JCL Award recipients will be honored during the 2025 Annual Meeting Monday, June 23

By Andrew Adler
Community Editor

Recipients of the 2025 Jewish Community of Louisville Awards will be honored during the JCL’s Annual Meeting Monday, June 23 at the Trager Family JCC. 

The Blanche B. Ottenheimer Award – JCL’s highest honor – goes to Teddy Abrams, the charismatic music director of the Louisville Orchestra. Other 2025 award recipients include Eric Goodman, Chan Kemper, Amanda Blieden, Samantha Simon, Kathy Luxemburger and Jean Moore. 

The Blanche B. Ottenheimer Award, which is the highest honor the Jewish Community of Louisville can give, is presented annually to a leader (or leaders) who have made a real difference – improving the quality of life in Louisville, in Kentucky and beyond. Ottenheimer was a Jewish Louisville community activist. In addition to serving as president of the National Council of Jewish Women, Louisville Section, she worked for passage of the city’s Model Registration Law, which curbed corruption and led to cleaner elections.  

 

If you want to get an idea of what Louisville Orchestra Music Director Teddy Abrams has meant to this city, try asking former mayor Jerry Abramson.  

“I had the pleasure of being on the orchestra board for many years,” Abramson said. “He is not only a bright star in the music space, but he’s a leader who has really thought through how best to bring this community together and then acted on his ideas. As a result of his insight, his commitment and his understanding of the community at large, we’re a far better place to live and raise a family.”  

Lots of Louisville Orchestra (LO) conductors vowed to be active in Louisville beyond the podium. Abrams, more than any of his predecessors, has actually followed through on his promises.  

“He is by far the most engaged conductor, engaged in community affairs than we have ever had,” Abramson said, “and as a result, because of his focus of bringing the community together through music, we’re a better place.”  

Since arriving here in September of 2014 at age 27 – nine years after graduating from the Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music with a degree in conducting – Abrams has recast the Louisville Orchestra as an exemplar of the contemporary American symphonic ensemble. Indeed, the LO has a visibility on the national scale it never could boast in previous eras – not even during its heyday during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when it was renowned for commissioning works by some of the world’s most celebrated composers.  

“I feel trite to say that Teddy has been transformative for the city,” said Cantor David Lipp of Congregation Adath Jeshurun.  

“What he did with the orchestra is something I don’t think I could have imagined before he came. He took it from a very much struggling organization, and made it really, in my estimation, the powerhouse, the artistic powerhouse of this community.”  

Perhaps no other conductor would have the notion – indeed, the chutzpah – to take the orchestra and superstar guest cellist Yo-Yo Ma to perform a concert inside Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave. Yet they were on April 23, 2023 – and if you hadn’t secured a ticket well in advance, tough luck.  

Abrams, a gifted pianist and clarinetist when not wielding a baton, is also an accomplished composer. Big-time awards have come his way: Musical America’s Conductor of the Year in 2022, and in 2024, the Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo (partnering superstar pianist and Curtis classmate Yuja Wang.  

Not bad for a guy born Edward Paul Maxwell Abrams in Berkeley, Calif. He was mentored, beginning at the ripe age of 12, by San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas.  

“Teddy Abrams exudes warmth and ardor,” musicologist A. Kori Hill wrote in a 2024 article titled, “I Care If You Listen.”  

“His clean-shaven face, halo of brown curls, and light, bespectacled eyes suggest a youthfulness that eclipses his 37 years and more than two decades of professional experience. But it’s not just his image – it’s his energy. In the past decade as the music director of the Louisville Orchestra, Abrams has approached his role as both an artistic leader and a community representative. Joining the ensemble in the aftermath of bankruptcy and a strike, Abrams canvassed – literally – to aid in the restoration of the orchestra’s image.”  

“A lot of what I did was more like a politician,” he told me in our recent Zoom interview, “just showing up and meeting people, listening to their stories, shaking their hands, inviting them personally to the orchestra, and running a kind of campaign for years until we had regained that confidence.”  

At the LO, Abrams has made a priority of “Creators Corps,” in which composers spend an entire, salaried year in residence – and having their works performed by the orchestra in concert.  

“One of the things that really frustrates me is, there are a lot of big institutions that go on and on about all their community programs,” Abrams told his interviewer.  

“Then, you look at the budgets and you talk to the people who run those programs, and they all feel like they’re strapped for attention, they’re strapped for budget, they don’t get the resources that they need… so we’re trying to put our money where our mouth is when we say that we value that. We’re putting the money there, we’re applying for the grants, and really having the staff and the resources to execute these things effectively. This is a thorn in the industry’s side – there’s too much lip service to this stuff.”  

In an implicit nod to his Jewish heritage, Abrams has programmed works by Leonard Bernstein and others, combining them with scores by Black composers on a multi-year “Journeys of Faith” concert series. And earlier this season, he conducted Viktor Ullmann’s Holocaust-era opera “Der Kaiser von Atlantis” at the Kentucky Center’s Whitney Hall. 

Indeed, the LO’s roots can be traced to the former Y.M.H.A. (Young Men’s Hebrew Association) Orchestra, which Louisville businessman Morris Simon had founded in 1914.  

“From the beginning, his mantra was that the orchestra belongs to the entire city and made community service the highest priority,” Louisville Orchestra board chairman Andrew Fleischman commented.  

“His presence immediately changed the tone of the discussion about the LO in our city, but he did not stop there,” Fleischman said. “His vision to serve the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky led to a state touring program that now takes the orchestra to every corner of the state, which is just starting its fourth year. He emphasizes the power of music to bring people of different backgrounds together, which is of course a very powerful message right now.”  

JCL chair Beth Salamon put it this way:  

“The impact Teddy has had on the Jewish community cannot be overstated. From the collaboration between Black and Jewish communities that he initiated to Holocaust education, Teddy has fostered connections and has created a more inclusive environment not just for the Jewish community, but for everyone in Louisville.”  

 

This year’s Ronald & Marie Abrams Volunteer of the Year Award, whose extant namesakes exemplify community service, goes to Eric Goodman. 

 

Paul Norman, Vice President and Chief Financial officer at the Federation and Trager Family JCC, has known Eric Goodman ever since Norman arrived in Louisville as CFO 3 ½ years ago. 

“He’s brilliant,” Norman said, lauding Goodman’s insights as a member of the Finance and Investment committees. “He isn’t a silent committee member – he’s a leader. Nobody asks as many questions as he does. He makes you better – he’s made me better. I view him as a mentor.”  

Goodman has plenty to say about the future of Jewish education in Louisville.  

“We really need to make sure the community is healthy far into the future by focusing on our kids – the next generation,” Goodman told Community in 2021, when he chaired a planning committee organized by the Federation and the Jewish Heritage Fund. “We are really focusing on Jewish education for our youth,” he added, “to make sure it is the best it can be and reach the most kids possible.”  

Four years later, Goodman continues to be at the center of such discussions. He’s a member of the board putting together what’s been dubbed JLE – short for the Jewish Learning Experience – uniting separate, disparate programs into what an April 2025 Community article described as an independent, “true community school.”  

Goodman – a former Chief Investment Officer of AEGON USA – was a member of Keneseth Israel Congregation when he encouraged fellow congregant Greg Moore to join the JCL Investment Committee, which Goodman chaired. Apparently, the advice stuck: Two years later, Moore – last year’s recipient of the JCL’s Lewis W. Cole Memorial Young Leadership Award – succeeded Goodman as committee chairman.  

“Service to the community is motivated by a love of Judaism, Jewish culture, history and people,” Goodman said. “And service to the community means applying your skills to the needs of the community. Since I’m an investment and financial professional by background, those areas are usually a natural entry. It’s where my skill meets an obvious need.” 

  As a member of Keneseth Israel Congregation, “my main volunteer contribution was as Chair of the Strategic Planning committee,” Goodman said, “where I lead an extensive strategic review several years ago. I’ve also been a supporter and occasional fundraiser for Birthright Israel, though never held an official position in that organization.” Apart from that, “My main volunteer work outside of the Jewish community was as a Board member for many years for the Center for Women and Families.” 

  “But serving the community can also mean bringing insights or ideas that you think will be crucial for its future, and selling those ideas,” Goodman added. “That’s what happened when I introduced myself to Jeff Polson and Linda Schuster (then-chair of the Jewish Heritage Fund) eight or so years ago and began promoting the idea of focusing resources on youth education, including Jewish Camp, Israel trips as well as traditional school.” 

  “I eventually convinced others in the community as a member of the JHF board,” Goodman said. “That may have been my most impactful contribution in retrospect. But I’ll continue to try to help wherever I can.” 

 

The Julie Linker Community Relations Young Leadership Award is named for a Jewish leader who passed away unexpectedly in 1984, depriving the community of a friend. She chaired the Young Women’s Division of the United Jewish Campaign and was vice-chair of the Major Gifts Division, of the Women’s Division, and was vice-president of the Women’s Cabinet of the Federation. This year’s winner is Chan Kemper. 

 

Growing up Christian in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Chan Kemper, didn’t know terribly much abut Judaism. But when she met Aaron Kemper and moved to her future husband’s native Louisville in 2013, the roots of her future Jewishness began to sprout.  

“We were a mixed-religion couple when we got married in 2016,” Chan Kemper recalled. The couple “had a child about a year later, but I’d always seen how important Judaism was to Aaron – to his personality and culture – the way he exists in the world,” she said.  

Not long afterward, she began studying with Rabbi David Ariel-Joel of The Temple, “not just the cultural moorings of Judaism,” she recalled, “but the teachings of the Torah. Honestly, it was such a radically different way from how I’d grown up.”  

But maybe not all that distinct from the sensibilities of a young woman whose mother was a civil rights activist – a daughter who’d volunteered in the Peace Corps and – armed with a law degree from the University of Cincinnati – has more often than not worked in the not-for-profit or government sector. Currently she is Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s Senior Advisor on Law and Public Policy.  

“I’ve always been someone who feels that’s a privilege and a duty to help” others, she said. “That idea really resonated with me.”  

“After I converted, I took the same beliefs I’d had about my existence in this world and applied it to the Jewish community in Louisville. I’m on the Jewish Family & Career Services board and the Jewish Community Relations Council.”  

“Chan’s been a great asset as we’ve formed our new executive group for JCRC,” Council director Trent Spoolstra commented. “She’s helping with our advocacy efforts, in what we want to promote going forward in terms of government affairs. And she’s been fantastic giving advice on everything from taking public positions to understanding and building consensus within our Jewish communities. She’s involved in other organizations across the city as well, so she’s super connected. I feel very lucky to have her on JCRC.” 

Last year Kemper achieved another milestone: becoming a Bat Mitzvah. She and Aaron have two children: Tavi, 8 and Mika, 6. And while working for Greenberg is a challenging assignment, “regardless of what we’re doing, we’re committed to the values that underpin it. That’s been the guide stone I use as my North Star.”  

 

The Lewis W. Cole Memorial Young Leadership Award is named for an organizer of the Conference of Jewish Organizations, the predecessor to the Federation. A committed Annual Campaign volunteer, Cole devoted his life to Jewish Louisville. This year’s winner is
Amanda Blieden. 

 

From the time she was growing up in San Diego, Amanda Blieden has been steeped in Jewish life.  

“It started with my mom,” said Blieden. “She was president of our synagogue and active in the Federation. Anything Jewish, she was involved.”  

Like mother, like daughter.  

“I interned at the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) when I was in high school,” Amanda Blieden said. “As a freshman I created a program to send the junior class to the Museum of Tolerance (in Los Angeles) to learn about the Holocaust, which continued as a part of the local curriculum. With that program I was lucky enough to win the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award. So, I’d say my focus was always Holocaust education and fighting antisemitism.”  

No wonder, given the record of history.  

“I have family who were killed in the Holocaust, and I have family who helped liberate concentration camps. My great uncle was a founder of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). So it’s in my blood.”  

An alumna of Indiana University in Bloomington, Blieden later moved to Chicago, where she met and married Alexander Blieden. The two of them then relocated to Louisville, where her husband is president of Kaden Companies, a privately held commercial real estate company, and live with their two young sons. Both parents are active nationally with Jewish Federations.  

“My career has always been in real estate” Amanda Blieden says. “I’m a CPA but I started in real estate accounting. That’s how Alexander and I met. I was in corporate finance in Chicago for a real estate company, and then here I worked for KFC in their development group.  

Though much of her energy is devoted to helping raise her boys, Blieden is still an active volunteer amid Louisville’s Jewish community.  

“I want to make sure with the boards I’m on that I am as active as possible and can make a difference,” she said. “I am truly honored and grateful to receive this award and hope to be a part of ensuring a thriving Jewish future here in Louisville.” 

 

The Joseph J. Kaplan Young Leadership Award is named for a leader in Jewish education and president of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) – the predecessor of the Jewish Community Center. Kaplan encouraged people to remember Jewish Louisville in their wills. The Award was established during his lifetime. This year’s winner is Samantha Simon. 

 

“It was a complete surprise,” Samantha Simon says about news that she was the 2025 Young Leadership Award winner. “I had no idea.”  

Asked why she was honored, Simon had to pause for a few seconds. “I guess it’s because I’m trying to be very involved in the Jewish community,” she said. “I’m very passionate about it.”  

Passionate and more than a little busy.  

“I’ve been on a lot of committees the Federation’s been putting on,” Simon said. “I went to the conference for PJ Library; I utilize the Trager Family JCC; I attend events.” Simon’s family was a significant supporter of the Blieden Family Playground next to the Trager Family JCC. Going forward, she will take on an enhanced role with the Federation Women’s Philanthropy Committee. 

Few people are so persuasive ambassadors.  

“I’m welcoming and accepting of others,” she said, “and I like showing them around – not just pointing out where things are but being excited about things. I guess that’s being a leader.”  

“When new people come in, I want them to feel that they, too, are part of the Trager Family JCC. If I’m hosting an event, I want to make sure they’re having a good time. I want to be a good host.”  

Her husband, Jeff Simon, is an unstinting ally.  

“She’s consistent and available,” he said. His wife “is positive, and she makes other people feel positive. She enjoys being involved. It gives her a human connection. She’s not doing it for herself. In the business world, we call it ‘servant leadership.’”  

Fundamentally, “I’m not working towards a goal. I’m very proud of the Louisville Jewish community. It’s accessible, which it was not when I was living in Chicago. Here, everyone is looking for young people with open arms. They’re looking for the next generation, for engagement.”  

 

The Arthur S. Kling Award honors the memory of a prominent Jewish Louisville leader, who served as president of the YMHA. He was instrumental in establishing the original JCC on Dutchmans Lane and founding the Bureau of Jewish Education and the Conference of Jewish Organizations, which ran the United Jewish Campaign. This year the award — which recognizes outstanding performances by JCL staff — goes to Trager Family JCC Accounting Director Kathy Luxemburger. 

 

For nearly three decades, Kathy Luxemburger has been steeped in dollar signs.  

In her current role as Accounting Director of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Trager Family JCC, she and her department colleagues keep a close eye on “all the money that goes in or out, on the Annual Campaign, Membership, and the Early Learning Center.”  

To get an idea of how Luxemburger’s brain works, consider the following factoid: “I thought it was fun to do practice tests in college.” Accounting students at Eastern Kentucky University, you’ve got a lot to live up to.  

This is a woman whose dedication to purpose is astonishing – and not simply by virtue of time-in-service.  

“Kathy is a consummate professional who leads by her longstanding work ethic, business knowledge, professional integrity and warm personality,” Sara Klein Wagner, President and CEO of the Federation and the Trager Family JCC, wrote in an all-staff memo. “She is a dedicated, passionate and unsung hero of the Finance and Accounting team who has won the respect and admiration of several prior CEO’s, Presidents, Board Chairs, CFO’s and staff for her expertise, wealth of knowledge and friendly personality.”  

Luxemburger is kind of a detail freak. A friendly detail freak, but a detail freak nonetheless.  

“I’m the type that will look for the penny,” she said. Chief Financial Officer Paul Norman “makes fun of me. And I’m like, ‘No, I am looking for that penny.’”  

Still, obsessiveness extends beyond the quantitative realm.  

“I would be remiss if I did not celebrate Kathy’s unwavering commitment as a number one U of L fan,” Wagner said, “who can frequently be seen at the baseball, football, and basketball stadiums rooting in her red team clothing – Go Cards!” 

 

First given in 1974, the Elsie P. Judah Memorial Award was established to honor the late Elsie P. Judah, who was one of the founders of the former Golden Age Group. Judah, who died in 1972, left $3,000 to the Jewish Federation as a bequest. At the request of her son, Clarence F. Judah, the Federation board of directors and endowment fund trustees approved the establishment of the annual award. This year’s winner is Jean Marlowe.

 

Asked what “doing service” means to her, Jean Marlowe has a simple yet eloquent answer: “Fundamentally, it’s just focusing on others besides myself.” 

You can witness that focus in action on any given Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Trager Family JCC’s Kohn Family Town Square, where Marlowe supervises setup and serving for the popular senior lunches alongside Active Adult & Senior Program Director Dara Cohen. 

“I kind of came in the back door,” recalled Marlowe, a twice-weekly volunteer at the Filson Historical Society who was seeking an assignment to occupy the remaining three days of the week. 

“I like to garden and I’m a cook, so I wrote to the JCC and offered to help either with their garden program or in the kitchen for their senior program,” Marlowe said. “Dara contacted me and said, ‘We really can’t do that because the kitchen’s too small, but why don’t you come hold newsletters, or help serve the meals.’ So that’s how I got started. And I found a real purpose in it.” 

“She’s amazing,” Cohen said, “so thoughtful, considerate, warm, and kind. This is a volunteer job, but she treats it like it’s her career.” 

Marlowe quickly realized how vital the communal meals were to their senior clientele – particularly as an antidote to debilitating isolation. “I read a statistic that loneliness in the elderly is as bad for their health as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day,” she said. “As I started getting involved, I saw I was doing something worthwhile, and that I was making a difference – even if I just sat down and listened to people, making them feel valued and cared for.” 

Reality can be sobering. 

“I’ve heard two different seniors say that the (lunch) is the only meal they get all day,” Marlowe said. “But for the majority of people, it’s the loneliness factor. I’ve heard over and over people say, ‘I don’t know what I would do if there wasn’t this program’ – it’s filling such a need for them. And when I leave that place, I feel happier than when I got there.” 

For Marlowe, volunteering with the senior program has demonstrated a kind of universal welcoming. 

“I am not Jewish, and that hasn’t made one difference,” she said. “I have always felt loved and accepted and part of the community. I’ve found the Trager Family JCC so open to people from all walks of life and from all different orientations. It’s just been a loving place for me.”

 

The 2025 JCL Award recipients include the following four teen honorees:

  

The Joseph Fink BBYO Community Service Scholarship
Joe Fink was passionate about the Jewish Community Center’s Senior High program and served as a two-term president of B’nai B’rith Louisville Lodge No. 14.  He was a member of the District Board of Governors for B’nai B’rith and was named B’nai B’rith Person of the Year. Locally, he served as the B’nai B’rith advisory chair at the JCC and served on the KIO Regional BBYO Board. He was also president of Hillel and was a member of the Jewish Community Center Board. When he died unexpectedly at a young age, his family and friends knew the best way to honor him would be to establish an endowment that would provide a partial-tuition college scholarship for qualifying BBYO members. The Joseph Fink BBYO Community Service Scholarship is presented to a senior who was an active member of their BBYO chapter and has performed a significant amount of community service during high school.

The Joseph Fink BBYO Community Service Scholarship goes to Noa Yussman 

 

The Tony Levitan Award
Tony Levitan was a tireless community worker who was well known and respected throughout the city. He served as president of B’nai B’rith and was the main propelling force behind the B’nai B’rith Institute for Adult Jewish Education, in addition to serving as treasurer of the YMHA. The Tony Levitan Award is given to outstanding high school senior athletes who have demonstrated exceptional character and leadership throughout their participation in team sports and Jewish communal events. 

The Tony Levitan Award goes to Sarah Rothballer 

  

The Stacy Marks Nisenbaum Award 
Stacy Marks Nisenbaum was active in Louisville BBYO and had a special devotion to Jewish camp, even choosing a career in Jewish communal service serving as the Associate Regional Director of BBYO’s Lone Star Region. To honor her memory, three friends established this camp scholarship to enable youth to attend Camp Beber or a national BBYO convention each year. The Stacy Marks Nisenbaum Award is presented to incoming high school juniors or seniors who are leaders in BBYO, strengthening and growing the program, while staying active at school and in the community at large.  

The Stacy Marks Nisenbaum Award goes to Natalie Scaiewicz 

  

The Ellen Faye Garmon Award 
The Garmon Award is given annually in memory of Ellen Faye Garmon, a teenager who died in July 1968 in a tragic accident. She was actively involved in Jewish life through BBYO and the Jewish Community Center. The Ellen Faye Garmon Award goes to incoming high school juniors or seniors who demonstrate leadership and are involved in their BBYO chapter and community, working to strengthen and grow both.  

The Ellen Fay Garmon Award goes to Levi Gladstein 

 

 

The Federation and the Trager Family JCC will hold its 2025 Annual Meeting on Monday, June 23 at the Trager Family JCC’s Shapira Foundation Auditorium. Join the Jewish Federation and the Trager Family JCC as we elect our officers and new board members, as well as recognize and celebrate our award winners. The evening begins with cocktails and appetizers at 5:30 p.m., followed by the meeting and awards ceremony at 6:15 p.m. RSVP to Adam Cohen at 502-238-2722 or email annualmeeting@jewishlouisville.org.