Honoree Bios
Joanne (affectionally known as “Red”) was born and raised in Newark, NJ. She graduated from Peshine Avenue School and then headed to Weequahic High School. While in Weequahic, she participated in the high school’s drill team and she was a majorette in the South Ward’s Aquarius Drill Team.
After high school, Joanne went to work for the City of Newark. She later worked at Beth Israel Hospital. She returned to work for the City under Mayor Baraka’s administration as a Code Enforcement Officer. She was diligent and became known for enforcing the rules, regulations and codes for the residents of the City. Joanne had a reputation for getting things done and many residents grew to love and respect her for the dedication she gave to her job.
After high school, Joanne became known as the “Mother of Weequahic High School” due to the host of fundraisers and events she held to support the school’s sports teams with supplies, equipment and uniforms. Whenever the school had a need, Joanne was right there to advocate and raise money, including door knocking on the local area businesses. She was a strong believer in education and her passion for the high school drove her to go above and beyond to ensure that students had what they needed.
Joanne had a large circle of friends. She loved to dance and have a good time. Her laughter and sense of human were contagious. She had a full personality and a sympathetic heart that made her concerned about the well-being of everyone.
When she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she still continued in her role of savior, coach, role model and protector who took care of everyone in the community.
Joanne married the love of her life, Clive Edwards, in 2019. When she passed, she also left behind her daughter, Ivory, and a granddaughter, the loves and pride of her life, and a void in the community.
Marcia Freedman was an American-Israeli woman’s rights and peace and justice activist. Born in the U.S., Freedman, along with her then husband Bill Freedman (’55) and their daughter Jenny, emigrated to Israel in 1967. After an academic career during the early 1970’s, she was a co-founder and leader in the feminist movement there. In 1973, she was elected to the Knesset and served until 1977. During her tenure, she advocated for women’s issues, feminist reform and the rights of Palestinian citizens in Israel. As a result of her work, the Youth Ministry’s budget for girls in distress was significantly increased. Marcia opened the first battered women’s shelter, helped create a network of support and services for women, and introduced legislation that led to the reform of Israel’s highly restrictive abortion law. She co-founded the Women’s Party in 1977. She also co-founded and helped run the Kol Ha-Isha Women’s Center in Haifa and was a member of and advocate for recognition and legitimacy of the Israeli LGBTQ community.
Marcia returned to the U.S. in 1981 and settled in the California Bay Area, where she published her memoir, ‘Exile in the Promised Land’ in 1990. She helped create the Women’s Computer Literacy Project and was the Director of Marketing for the American Society on Aging, where she established the Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network. She again returned to Israel for extended stays from 1997 to 2002, helping to co-found the Community School for Women, which offered courses in Women’s studies and employment skills to underserved women.
In 2002, she co-founded Brid Tzedek v’Shalom, a nonprofit grass-roots organization that supported the establishment of a Palestinian state and served as its president.
More recently, she was a member of Ashby Village (a community center for the elderly) serving on its Board of Directors, and she was a co-founder of Elder Action, a political group within the organization. She contributed her activist energies and visionary and thoughtful leadership to equity, diversity, inclusion and access to the Village.
Marcia was a funny, loving, warm, generous woman who loved food, wine, culture, shopping, shoes, the sun, and all things beautiful.
When Marcia passed in 2021, leaving behind her beloved daughter, Jenny, and ex-husband, Bill, women from all over acknowledged her life with an overwhelming outpouring of gratitude for her work.
Two themes have run strongly and concurrently through the life and careers of attorney Lawrence (Larry) Lerner. Even as he was building a pre-eminent intellectual law practice in NJ, he applied his talents to the inter-relationship between social justice needs and the rule of law. In the 1960’s, he represented dozens of pro bono racial discrimination cases and led a coalition of groups fighting for justice in housing and employment in NJ. Simultaneously, he successfully pursued cases before the NJ Supreme Court that reapportioned NJ on “one man, one vote.” He was also able to obtain an injunction to remove the liquor license of a famous national organization that discriminated on the basis of race.
Larry is a graduate of the Newark College of Engineering with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and he also has a law degree from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Bar of NJ, Pennsylvania and Virginia and has been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. The firm he founded, Lerner & David, in Cranford, NJ has over 60 attorneys and represents major companies around the world.
Starting in 1979, he devoted much of his energies to a concern for social justice in the Soviet Union. This entailed multiple trips to the Soviet Union to visit with Refuseniks and ex-prisoners of conscience. He helped found an organization that filed legal actions for political prisoners based on Soviet treaty obligations and the Constitution of the Soviet Union.
In 1996, after an unsuccessful campaign for the House of Representatives, Larry retired from the practice of law and devoted his activities to organizations whose purposes he could support. He maintained his interest in the former Soviet Union and after a few years as an officer, he became the President of the Union of Council for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) in the former Soviet Union. Today, this organization concentrates on fighting antisemitism and xenophobia, and promotes rights and the rule of law in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It has set up a religious freedom roundtable in the Ukraine, coordinating the activities of over 50 human rights organizations in the country.
In 1989, he became a member of the Board of the Education Fund for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace, the forerunner of MeretzUSA, a supporter of the Meretz party in Israel.
While in Weequahic High School, Larry was a member of the HaShomer HaTsair youth organization, and a supporter of the Meretz Party in Israel. In this organization, he found a home for his views that Israel and the Palestinian Authority should settle their differences by sitting side-by-side with secure borders. He served as President of MeretzUSA for many years and represented it at the World Zionist Congress for 15 years.
Larry continues his work for the UCSJ which has offices in Lviv and Washington, DC. The UCSJ is presently raising funds for food and providing medical supplies for those in need in Ukraine.
Larry and his wife, Beverly Rothstein Lerner, reside in Providence, NJ. They have four children, 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Cynthia Holiday, singer and songwriter, is a real crowd-pleaser and her renditions of straight-ahead jazz, blues and pop standards are full of swing, improvisation and soul. Singing live before an audience is clearly where she feels most comfortable, demonstrating a fantastic stage presence.
Cynthia says, “I love the up-and-close feeling of performing in small, intimate venues like SMOKE or Showmans Jazz Club in NYC. I also enjoy the thrill of performing for an audience of 10,000+ at outdoor events like the Harlem Jazz & Blues Festival, or the Hartford Jazz Festival.” Following the performance in Hartford, the Hartford Courier music reviewer said “She may have been unfamiliar to the audience, but Holiday quickly won over the crowd with her blues-soaked swing and charming banter.”
Cynthia’s gifted vocals and natural inclination for jazz is attributed to her upbringing in Newark, NJ, where music filled her home on any given day. Her stepfather, trumpeter Calvin Hughes, was a band leader who performed with such greats as Count Basie, Clark Terry and Big Maybelle.
As a child, Cynthia was a dancer, studying for years with the Garden State Ballet Company. She also taught dance while in college. Singing was her true love and she began studying classical voice with Jacklyn Snyder in NYC. Eventually, she switched to the jazz vocal program at the Newark School of the Arts, with Inez McClendon. She also took private voice lessons with many others including Duke Anderson, Jim Carson and the late Rita DaCosta Turrentine. She considers the late bassist, Earl May, to be an important mentor as she began sitting in at jam sessions.
In 2008, Cynthia’s debut CD “All the Way” was released. It was produced by John Snyder and Eulis Cathey. On it, she performed with a number of notable musicians and she put her own personal touch on the CD’s standards, blues and several originals. She co-wrote two of the songs with Radam Schwartz, “I Like What I See” and “You’ve Got a Job To Do.” When asked which were her favorites, she says “My Little Rainbow” and “Samba de Amore,” both of which showcase her musical versatility.
Sheila Anderson, host of WBGO’s Jazz88 program said that “Cynthia seeks to continue the tradition of jazz women who sing the blues, a style that is becoming a lost art…(when I listen to her) I hear the humor of Helen Humes, the soul of Ernestine Anderson, the warm timber of Nancy Wilson and the storytelling of Marlene Shaw, but make no mistake, what you hear is pure Cynthia Holiday.” WBGO Jazz88 Host, Sheila Anderson.
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
Birdland, Smoke and the Iridium Jazz Clubs, NYC
Cecil’s and Trumpet’s Jazz Clubs, Montclair, NJ
Blues Alley Jazz Club, Washington, DC
Shanghai Jazz Club, Madison, NJ
Hartford Jazz Festival, Hartford, CT
The Apollo, Central Park, Riverside Arts & Music and Fort Green Jazz Festivals, NYC
Harlem Chamber of Commerce Concert (opened for Gloria Lynn), NYC
Helen Hayes Performing Arts Concert (opened for Cissy Houston), NYC
International Women in Jazz Concert, NYC
Newark Symphony Hall (opened for Roy Ayers and performed with Rhoda Scott)
Jazz Arts Project, Red Bank, NJ
Osaka Asian Dreams Concert with TS Monk Septet, Japan, 2013
Moscow Tour with Oleg Butman, Russia, 2013
NTAC Private Party, Antigua, BWI, 2012
Siberia Tour, Russia, 2011
Valentine’s Day Performance, St. Maarten, 2009
DISCOGRAPHY
“All the Way” featuring the Cedar Walton Trio (available on Amazon and Itunes)
“I Like What I See” recorded live at Birdland, NYC (available on CD Baby)
Born in Newark, NJ to Russian immigrants, Ben was a 1942 graduate of Weequahic High School where he was elected Senior Class President. He then graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, with his time there interrupted by service in the Army. While at UNC, he served as Hillel President and used this position to lead an interfaith group to push the school to hold its first concert for an integrated audience in UNC’s history, hosting the noted African-American soprano, Dorothy Maynor.
Ben received his JD from Rutgers University-Newark Law School, attending school at night, while serving during the day as Assistant Director of the Newark Housing Authority, working to improve the quality and availability of the City’s affordable housing.
Ben went on to work with his father-in-law, Cecil Lurie (founder of Atlas Steel products which later became Benco). He remained active in legal work as an expert witness, mediator and arbitrator.
Aside from his family, his greatest joy was his community work and for it he received numerous awards. He was past Chairman of the Maplewood Economic Commission leading efforts to reinvigorate Springfield Avenue. As a founder of the Society of Musical Arts, he helped bring outstanding live classical performances to local venues. He was an active member of CRIA (Council of Religion and International Affairs, later named the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs). With his wife, Ruth, he established the UNC-Hillel Ruth and Benjamin Perlmutter Foundation for Ethics in Our Time, dedicated to bringing to campus outstanding, internationally recognized thinkers on the topic of ethics and Judaism. He served for many years on the Board of the Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research at Hebrew University and he and Ruth contributed an important microscope to them--key to conducting specialized research.
Ben was especially dedicated to the Metrowest Jewish Community. Early on, he received the Julius and Bessie Cohen Award, recognizing young UJA leaders and their potential. He went on to become President of the Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) and remained an active Board member for decades. There he began the Scholarship Fund, which, to date, has provided over $3.1 million in interest-free scholarship loans. He was also a dedicated member of the Board of Hebrew Free Loan of NJ, the same organization that decades before provided a loan that helped his father start his small business when he arrived in this country. Ben served for many years on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Community Federation of Metrowest NJ.
In his retirement, he took every class offered by Seton Hall University’s Department of Jewish Christian Studies, enjoying rigorous conversations with its Rabbis, Priests and his fellow classmates. He also took many art classes, studying painting and drawing.
Ben was married for 68 years to Ruth Lurie Perlmutter. They had two daughters, Amy and Risa Goldstein, and two grandchildren.
Cynthia G. Pierre, Ph.D., is currently serving her second stint as Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Since 1965, the EEOC has been the leading federal law enforcement agency dedicated to preventing and remedying employment discrimination and advancing equal opportunity for all in the workplace. She also was the Chief Operating Officer for the EEOC during the Obama administration. Her total federal career has spanned 37 years including eight years as Regional Director and National Enforcement Director for the U.S. Department of Education's Office (DOE) for Civil Rights (OCR). At OCR she oversaw the enforcement activities of the four-state Atlanta Region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee) to ensure equal access to education for all regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age or disability.
Before joining the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights, Cynthia was Field Management Programs Director, for the EEOC where she monitored and evaluated the performance of EEOC’s 51 field offices to ensure effective implementation of agency programs, policies and procedures to combat discrimination in the workforce. She was first appointed a senior executive in the federal service in 1998, serving as EEOC District Director in Birmingham, AL.
Prior to joining the federal government, Cynthia worked for six years in international development for a nonprofit, travelling extensively in West Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Dr. Pierre is also an Adjunct Professor at The University of Maryland Global Campus and Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University where she teaches online courses on leadership, intercultural communications, and diversity and inclusion.
Cynthia was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban studies. While at Penn, she was a junior year exchange student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. She later obtained a Master’s degree in administration from Antioch University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She also has completed the Senior Managers in Government Certificate Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Leadership for a Democratic Society Program at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA.
Before joining the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights, Cynthia was Field Management Programs Director, for the EEOC where she monitored and evaluated the performance of EEOC’s 51 field offices to ensure effective implementation of agency programs, policies and procedures to combat discrimination in the workforce. She was first appointed a senior executive in the federal service in 1998, serving as EEOC District Director in Birmingham, AL.
Prior to joining the federal government, Cynthia worked for six years in international development for a nonprofit, travelling extensively in West Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Dr. Pierre is also an Adjunct Professor at The University of Maryland Global Campus and Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University where she teaches online courses on leadership, intercultural communications, and diversity and inclusion.
Cynthia was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in urban studies. While at Penn, she was a junior year exchange student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. She later obtained a Master’s degree in administration from Antioch University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC. She also has completed the Senior Managers in Government Certificate Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Leadership for a Democratic Society Program at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, VA.
Darryl Rochester graduated from Weequahic High School in 1971 after having grown up on Johnson Avenue among a close-knit extended family and large circle of lifelong friends. Building on his foundation as a student in Kay Payne’s Dance Studio, Darryl’s love for the arts bloomed into his first career when he auditioned and was accepted in the famed Alvin Ailey Dance troupe. Unfortunately, Darryl soon suffered an injury which would bring an end to his dance career.
Darryl continued to embrace his artistic side by enrolling in the Wilfred Academy of Hair and Beauty Culture and Christine Valmy Beauty School in New York, receiving certifications from them both. With these certifications and the influences of his late mother Mabel and her dear friends, including Emily Miles "the grand dame of black style in Newark”, Darryl began taking the tri-state area fashion scene by storm. He was tapped by the legendary Al Murphy (who was obsessed with Emily Miles) to choreograph funky dance-theater pieces for Murphy’s highly extravagant fashion shows. Darryl and his dear friends, fashion designer Jaime McDonald and model Tommy Garrett, participated in these epic shows, as did such legends as Iman, Pat Cleveland, and Beverly Johnson, the first Black woman to grace the cover of Vogue Magazine. Around this time, Darryl opened his first salon in his family home on Keer Avenue. There, Darryl styled many of New Jersey’s hottest models and celebrities including Beverly Johnson, Pat Cleveland and one of his best friends, the groundbreaking Tracy “Africa'' Norman. He also styled participants of the legendary New York Ball culture and over the years was a premier stylist at Bamberger’s, the famous Soul Scissors Salon, and Avalon Day Spa in Greenwich Village.
Darryl was central to the theatrical environment of this era. Most notable was his association with the Club Le Jock, located on Halsey Street in Newark, an LGBTQ space that spawned the theatrical environment for the expression of free Black subjectivity and a precursor for similar cultural spaces throughout the tri-state area. Darryl's contributions to the LGBTQ community and cultural scene have been recorded in the Rutgers University Queer Newark annals. He later became a fixture at such legendary clubs as Zanzibar, Studio 54, The Garage, and The Loft.
Although Darryl did not have children of his own, he took great delight in being everyone’s Uncle Darryl; his many friends and clients were like his family. As a rite of passage, Uncle Darryl enjoyed taking his nieces clubbing to New York and New Jersey hot spots...after their hair and makeup were sufficiently snatched enough to make him proud. And while he also never married, his longtime relationship with Calvin Cleveland brought love and light to his life.
Darryl enjoyed traveling to places as far as Amsterdam; however, nothing could compare to his love for Martha’s Vineyard, where he traveled annually with his sister, Sandra and dear friend from Weequahic, Yvonne. He spent many a sunrise doing yoga on the Inkwell Beach and many lazy afternoons people watching in the front yard.
Darryl passed away on December 8, 2020, leaving behind a host of family, friends, classmates, and clients to dance on with the spirit he left behind.
Darryl continued to embrace his artistic side by enrolling in the Wilfred Academy of Hair and Beauty Culture and Christine Valmy Beauty School in New York, receiving certifications from them both. With these certifications and the influences of his late mother Mabel and her dear friends, including Emily Miles "the grand dame of black style in Newark”, Darryl began taking the tri-state area fashion scene by storm. He was tapped by the legendary Al Murphy (who was obsessed with Emily Miles) to choreograph funky dance-theater pieces for Murphy’s highly extravagant fashion shows. Darryl and his dear friends, fashion designer Jaime McDonald and model Tommy Garrett, participated in these epic shows, as did such legends as Iman, Pat Cleveland, and Beverly Johnson, the first Black woman to grace the cover of Vogue Magazine. Around this time, Darryl opened his first salon in his family home on Keer Avenue. There, Darryl styled many of New Jersey’s hottest models and celebrities including Beverly Johnson, Pat Cleveland and one of his best friends, the groundbreaking Tracy “Africa'' Norman. He also styled participants of the legendary New York Ball culture and over the years was a premier stylist at Bamberger’s, the famous Soul Scissors Salon, and Avalon Day Spa in Greenwich Village.
Darryl was central to the theatrical environment of this era. Most notable was his association with the Club Le Jock, located on Halsey Street in Newark, an LGBTQ space that spawned the theatrical environment for the expression of free Black subjectivity and a precursor for similar cultural spaces throughout the tri-state area. Darryl's contributions to the LGBTQ community and cultural scene have been recorded in the Rutgers University Queer Newark annals. He later became a fixture at such legendary clubs as Zanzibar, Studio 54, The Garage, and The Loft.
Although Darryl did not have children of his own, he took great delight in being everyone’s Uncle Darryl; his many friends and clients were like his family. As a rite of passage, Uncle Darryl enjoyed taking his nieces clubbing to New York and New Jersey hot spots...after their hair and makeup were sufficiently snatched enough to make him proud. And while he also never married, his longtime relationship with Calvin Cleveland brought love and light to his life.
Darryl enjoyed traveling to places as far as Amsterdam; however, nothing could compare to his love for Martha’s Vineyard, where he traveled annually with his sister, Sandra and dear friend from Weequahic, Yvonne. He spent many a sunrise doing yoga on the Inkwell Beach and many lazy afternoons people watching in the front yard.
Darryl passed away on December 8, 2020, leaving behind a host of family, friends, classmates, and clients to dance on with the spirit he left behind.
Evora A. Thomas was admitted to practice law in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia and is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (JD ’77) and Princeton University (BA’74) where she was recruited during the first year it became co-ed. She spent more than 40 years in promoting, providing, and supporting the delivery of legal aid in civil cases to those unable to afford a lawyer. As a licensed attorney herself, the passion of this mission became the over-arching motivation of her legal career. In 2022, she retired from the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in Washington, D.C. after nearly two decades of engagement with legal services providers nationally.
Prior to joining LSC, Evora served as Executive Director & General Counsel of Peninsula Legal Aid Center, Inc. in Hampton, Virginia; and as a Staff Attorney with the Virginia Legal Aid Society, Inc., and with Essex-Newark Legal Services, Inc. Ms. Thomas was also appointed as the first Black and first female Presiding Judge of the Municipal Court of East Orange, New Jersey in 1983. Over the years, she has served as a board member for numerous non-profit organizations, including the Legal Services Corporation of Virginia, Peninsula Aids Foundation, Newark Recycling, TriCorp, Inc., and the Concerned Black Alumni of Princeton (CBAP), in addition to the Dreyfuss Bank, formerly headquartered in East Orange, New Jersey. She has also been a frequent trainer on non-profit board governance, leadership, and client engagement at national conferences, at grantee program events and at LSC.
Throughout her adult life, Evora has been actively engaged in ministry and currently serves at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. In retirement, she looks forward to being more involved in support of the ministry within the local community, along with writing, and spending more time with her children and grandchildren.