HOSTS GALA CELEBRATION AT FRIARS CLUB MARCH 13

Theater District institution the Actors’ Temple celebrates its centennial with an entertainment-packed dinner and show at the Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street, on Monday March 13 at 6pm. The Temple, which has served as a spiritual home, meeting place and performance venue serving generations of show business professionals, luminaries and their friends, honors the beloved actresses Tovah Feldshuh and Jackie Hoffman (both of whom will perform), and Barbara Bova. Featured entertainers are Andrew Beall (composer of “Song of Solomon”), the singers Anna Bergman and Adrienne Haan, comedian Bob Greenberg, and concert violinist Marina Kifferstein.

The event, produced by Carol Ostrow, supports the Actors’ Temple mission to provide a dynamic spiritual home for Jews, and a creative home for Jewish and non-Jewish artists who can use its affordable jewel-box theatre — a unique resource for New York’s wide-ranging theatre community, right in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. A 100th Year Capital Campaign to preserve the Temple’s historic building at 339 West 47th Street is also being launched. Constructed in 1923 the Actors’ Temple building is a federally designated national landmark.

Congregation Ezrath Israel is led by Rabbi Jill Hausman. Progressive, egalitarian, eclectic, and post-denominational, Actors’ Temple offers Shabbat services on Friday and Saturday; Hebrew School instruction; adult education classes, and is affiliated with the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) one of the City’s distinguished select-admission public schools focusing on the arts. Hausman champions fresh approaches to enliven worship, and actively encourages the congregation to see the Temple as a vehicle of self-expression, and deeds of kindness. The shul’s motto is “Cool Shul, Warm People.”

Historical and Current PHOTOS

The remarkable roster of members and congregants includes legends from vaudeville, cabaret, nightclubs, radio and television, Broadway and even professional sports: Sophie Tucker, Red Buttons, Al Jolson, Edward G. Robinson, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Alan King, Joe Franklin, Eddie Cantor and numerous composers, musicians, stagehands, and talent agents, rubbed shoulders with sports figures like Sandy Koufax, Barney Ross, and Jake Pitler. Led for many years by Rabbi Bernard Birstein, who actively recruited (with Cantor Louis Malamud), show business professionals, the Actors’ Temple received foundational early support from mega-star Sophie Tucker, who headlined an annual benefit on Broadway, and Joe E. Lewis a stalwart supporter. Non Jews like Ed Sullivan (whose wife was Jewish), and Frank Sinatra were also friends… all were happy to kibbitz with Academy Award-winner Shelly Winters, the 3 Stooges, and a talkative Harpo Marx, before or after services.

Stained-glass memorials, bronze plaques and an Actors Photo Gallery lining the stairwell walls are just some of the many tributes festooning the Actors’ Temple in honor of its illustrious roll call of members and friends.

The Actors’ Temple celebrates its unique role in American, Jewish and show business history (as well as its tradition of being a place of acceptance, spirituality, creativity) at The Actors’ Temple 100th Anniversary Gala Celebration on Monday, March 13 at 6pm, at the Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street, New York City. Tickets are $350 and are on sale now, by calling (917) 796-3121 or visiting http://www.theactorstemple.org

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The Award pays tribute to an Individual whose accomplishments transcend the entertainment industry by positively redefining the very culture we live in. Bennett joins superstars Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra as the sixth Entertainment Icon Award recipient since the Friars launched in 1904.

One of the most respected talents in entertainment, no one else in popular American music has recorded for so long and at such a high level of excellence as Tony Bennett. Bennett has received 18 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also one of a handful of artists to have new albums charting in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and now the first two decades of the 21st century. His contribution to the American Songbook has included such chart toppers as Rags to Riches, Who Can I Turn To (WhenNobody Needs Me) and his signature, I Left My Heart In San Francisco. He is also an accomplished painter and author.

“I have enjoyed being associated with the Friars Club over the years and it is an absolute thrill to be receiving the Icon Award this year. I have so many wonderful memories of events I attended at the Friars and I look forward to the evening in June, “ says Tony Bennett.

Throughout his career, Bennett has been a driving force behind several humanitarian causes. He has raised millions of dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes

Foundation, which established a research fund in his name. His original paintings each year grace the cover of the American Cancer Society’s annual holiday greeting cards with proceeds earmarked for cancer research. Active in environmental concerns and social justice, he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in the historical Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights movement and the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta bestowed upon him their Salute to Greatness Award for his efforts in fighting racial discrimination. With his wife Susan, they established EXPLORING THE ARTS, to support arts education in public high schools and founded with the NYC Department of Education, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Tony’s hometown of Astoria, Queens. EXPLORING THE ARTS supports and partners with 23 public art high schools in New York City and Los Angeles.

The Friars Icon Award recognizes Bennett’s achievements, both professionally and philanthropically, as Friars Club Abbot Jerry Lewis notes, “The Friars are proud to acknowledge all that Tony Bennett has accomplished throughout his incredibly successful career. And we are thrilled that 50 of those years have been as a member of our legendary fraternal family. His invaluable contributions to entertainment and the arts, along with his tireless humanitarian efforts, have earned him our coveted Icon Award.”

Lewis added, “As if his stellar career wasn’t enough, that fact that it was our own Friar Bob Hope who suggested he change his name from Anthony Dominick Benedetto to Tony Bennett, means that it was only a matter of time that we’d find a way to unite the two Friar Icons for all time.”

About the Friars Club

The Friars Club was founded in 1904 as a meeting place for entertainers and over the years has achieved legendary status. Its membership includes the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Brian Williams, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, Rosario Dawson, Tom Cruise, Les Moonves, Whitney Cummings, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro. The Friars Club “Monastery” is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan in a classic townhouse and is a haven for entertainers young and old.

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There were many very qualified applications representing a variety of Businesses, and nonprofits that are doing great things to advance our move toward greater sustainability.   The Winners were selected and THEY ARE:

AgriArk – Princeton, NJ   Offer a closed loop solution taking food waste and turning it into products that regenerate the soil. They also provide healthy greens through our greenhouse growing operation.  This method is the most efficient and least costly method of processing food waste.

www.agriark.com

Bright Energy Services   White Plains, NY    A full service firm specializing in energy   conservation/reduction.  The firm deploys tailored energy efficiency solutions and leverages renewable energy technologies to help commercial and industrial property owners reduce their carbon footprint.

www.brightenergyservices.com

CCI Energy Solutions  Uniondale, NY     A sustainable energy solutions provider that helps building owners, developers, co-op boards, and managing agents plans and implement energy efficiency projects, including natural gas conversion, combined heat and power installation, energy procurement, and energy conservation measures.    www.ccisolutions.com
Eco- Brooklyn   Brooklyn, NY     Providing cutting edge green building solutions since 2008. Eco Brooklyn focuses on the most radical green building techniques in order to find ground breaking solutions to our ecological problems.  We try to build with 100% salvaged materials. We attempt to create no waste by reusing as much as possible. Our goal is to use more garbage than we create.  We build super high efficiency homes.     www.ecobrooklyn.com

Green Hospitality Initiative, NY     The GHI is a NYSRAEF program to provide free support to New York Restaurants in adopting profitable green strategies to help create more sustainable and financially sound businesses for the community and to positively impact the environment.  The GHI has been funded the past 4 years through grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute.   www.nysra.org/?EF_GHI_Home

Tri- State Bio Diesel Bronx, NY   Tri-State Biodiesel focuses on the development and implementation of urban-based biodiesel projects utilizing non-food crop biodiesel feedstocks, such as Used Cooking Oil, Jatropha, Oil and Algae Oil.  Tri-State Biodiesel’s provides recycling services to restaurants, cafeterias, caterers and food providers. They acquire cooking oil with the sole purpose of providing it as fuel for home heating, diesel engines, generators and construction equipment.  www.tristatebiodiesel.com

Brooklyn Grange   Brooklyn, NY    They design, install and manage urban rooftop farms in NYC.  Its 2 rooftop vegetable farms comprise 2 ½ acres and produce 50,000 pounds of organically grown vegetables each year.  It also has the largest apiary in NYC with 30 honey bee hives.   Its produce find its way to local kitchens and restaurants.   www.brooklyngrangefarm.com

Sustainable Princeton    Princeton, NY     Educates, engages and excites the Princeton community about how to reduce energy and waste.  A nonprofit whose motto is Change a habit. www.sustainableprinceton.org

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Fred Klein, of the Gotham City Networking, Inc. introduces Good News to Jack at the Friars Club in New York City. 

Jack has leveraged his networking and client development skills to build a substantial, highly diversified career. Jack currently manages the Eagle Rock Diversified Fund, a successful fund-of-hedge funds, that he launched in 2001. Previously Jack started and/or headed companies in: multi-media consumer and business to business publishing (Harpers, Country Music Magazine and Wireless For the Corporate User); venture capital and industrial equipment manufacturing sectors. He partnered to develop commercial real estate properties in Florida. Early in his career Jack worked in the UK for a British technology company as head of one of their divisions and consulted with the heads of Fortune 500 type organizations while with McKinsey & Company, the leading international management consulting firm.

Jack has developed profitable business operations in various parts of the world including Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Personal Highlights

Jack’s giving back started while a graduate student at MIT when he served as a Big Brother. Over the years Jack has served and continues to serve on the boards of various non-profit organizations including Medical Missions for Children, the Garden State Woman Education Foundation and the Park Avenue Club that is owned by 11 charities.

For over 20 years Jack has taught at the MBA level at Rutgers, Montclair State and Fairleigh Dickinson Universities.

Jack has a BSME degree from Yale University and a MS degree in Industrial Management from MIT. Jack is the co-founder of the Northern New Jersey MIT Sloan Business School Networking Group and is extending this networking concept globally.

Jack and his wife Judy live on Walnut Farm which they developed into one of New Jersey’s top thoroughbred race horse breeding and training programs. Their son Jonathan graduated from Georgetown University and is pursuing a career in corporate turn-around management.

Jack served in the U.S. Army.

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[Fredslist] The Penultimate Blog on Happiness

Share with Fred at http://www.gothamnetworking.com/blogs/entry/The-Pursuit-of-Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness

11 hours ago 8 comments Categories: Lifestyle Tags:

Jefferson’s three examples of our unalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Happiness is the state of Felicity.

It has been said that it’s not how much we have but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness (Charles Spurgeon).

Lincoln added most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

The top 10 things that come mind that make me happy are (not necessarily in the order of importance):

1) French Champagne
2) Family
3) Gotham
4) Winning (fun is more fun when you win)
5) Key West
6) Charcoal
7) Psychic compensation (from Giving)
8) Home made Ice cream
9) Uncontrollable laughter
10) Dreaming up things and seeing them through to creation

Did I miss anything? If so, pursue them!

Fred Klein –  Founder of Gotham City Networking, Inc.  Klein Zelman Rothermel LLP is a labor and employment law firm representing management in all the areas of responsibility facing Human Resource Directors and related responsible parties.

Our clients are nationwide and include unionized and non-unionized companies in many different industries. I am rated “AV”, the highest Martindale-Hubbell attorney rating for legal ability and ethical standards and have been designated a Super Lawyer the past 3 years..

For more information, please see our web site at WWW.KZRD.com.

Please know that we are “service obsessed”. Firm partners who are Gothamites are co-founder Nancy Schess, Joan Rothermel and Jane Jacobs.

Fredslist mailing list
Fredslist@gothamnetworking.com

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RICHARD BELZER
“Dead Wrong”

Friday, October 5, 2012
6:00 PM
Milton Berle Room

Do you still believe that
Marilyn Monroe overdosed on drugs?
Or that Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy?
If the answer is yes, then keep reading.
For years the government has put out hits
on people who were “talking too much,”
covering up government assassinations
with drug overdoses and mysterious suicides.
In Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country’s
Most Controversial Cover-Ups the most
historic government conspiracies
are finally revealed.

Friar Richard Belzer and David Wayne
prove, by examining the sheer evidence,
that the allegations on some of the
most famous deaths in history are,
quite simply, impossible.

Join Belzer for cocktails and
hors d’oeuvres and hear the real
stories behind the coverups.

http://www.friarsclub.com/members/event%20pdfs/RichardBelzer-DeadWrong-10-5-12.pdf

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Friars Club Foundation to Honor

Legendary Singer Connie Francis and

Leading Businessman and Philanthropist Leonard A. Wilf at Annual Gala!

WHO:     Connie Francis, Leonard A. Wilf, Jay Black, Pat Cooper, Neil Sedaka, Tony Orlando, and more to be announced…

WHAT:   The Friars Foundation Applause Award Gala

WHEN:   Monday, June 6, 2011

WHERE: The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 301 Park Avenue (at 50th street),NYC

A WORD ABOUT THE FRIARS FOUNDATION

Whether we experience the thrill of a live performance or the delight of listening to a great symphony, we know how much power the arts have in changing society.

The Friars Foundation was established in 1977 as the charitable arm of the Friars Club. It is a publicly supported Foundation and is the conduit through which the Friars accomplish one of its major goals: the betterment of our society, particularly in the area of the performing arts.

The mission of the Friars Foundation is to help performing arts groups create excellent innovative and affordable programs for the enrichment, education, and enjoyment of diverse audiences and participants. The Foundation also helps prepare the next generation of performers and musical artists through scholarship programs for students studying the performing arts.

With the decrease in government subsidy for the performing arts the Friars Foundation is more than ever aggressively seeking to carry out its mission to foster the arts for future generations.

* Abbot Frank Sinatra once said: “Their continuous good work for charity rather than their great triumphs on the stages of the world is the true glory of this band of earthly angels known as the Friars.”

#connie #francis #leaonard #wilf #honored #honor #friars #club #jack #black #singer #foundation #gala #pat #cooper #neil #sedaka #tony #orlando

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