Volunteer
Or Zarua
At the culmination of the evening’s festivities at Temple Israel of Greater Miami’s 89th Annual Congregational Meeting and Installation of Officers held June 10, 2011, the coveted Or Zarua Award was presented to this year’s volunteer extraordinaire: Linda Datko.
Linda Datko Bio
Linda Datko came to Miami from Pennsylvania, where she attended college at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. Linda, her husband Larry Leitner, and their son Joe have been active members from the early 90's.
Linda Datko - Or Zarua
Being the law librarian at the Federal Courthouse in Miami, it was natural for Linda to start her Temple Israel activities in the temple library. She began reading stories to the youngest members of the Religious School. Soon she was doing crafts with them with Miss Phyllis. Eventually Donna Seldes asked her to become the 4th grade teacher for the Religious School to teach about Moses and Passover. After finding her replacement in Wendy Saltzburg, Linda moved to the Art Room. Here she created arts and crafts projects for all the Religious School classes.
When Steve Citrin’s library committee took on the task of reorganizing Temple Israel’s amazing library collection, Linda designed the current library space and shelving. She took on the task of creating an online card catalog of the titles in the library. Over 2000 books are now in the database. When this phase of the work is complete, she hopes that the catalog will be available to the congregation on the Temple’s website.
Many of you see Linda each year in her job as co-chair of the Family Purim Carnival. Larry builds the games and she gets to paint them. They also coordinate the annual decorating of the sukkah. But Linda’s favorite Temple activity is creating covers for our Torah’s for the High Holidays. She started when Rabbi Kahn asked her to replace one of the worn out covers with a new white one. Besides the white covers you see each fall, she also sewed the children’s Torah cover done in the Italian style and the Talking Torah costume used in the Religious School. Linda, Larry and Joe have made a home in the Temple Israel community.
Get Involved:
According to Joel Grishaver, co-owner of Torah Aura, the second thing that leads to Jewish survival is connection to community. Over the course of a lifetime, there are many organizations to connect with, but to truly become an integral part of any organization, taking ownership in the form of participation, is crucial.
This year is Temple Israel’s 90th year. Our foundation was built upon folks who were not only forward thinkers, but people who took action. Continue this righteous tradition and get involved. This milestone year is full of possibilities: be a light and spread our joy!
Shammai taught: “Say little and do much. ”Pirkei Avot (1:15). Please contact Linda Levin, Membership and Outreach Coordinator to learn more.
To contact Linda by phone (305) 573-5900 ext. 414 or by email: llevin@templeisrael.net.
Thank you.
