Thursday, May 23, 2013
Reception at 6:00 p.m. Meeting at 7:00 p.m.

View more about the Annual Meeting here.

AGENDA 

1. CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME
2. OPENING BLESSING
3. REMARKS BY PRESIDENT EMILY JENNEWEIN
4. REPORT BY TREASURER GARY HIRSCHFELD
5. ELECTION OF MEMBERS TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND NOMINATING COMMITTEE
6. HONOR OUTGOING BOARD MEMBERS
7. VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARDS: MERYL MANEKER, SIMA OPPENHEIMER & MARGE SCHANE
8. REMARKS BY RABBI MICHAEL BERK
9. ADJOURNMENT

Volunteers of the Year

Meryl Maneker
Meryl is a partner in the San Diego law firm of Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP. Meryl specializes in the defense of employment and other class actions and product liability claims. In addition to her practice, Meryl is an active member of the San Diego legal community. Meryl is a former president of the San Diego chapter of the Federal Bar Association and currently serves as a Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Lawyers Club of San Diego. She is also currently a Lawyer Representative to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and co-chair of the lawyer representative Committee.

A native of New York, Meryl graduated from Brown University and New York University School of Law. Meryl and her family moved to San Diego in 1996 and have been members of Beth Israel since 1997. At Beth Israel, Meryl co-chaired the 2013 search for a new director of the Sid and Bill Rubin ECE program. She is vice president of education of the board of directors, served on the Membership Committee and the 2008 Assistant Rabbi Search Committee. Meryl and her husband, Peter Herman, a professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University, have two children, Alison, a student at Columbia University, and Jonathan, a graduate of the Bill and Sid Rubin preschool and student in the Lee and Frank Goldberg Family Religious School, which Alison also attended. The entire family went to Israel in 2008 with Rabbi Arlene Bernstein’s Teen and Youth Choir Trip.

Sima Oppenheimer

Sima is no stranger to volunteering.  She was born in Chicago, attended UC Berkeley, UCLA and the Reaseheath Agricultural College in Cheshire, England, where she lived for a decade where her late first husband was a corporate executive.  Sima has two married sons and five grandchildren.

Her connection with Beth Israel began as a student of Hebrew, as well as the Introduction to Judaism class and then the Adult B’nai Mitzvah program which she completed in 2001.  She soon joined the Aleinu Adult Education Committee and rose to serve as co-chair for four years. During this time, she saw a need for daytime programming and helped to create the current DayTimers program, now in its fifth year; it consists of monthly programs, a women’s discussion group and a daytime book club. She has served as co-chair of DayTimers for the past five years.

Her earlier volunteer activities included being a docent at The Living Desert in Palm Desert, the San Diego Museum of Natural History and Torrey Pines State Reserve.  Currently she volunteers at the San Diego Botanic Garden and for 10 years has been chairman of the landscape committee at Palacio Del Mar.

Sima is married to Joe Oppenheimer, who has taught a number of classes at Beth Israel. Both are active participants in the Shabbat Minyan.

Marge Schane

Marge has been an active member of Beth Israel since 1968. She is a member of Beth Israel’s Cemetery and Mausoleum Board, and the founding chair of Beth Israel’s Caring Community Committee.  She has served on the Membership Committee and Kehillah.  She sat on the Women of Beth Israel board and is a past co-president of WBI. In addition, Marge has completed Beth Israel’s Leadership Development Institute.

In the community, Marge has served on the Jewish Healing Committee as well as Project SARAH (Stop Abusive Relationships At Home).  She is a member of Planned Parenthood.

Marge and her husband, Sanford, are originally from Detroit, and moved to San Diego in 1965. They have two married daughters, Sheryl and Debra, and two grandchildren, all of whom live in San Diego. Sheryl and Debra celebrated their b'not mitzvah, confirmations, and marriages at Beth Israel.

After graduating from law school, Marge became a probation officer for the County of San Diego for 13 years. She currently works in the travel industry as a cruise specialist with Cruises Inc.