continued from page 30

Bill Berman and Harlene Appelman,
Covenant Awards Dinner, November
2011, Denver

A Visionary And
A Risk Taker

Harlene Appelman
Special to the Jewish News

B

ill hired me to work at Shaarey
Zedek in 1980 to create a family
education program, then called
the Rainbow Connection. He then went on
and funded Jewish Experiences for Families
(JEFF), a partnership among United Hebrew
Schools, the Jewish Community Center and
Tamarack Camps.
He backed the dissemination of JEFF
across the country and the writing of the
JEFF Manual, published by the University
of Judaism (in Los Angeles) and the Whizin

Institute for the Jewish Family (now the
Whizin Center for Continuing Education at
American Jewish University, also in L.A.).
He also created a million-dollar
Millennium fund at the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit for family education.
Bill was a visionary and a risk taker, but he
never walked away from the investment. He
invested his soul as well as his money, and
you always knew he had your back.
Early in my career, Bill said, “Don’t bring
me the successes. Those are for sure. Bring
me the challenges and the failures, and
together we’ll make them right.”
That was Bill — “together, we’ll make
it right” — a lover of Jews and the Jewish
people. A lover of Israel, a lover of Shaarey
Zedek, a lover of data to make clear deci-
sions, a philanthropist and community orga-
nizer who believed professionals were his
partners and assets to the community.
I was fortunate to know him for as long as
I did (36 years — double chai) as a mentor,
a teacher and a very dear friend. Even after
I moved on to the Covenant Foundation, he
checked in, wondering if I was happy.
I will sorely miss him.

*

Harlene Appelman is executive director of the
Convenant Foundation, a New York City-based orga-
nization that celebrates and supports excellence and
innovation in Jewish education.

Lisa Soble Siegmann and
daughter, Maya, with Bill
Berman, 2012

No One Is A Stranger To Bill

Lisa Soble Siegman | Special to the Jewish News

I

was at shivah for a friend’s parent
when Bill walked in.
Because it was night time, cold
and dark, I asked Bill how he had gotten
there, knowing that his usual driver prob-
ably brought him.
“A cab” he replied.
Really? I thought, “Bill Berman in a
Yellow Cab?” I was a little irritated he
didn’t think to call me to pick him up.
I told him so with a light punch in the
arm followed by a big hug — and offered
to take him home.
I didn’t like the fact he was in some
stranger’s car.
“The cab driver is waiting for me out-
side,” Bill said.

I told Bill I would take care of it, so he
handed me his entire stash of cash to pay
the man.
I walked out of the house to find the
cab driver and told him I would be taking
Bill home.
“Really?” the cab driver said sadly.
“You’re going to take Mr. Berman away
from me? I was so looking forward to
spending more time with him on the way
home. It isn’t often that you get to meet a
guy like that. He’s incredible.”
Yep, that was our Bill. He was accessi-
ble to everyone — from world leaders to
my education team at Federation, to his
new friend of 15 minutes, the cab driver.
That was our Bill.

*

January 5 • 2017

33