Louisville natives medaled
at the Euro Maccabi
Abigail Goldberg
A Louisville field hockey player, who competed at the 15th European Maccabi Games in Budapest, Hungary, medaled with Team USA.
“We came home with bronze,” said Abigail Goldberg, 20, a goaltender. “The competition was tough, but I think my team and I handled it well.”
Another Louisville native, Andrea Glazer, a show jumper, had a tough competition. Riding a borrowed horse, she fell twice – once in practice, once in the ring – but she still shared a team bronze.
“All of the other competitors brought their own horses from their home countries; I was literally the only rider not on my own horse,” she said.
Still, “I ended up not coming in last … because so many riders had trouble in round 3, and they were on their own horses!”
Goldberg said the team had played together just a short time before the Games.
“Argentina was definitely the toughest competition, and we lost to them 2-0 in the semis and went on to face Germany in the bronze medal game,” she said. “I could not be more proud of my team. It was an amazing trip.
A rising junior at Longwood University, Goldberg, a psychology major, competes in Division I field hockey there.
She also played with the International Feld Hockey Club of Kentucky (IFHCK) for four years, traveling around the country to compete. She graduated from Ballard High School.
Glazer, a graduate of Auburn University, recently returned from Australia where she was an intern at the Melbourne Cup, that country’s signature horseracing event. Prior to that, she medaled at the Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Craig Goldstein named
Temple Executive Director
Craig Goldstein
Craig Goldstein has been named the new executive director of The Temple. He succeeds Chavvah Penner Johnson, who stepped down this month to spend more time with her children.
Goldstein started on Aug. 19.
“Craig has pledged a commitment to service to our congregants, efficiencies in our operations, and working to elevate his role to a leadership position in the Jewish community,” The Temple President Reed Weinberg said in a prepared statement.
He also acknowledged Penner’s years of service to the congregation.
“We appreciate Chavvah’s commitment,” Weinberg said. “We aren’t letting her go far, and you’ll see her around as an active volunteer!”
A past president of The Temple and long-time member of its board of trustees, Goldstein has 25 years of experience in marketing, operations and business development. His last position was vice president of sales and marketing for a local health care company.
He has organized Temple adult social events at different people’s homes, Sunday morning basketball game at The J and The Temple softball team.
Goldstein and his wife, Elise, have been Temple members since moving to Louisville in 1997. They have three children: Arianna, Drew and Maraya.
Shir a speaker at Rise for Refuge
Amy Shir
Amy Shir, president & CEO at LHOME (Louisville Housing Opportunities and Micro-Enterprise), a community development loan fund, spoke at the Aug. 3 Rise for Refuge Rally at the Crescent Hill Baptist Church.
She addressed the “positive impact refugees make in the community,” sharing how her great-grandparents, Russian refugees in the early 20th century, fled the pogroms there for America.
“Refugees are enormous assets to the fabric of our society,” Shir said on a LinkedIn post, warning that, “refugee resettlement is at risk.”
Co-sponsored by the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Rise for Refuge was part of a nationwide call to action. Shir was one of several local and national representatives, community organizers, and faith leaders who participated.
Local woodworker builds
reading table for HUC
Matt Karr (L) and Rabbi Jonathan Hecht
A Jewish Louisville woodworker has completed a new Torah Table for the chapel at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.
Matt Karr delivered the table to HUC on Aug. 20.
“HUC In Cincinnati felt that their existing Shulchan needed an update,” said Karr, who also is president -elect of Temple Shalom. “The design had to take its point of departure from the existing ark, which was brought from Poland and dates from 1730.”
The woods used in the table were cherry, blood wood and yellow heart. Its Hebrew letters were made from ebonized walnut; the grapes, from purpleheart and hickory vines.
It wasn’t Karr’s first synagogue project. He designed and built the bima furnishings for a congregation in California foyer items at Temple Shalom.
“I’m honored, knowing that every rabbinic student [at HUC Cincinnati] will be reading Torah from my creation,” he said.