Harry Wheeler Distinguished Service Award

Temple Sinai’s Distinguished Service Award is presented annually to a person who has served the congregation in a notable fashion a span of several years. The award was first presented in 1956 by the founding rabbi of Temple Sinai, Rabbi Beryl Cohon. In the beginning, this honor was called the Man of the Year and it was awarded by the Temple Brotherhood. But in 1978, we changed the name of the award to The Distinguished Service Award and named Janet Pearlman as the first female awardee. The award continued to be run by the Brotherhood, and later, the “Adulthood”, the joint Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the time. In 1994, it became a temple function and the choice of awardee fell to a committee, with ratification by the Board of Trustees. In 1995, the award was renamed the Harry Wheeler Distinguished Service Award, in honor of the late Harry Wheeler, a much respected, long time temple member, whose many contributions to Temple Sinai exemplified distinguished service.

Past Recipients Harry Wheeler Distinguished Service Award

1956                 Saul Kaplan*

1957                 David Lurensky*

1958                 Elliot Bachner*

1959                 William Kopans*

1960                 Henri Schwartzberg*

1961                 Henry Van Dam*

1962                 Harry Wheeler*

1963                 Walter Cobe*

1964                 William N. Wheeler*

1965                 George Sparks*

1966                 Julian Solinger*

1967                 Aaron H. Sibley*

1968                 Max Tobin*

1969                 Alvin Caplan*

1970                 Dr. Joseph Franklin*

1971                 Bernard Lemlein*

1972                 Benjamin Berkowitch*

1973                 Marvin Sparrow

1974                 Benjamin Goldfarb

1975                 Harold Gorin*

1976                 Richard A. Kaye*

1977                 Walter Kaufman*                              

1978                 Janet Pearlman*

1979                 Lillian Shulman

1980                 Mollie Sibley*

1981                 Dr. Yale Berry

1982                 Eleanor Lewis

1983                 Richard Hackel

1984                 Abbe Cohen

1985                 Judith Freedman Caplan

1986                 Ernest Starr*

1987                 Jane T. Wanger

1988                 Jerold A. Gilmore

1989                 Dr. Howard Weintraub*

1990                 Dr. Michael Blau

1991                 Dr. Theodore I. Steinman

1992                 Harry Shulman

1993                 Dr. Robert L. Thurer

1994                 Dr. Jeremy M. Wolfe

1995                 Arlene Weintraub

1996                 Jack Stevens

1997                 Sheila Shulman

1998                 Roz Bernheimer

1999                 Marc Cooper

2000                 Rabbi Frank Waldorf

2001                 Rose Beth Mandelbaum

2002                 Dianne Blau

2003                 Donald Solomon

2004                 Janet Wagner

2005                 Judith Ferber

2006                Mark Kagan

2007                Dennis Cerrotti

2008                Rochelle Seltzer

2009                Cathy Cotton

2010                Zippy Ostroy

2011                Harvey Cotton

*deceased