Please join us for the Annual Ramath Orah Dinner on June 23 as we celebrate our community and honor exceptional community members:

Rabbi Ismar & Sally Schorsh and Yakov and Deborah Kerzhner

Rabbi Ismar & Sally Schorsch

Rabbi Dr. Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor Emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary, has been an active member of Ramath Orah since retiring as seminary chancellor in 2006. “What attracted me to Ramath Orah was its daily minyan and its authentic adherence to Jewish ritual,” he explains. Dr. Schorsch starts virtually every morning at Ramath Orah. “I have long felt that the heartbeat of a synagogue is its daily minyan,” he says. Dr. Schorsch often teaches the mishna after the morning tefillah. Ramath Orah is lucky to have him. He is a world-class expert in the field of modern Jewish history and the author of numerous scholarly books and monographs.

Dr. Schorsch was born in Hanover, Germany in 1935, on the eve of the Second World War to Rabbi Emil and Fanny Schorsch. His father was a leader of the Hanover Jewish community. The family escaped to England in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940. Dr. Schorsch grew up in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where his father led the Conservative synagogue. Dr. Schorsch was ordained at JTS in 1962 and was awarded a PhD in Jewish history from Columbia. He served as seminary chancellor from 1986 to 2006. He and his wife Sally have three grown children and 11 grandchildren.

Deborah & Yakov Kerzhner

Both Debbie and Yakov were born abroad and came to the United States as children. Debbie is from South Africa and Yakov from Ukraine. Both their families had settled in Atlanta and sent their children to Jewish day school, where Debbie and Yakov met. The young couple moved to New York soon after their marriage in 2008. Debbie admits that they first came to Ramath Orah by accident. “It was the closest shul,” she says, “but we stayed because we liked the intellectual curiosity and academic nature of the shul. And because it is so friendly and down to earth.” They’ve since made it their home. The three Kerzhner girls - Nina, 13, Tamar, 10, and Esther, 8 - were all named at Ramath Orah.

Debbie, a Columbia JD, is a lawyer for New York City, working for the planning and land use division of the City Council; Yakov, who received a PhD in math from NYY, is a quantitative analyst, a mathematical specialist who applies statistical methods to understand financial market behavior. He works for a hedge fund.

Debbie served on the shul board for many years and was the shul vice president from 2016 to 2021. She has served on the membership, website and children’s committees and currently organizes the annual Shavuot learning. Yakov comes to morning minyan on Sundays and other days when he doesn’t have to drop the girls off at school. He is a key member of the construction crew that puts up (and takes down) the sukkah every year and he helps source the shul’s signature kiddush offering – the kokosh cake.