The President’s Award: Honouring Wendy Eisen

By Phyllis Segal Denaburg, Holy Blossom Temple President

The Holy Blossom Temple President’s Award is awarded to recognize and honour an outstanding member or members of Holy Blossom Temple for their longstanding commitment to volunteering their time and talent in making a significant contribution to Holy Blossom.

This year we honor Wendy Eisen with the President’s Award for her outstanding work here at Holy Blossom Temple to set up the original Holy Blossom Foundation in 1997.

Wendy, daughter of Alice z”l and W. Bernard Herman z”l, whose chapel bears their name, attributes much of her early Jewish education to Holy Blossom and recalls happy memories of her confirmation ceremony.

As a young mother living in Montreal, her involvement with the Soviet Jewry Movement brought international attention to the grassroots activism she spearheaded.  Thankfully for Holy Blossom Temple Wendy returned to Toronto.  She helped to create the Temple Foundation and then tirelessly did and continues to do the work to make it succeed.

In her role as one of the founders of the Foundation in 1997 and then as its first President, Wendy has sustained Holy Blossom Temple. The millions of dollars that have been raised and the number of Temple members engaged and inspired by the work of Foundation are irreplaceable and contribute in an invaluable way to the congregation we are today.

Please join us on October 28th at 7:00 pm where we will learn about the Soviet Jewry movement that led to the release of 3 million Soviet Jews from behind the Iron Curtain. Holy Blossom Temple was at the centre of Canada’s role in this movement.

Thanks to the personal archive and published work of Wendy Eisen, it’s time to celebrate and learn about a shining example that teaches us how historic change is possible.

We look forward to learning from Wendy Eisen and thanking her for all she has done for Holy Blossom Temple.

Please register for the event.