Silverboard Leads ORT’s Double Header
Within five days, ORT hosted a riveting report from school near Gaza, and a bourbon tasting event, both with the same important mission.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
Kenny Silverboard took over the professional leadership of ORT America and set out to roll with some substantive programming. The first event was on Nov. 14 at the home of Hilly Panovka featuring Amos Gofer, who runs ORT’s Kfar Silver Youth Village, just miles from the Gaza border. The second event was Nov. 18, a barbeque and bourbon tasting at the newly popular Dupree building.
At the Buckhead parlor event, ORT Board Chair Robbi Strauss related, “This Thanksgiving season we have each other. Tonight, these ORT alums will help tell our story.”
She introduced Ghila Sanders, managing director, Philanthropic Advisory at the Atlanta Jewish Foundation, who attended the ORT school in Rome along with her two sisters and were grateful for the education.
Gofer recounted the harrowing events of Oct. 7. With his invaluable 25 years of IDF leadership, he was in full operational mode, discerning what was happening with terrorists and shots fired nearby with very little outside communication.
There at the ORT school, he was in charge of 79 mostly orphaned children, some of whom had escaped the ravages of war in Ukraine.
He said, “We were evaluating safe rooms, getting busses in with a five-minute margin to load, turning off the power to look dark … many now don’t remember anything before the 400 days since Oct. 7 … stuck in the middle of time.”
He explained that only five percent of Muslims are radical (of the 100 million). “They don’t care if you are Zionists or not, on campus or in Montreal. Just radical against Jews.”
What Gofer did best was calculate risks and get the kids to safety.
The magnificence of ORT’s K’far Silver is the support children receive with social workers guiding each child to find his niche. Gofer said, “We are teaching them to be farmers, something Israel has neglected as a profession. We grow our own food and take care of wounded animals which is therapeutic for kids … not everyone can be a doctor or lawyer. Society needs farmers; and the children are allowed to also be excellent in STEM, arts, sports, language … we give them confidence and power.”
He then thanked Jews from North America who generously donate.
At the bourbon tasting, Strauss shared that ORT used to stand for Organizational Rehabilitative Training. “Now, it’s about fantastic worldwide education to create credible leaders and give the next generation reasons to be Jewish.”
Silverboard recognized Steven Cohen who has been elected to the National ORT Board. Cohen told the AJT that he sponsors quarterly poker games where thousands of proceeds go directly to ORT.
Silverboard told the AJT, “When I accepted the role at ORT after 10 years at the JFGA, I wanted to raise awareness of how we affect students in 39 countries where we have schools and/or programs. Many only know of ORT through their parents or grandparents … We are first class in education; nothing helps our young people get ahead and contribute to society more, STEM and agriculture based as well.
Moving into 2025, we want to ‘drive home’ the difference dollars make in the life of young people. We have ORT school alumni from Italy, Israel, Iran, Argentina, living in Atlanta; and I want to get them involved as advocates.”
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