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Health & Fitness

AN EVENING WITH JFS-March 30, 2014 Four Individuals from Community are Honored

On Sunday, March 30, at An Evening with JFS, Jewish Family Service continues the tradition of presenting the 35th annual Mitzvah Awards to Edith Samers & Ed Smith and Alison Wachstein and the 9th annual Young Leadership Award to Adam Batkin.  This year’s event, to be held at Temple Beth El in Stamford at 5:30 PM, is being co-chaired by Meryl Japha and Janet Welkovich.

Edith Samers came to Stamford in 1959.  Since then, she has served on committees and boards of innumerable organizations, and frequently taken on leadership positions as well. These organizations include: the League of Women Voters; the Stamford education system; UCONN Center for Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies; Hadassah; United Jewish Federation, where she served as Executive VP for six years; the American Jewish Committee for Fairfield County; Jewish Family Service (VP, Board, Executive Committee, chairing committees.); and AIPAC.  She, along with her late husband, Bernard Samers, was a founding member of Chavurat Aytz Chayim.  Edith is currently Vice President of the non-profit Jewish television station Shalom TV.

Born and raised in Stamford, Ed Smith’s list of leadership positions and service over many years include serving on the boards of United Way of Western Connecticut, Congregation Agudath Sholom, and UJF.  Ed was president and treasurer at Chavurat Aytz Chayim, raised funds in Stamford for Israel Bonds and UJA, is active in AIPAC, and has managed the Federation database as a volunteer for fourteen years.  Ed volunteered at Corporate Angel Network at the Westchester County Airport for ten years, organizing free flights on corporate jets for cancer patients. Ed was the long-time co-owner of Stamford’s Syl-May Pharmacy. 

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Edith and Ed have been married for eleven years.

Alison Wachstein has been volunteering since she moved to Weston thirty-four years ago by supporting many philanthropies including the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America.  Her volunteer work includes many years with UJA/Federation Westport-Weston-Wilton-Norwalk. She has served on the Boards of Temple Israel, Connecticut Professional Photographer’s Association, the Fairfield/Westchester Chapter of the Crohns and Colitis Foundation of America and Weston Women’s League. As a professional photographer, Alison does pro bono photography for innumerable non-profits in Fairfield County. 

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Adam Batkin was raised in Fairfield County attending Jewish day school and graduating from Brandeis University. After five years in Glasgow, Scotland, where his wife attended Veterinary school, Adam returned to Stamford to resume his career as a software developer for AQR Capital Management, a Hedge Fund in Greenwich. JFS’ Young Leadership Award Recipient has volunteered as the Co-chair of Tapestry (UJF Stamford) for the past two years, is a member of the Stamford Chevra Kadisha and a current JFS Board member, and helps Jewish organizations and synagogues around Stamford and Greenwich with technology issues.   

An Evening with JFS will feature a laid-back dinner and the agency’s 6th Annual Auction, chaired by Sandy Speter. 

 

The proceeds of An Evening with JFS  and the auction are essential to ensure that funds are available for the agency to continue to provide quality services to all those in need. 

 

To attend An Evening with JFS or donate an item for the Auction, please contact Iris Morrison at 203-921-4161 or email at IMorrison@ctjfs.org.

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