Bonnie Panzok
Woman of AchievementTemple Gates of Prayer
Bonnie was born and raised in the Bronx in a traditional but non-observant household. She moved to Queens when she met her husband, Ronnie. She has three children, Amy, Debbe and Aaron. When they started going to Jewish day school, she began what she calls shul shopping. She visited many neighborhood shuls until she decided on Temple Gates of Prayer, and she has been a member there for almost 30 years. She is a longtime temple board member and the immediate past president of both the shul and the Sisterhood.
Since her early twenties, Bonnie has always been involved in her community. Volunteerism has been a big part of her life since then. She has served on boards of many nonprofit and for-profit organizations. She held various positions and ran many functions at the Solomon Schechter School of Queens PTA. When her daughters attended the Solomon Schechter High School of New York and the administrators heard about her PTA experience, they convinced her to be become the PTA president, and she served in that capacity until they graduated.
She became involved in the BQLI Region of Women’s League after Molly Chernofsky, of blessed memory, who was a former BQLI president, convinced her to become active. Bonnie credits a mutual friend with introducing her to Molly and says that is how her extensive region leadership began. She was co-chair of the Woman of Achievement Gala for six years. She has been the Vice President of Ways and Means for the last five years and is extremely proud that, along with her amazing WOA team, she has revamped the Gala into the spectacular event it is today. She and another team also started the Region’s wildly successful Pocketbook Bingo Fundraiser, which this summer will be going into its fifth year.
Bonnie’s work experience is varied. After graduating from Lehman College, she was an assistant manager in a supermarket, a Friendship Dairy salesperson, and when her children started to attend nursery school, she went back to work for the Board of Education as a per diem special education teacher for 20 years, all while helping her husband manage their small-business trucking company.
She has been a New York State Committee Woman, and she is a lifetime Hadassah member.