During the 2022 annual meetings of The Roth Family JCC and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando it was unanimously approved to merge the two agencies into one entity called Shalom Orlando.

Discussion of the merger began about five years ago with studies of Federations and JCCs that had merged successfully, including Tampa's Federation, which has existed as a Federation/JCC for more than 20 years.

Since he was CEO of both agencies, Keith Dvorchik will continue as the CEO of Shalom Orlando. The new Board of Directors is comprised of 18 members: six from the Federation of Greater Orlando, six from The Roth Family JCC and six from members of the community.

The 2022-2023 Board of Directors slate are Craig Polejes, chairperson; Andrew Gluck, vice-chair; Ming Marx, vice-chair; Stan Rubins, treasurer; Diane Jacobs, secretary; and Dick Appelbaum, immediate past chair.

Board members are Dan Coultoff, Kelly Gegerson, Debby Gendzier, Bruce Gould, Jeff Greenwald, Jodi Krinker, Danielle Krise, Leigh Norber, Nina Oppenheim, Marc Sugerman, Barbara Weinreich and Scott Zimmerman.

During the JCC annual meeting, three awards were presented: Dvorchik presented Andrew Gluck with the Leadership Award for his undying dedication to working to bring about Shalom Orlando, Melissa Youngblood presented Lindsey Schwartz with the Volunteer Award for her outstanding service to the Early Childhood Learning Center, and the Amy Schwartz Kimlat Program of the Year Award was announced by Dvorchik as a team effort since so many people were involved throughout the year to bring about the many programs offered through the JCC. He did specifically mention the Gottlieb family for the donation they gave to keep the annual Chanukah event going yearly.

Three awards were also presented at the Federation meeting. Michael Soll presented the Jerome J. Bornstein Leadership Award to Rhonda Forest; the Byron B. Selber Young Leadership Award was presented to Dan Harris by Hunter Gold, CEO of Central Florida Hillel; and Dr. Edward Zissman was presented the Heritage Human Service Award. Zissman's daughter, Judith Zissman, accepted the award in person and her father thanked the Heritage via Zoom.

Sam Friedman

Jerome J. Bornstein Award: Rhonda Forest with Michael Soll.

To learn more about Shalom Orlando, visit orlandojewishfed.org/annual-meeting2022.