Keith Harrow
The Ethel Liebeskind Lifetime Achievement Award
Keith Harrow, our Lifetime-Achievement Award recipient, has been a member of Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre for over forty years, joining our congregation when he and his wife, Madeline, moved to Hewlett in 1978. (By the way, Madeline and Keith will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on April 1.)
Before retiring in 2015, Keith was a Professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at Brooklyn College. For over 25 years, he was the Deputy Chair in charge of the computer science graduate program. Keith received his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, then master’s and doctoral degrees from New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. His wife, Madeline, was also a college professor, teaching in the Mathematics Department at New York City College of Technology in downtown Brooklyn. She has a bachelor’s degree from City College and a master’s degree from NYU.
Keith and his wife have two children, David and Jill, who attended HERJC’s Religious School. David celebrated his Bar Mitzvah here in 1993, and Jill celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in 1997. Jill graduated from the University of Michigan, majoring in communications and psychology. David graduated from the University of Michigan and Hofstra University School of Law. David and his wife, Melissa, have two children, Dylan and Kyle.
Since joining our congregation, Keith has been a regular at Shabbat morning services. He attends the daily morning and evening minyans "religiously" at least once or twice a week, often leading the services. Thanks to the Hazzan, he reads Torah several times during the year. Keith is a long-time member of the HERJC Board of Directors, and he is also a member of the Security Committee. In addition, he serves as an usher for the High Holidays and a greeter for Shabbat. He was a co-chair of the HERJC Board of Education for more than 12 years. During that time, he attended countless Nursery School Moving Up ceremonies, truck days, Religious School Alef Class Consecrations, model seders, and Hay Class Graduations. Perhaps his proudest achievement on the Board of Ed was when Cheryl Karp became Nursery School Director in 1993.
For the past few years, Keith has been the Chair of the HERJC Adult Education Committee, continuing his life-long commitment to education. Starting in April 2020, right after the onset of the COVID crisis, the Adult Ed committee offered a series of weekly Lunch and Learn classes, ultimately holding more than 30 sessions. Since then, the committee has sponsored a variety of other events, including several Movie Nights; talks about Simon Wiesenthal, the Israeli elections, and synagogues on Long Island; a Virtual Art Auction on Christmas Eve; and the Rabbi’s monthly Talmud class.
Although he did retire from his day job in teaching, Keith has no intention of retiring from HERJC. Instead, he looks forward to continuing to work with our new Executive Director, Lisa Stein, our new Rabbi, Michel Schlesinger, and, of course, our Hazzan, Bonnie Zakarin.
Keith is delighted to share this day with the other honorees at this year’s Gala, Stacey and Jaime Ezratty, as well as Jason Gang. Finally, Keith would like to dedicate his award to the memory of the first two Lifetime-Achievement Award recipients: Phyllis Gilbert Nadler and Sandy Feit. Both were very dear friends.
Before retiring in 2015, Keith was a Professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at Brooklyn College. For over 25 years, he was the Deputy Chair in charge of the computer science graduate program. Keith received his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, then master’s and doctoral degrees from New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. His wife, Madeline, was also a college professor, teaching in the Mathematics Department at New York City College of Technology in downtown Brooklyn. She has a bachelor’s degree from City College and a master’s degree from NYU.
Keith and his wife have two children, David and Jill, who attended HERJC’s Religious School. David celebrated his Bar Mitzvah here in 1993, and Jill celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in 1997. Jill graduated from the University of Michigan, majoring in communications and psychology. David graduated from the University of Michigan and Hofstra University School of Law. David and his wife, Melissa, have two children, Dylan and Kyle.
Since joining our congregation, Keith has been a regular at Shabbat morning services. He attends the daily morning and evening minyans "religiously" at least once or twice a week, often leading the services. Thanks to the Hazzan, he reads Torah several times during the year. Keith is a long-time member of the HERJC Board of Directors, and he is also a member of the Security Committee. In addition, he serves as an usher for the High Holidays and a greeter for Shabbat. He was a co-chair of the HERJC Board of Education for more than 12 years. During that time, he attended countless Nursery School Moving Up ceremonies, truck days, Religious School Alef Class Consecrations, model seders, and Hay Class Graduations. Perhaps his proudest achievement on the Board of Ed was when Cheryl Karp became Nursery School Director in 1993.
For the past few years, Keith has been the Chair of the HERJC Adult Education Committee, continuing his life-long commitment to education. Starting in April 2020, right after the onset of the COVID crisis, the Adult Ed committee offered a series of weekly Lunch and Learn classes, ultimately holding more than 30 sessions. Since then, the committee has sponsored a variety of other events, including several Movie Nights; talks about Simon Wiesenthal, the Israeli elections, and synagogues on Long Island; a Virtual Art Auction on Christmas Eve; and the Rabbi’s monthly Talmud class.
Although he did retire from his day job in teaching, Keith has no intention of retiring from HERJC. Instead, he looks forward to continuing to work with our new Executive Director, Lisa Stein, our new Rabbi, Michel Schlesinger, and, of course, our Hazzan, Bonnie Zakarin.
Keith is delighted to share this day with the other honorees at this year’s Gala, Stacey and Jaime Ezratty, as well as Jason Gang. Finally, Keith would like to dedicate his award to the memory of the first two Lifetime-Achievement Award recipients: Phyllis Gilbert Nadler and Sandy Feit. Both were very dear friends.