Big CAI Presence at 2009 Man of the Year Dinner

On Wednesday night, November 11, the Northern New Jersey Region of Jewish Men's Clubs held its annual Man of the Year Dinner at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston. Eight clubs from the Northern sector of the region were represented, and Congregation Agudath Israel of Caldwell was featured prominently.

Our 2009 club honoree was Larry Dodyk. Larry, a recent past co-president now serving as club adviser, partnered with Scott Kopen to keep our club vibrant while CAI went through a two-year building renovation. His enthusiasm with events like the speaker's breakfast, family picnic and participation on our two championship basketball teams was very much needed during our time of diaspora.

Austin Mahler was CAI's Youth of the Year, a new concept for the dinner. Austin could always be counted on to help us put up and take down the Sukkah. As his mitzvah project, Austin catalogued and organized every volume for easy access in the shul library. An imminent Eagle Scout (who had his board review the morning of this blog entry), Austin is a senior at Newark Academy in Livingston. He is the son of Alfie, an active club member, and Jeannette Mahler.

The superstar of the night was Harvey Hershkowitz. Introduced by our own Rabbi Alan Silverstein as a man whose committment to Israeli causes goes unmatched, Harvey accepted his honor with grace, humility - and the best part - a short speech! Especially the last part about eating! Harvey, who was a three-year president of CAI Men's Club from 2004-2007, serves on the NNJR board as its Vice President.

Thirty-seven people from the CAI circle were in attendance, including the family of Austin Mahler and Larry's co-workers from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Congratulations to all of our award recipients!