudson is a family relationship specialist at Jewish Family Services, and a corporate consultant and executive coach for Vernal Management Consultants, LLC.
Raised in Greensboro, N.C., she earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Smith College and a master’s in counseling and guidance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A mental health professional for 30 years, she has created a number of innovative education and counseling programs and has been recognized by many community organizations. She serves on the boards of the Shorewood Elder Services Task Force and the Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin.
Charles Schudson is an attorney at von Briesen & Roper, S.C., a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Law School and a Wisconsin reserve judge.
A Milwaukee native, he is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the UW Law School. Schudson has served as a state and federal prosecutor, and judge on the Wisconsin Circuit Court and Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
Schudson has served on the boards of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, the National Resource Center on Child Sexual Abuse, the Wisconsin Law School Children’s Justice Project, ComedySportz and Next Act Theatre. Currently, he is president of the board of Wisconsin CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Association.
Dianne Spector is an active volunteer in the Jewish community with a particular interest in the Jewish Women’s Endowment Fund and its charitable outreach to the secular community.
She has worked as an artist, owned an art publishing business, and through a degree program at Alverno College, become involved in teaching members of the college community about Judaism.
Jerome Spector, the owner of an independent pharmacy since 1977, formed the Pharmacy Buying Groups of America in an effort to help independent pharmacies compete in a difficult climate. This led him to the presidency of a national umbrella organization of 20 pharmacy-buying groups representing 10,000 pharmacies.
Spector has served on the Fox Point-Bayside school board and as its president as well as two terms as vice-president of Congregation Shalom.
In memory of their daughter, Karen, who died while a college student, the Spectors endowed a conference room at the School of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a scholarship presented annually in her name.
Dee Dee Ugent is a life insurance underwriter for Northwestern Mutual Financial and is involved in a variety of humanitarian causes, including Make-A-Wish Foundation, Rotary International’s Community Projects, Salvation Army, Hunger Task Force and Habitat for Humanity.
Rodney Ugent, president and owner of A.J. Ugent Furs, represents the third generation of his family in the Milwaukee business.
He is also part of the third generation of his family to be active at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, where he has served on the board and Men’s Club for many years. In 1998, the synagogue honored Ugent as its “Man of the Year.”
In addition, he is an active member of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs and a leader in its Midwest region, as well as immediate past president of Gilead Memorial-Shofar B’nai Brith Lodge and board member of Spring Hill Cemetery.
Ugent mentors boys in Big Brothers Big Sisters and, with his wife, is a “wish grantor” and fundraising volunteer for Make-A-Wish Foundation, as well as a volunteer for the Hunger Task Force and Habitat for Humanity.
Couvert to the JNF banquet is $60 per person. For information or reservations, due Sept. 2, call the JNF office, 414-963-8733.
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