The Jewish Community Center did a wonderful job in inducting its first class of Hall of Fame honorees last Thursday at the Gordon Center.
The honorees included: Jacob Blaustein, Shoshana S. Cardin, Jacob Epstein, Dr. Louis L. Kaplan, Zanvyl Krieger, Joseph Meyerhoff, Daniel Nathans, M.D., Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., Walter Sondheim Jr., Bert Vogelstein, M.D. and Dr. Abel Wolman.
A tremendous amount of credit should go to the JCC, its Board Chair Beth Mayers, the event committee lead by Marcy K. Kolodny and Morry Zolet, the Gordon Center’s hard working Nancy Goldberg and for sure WJZ-TV’s Marty Bass, the evening’s emcee.
I think the format of the evening was well conceived. With 11 honorees, the committee decided to do an informative video presentation, encapsulating their achievements in minutes. At the end of each segment, Mr. Bass gave a well done transition into the next honoree’s story.
This was as a first for Baltimore, and it was a terrific success before a packed Gordon Center crowd.
Plaques of those inducted will be hung in a special Owings Mills JCC location.
The video will be used as a “classroom” of Baltimore Jewish history.

Honoree Facts:
Jacob Blaustein

• Founder of AMOCO. He was responsible for the first drive-in filling station, first gasoline pump, first anti-knock motor fuel.
• Lifelong human rights advocate. First to propose the appointment of a United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights.

Shoshana S. Cardin
• First woman to chair the board of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.
• First female president of the Council of Jewish Federations.
• First female Chair of the Council of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
• First female President of the National Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL).
• Chair of the and co-founder of the Shoshana S. Cardin School.

Jacob Epstein
• Innovative wholesaler who started the Baltimore Bargain House.
• Inaugurator of matching grants in philanthropy.
• Extensive personal art collection was bequeathed to the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Dr. Louis L. Kaplan
• Grandfather of modern Jewish education in Baltimore.
• Established Baltimore Hebrew College.
• Served for 40 years as head of Board of Hebrew Education now known as Center for Jewish Education.
• Founder of Beth Am Synagogue, and its first spiritual leader.
• Head of Board of Regents for the University of Maryland.
• Chancellor of University of Maryland Baltimore County.
• Headed Joseph Meyerhoff Fund.

Zanvyl Krieger
• Dedicated philanthropist to Jewish causes.
• Charitable interests included the Krieger Children’s Eye Center, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Holocaust Memorial Museum and many others.
• Brought both professional baseball and football to Baltimore.
• Key investor to U.S. Surgical, which owned the rights to a method for closing surgical incisions.
• Greatest single gift was a $50 million challenge grant to the School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Joseph Meyerhoff
• Instilled in his family that the greatest testament to life is the legacy of community involvement.
• Developed the Israel Bond program. In 1951, co-hosted first Israel Bond meeting with co-chair Golda Meir.
• In 1964 with David Ben-Gurion, he launched the Israel Education Fund.
• President of the United Jewish Appeal.
• President of the Baltimore Symphony for 18 years. Funded seed money in 1965 for the symphony hall which bears his name.

Daniel Nathans, M.D.

• 1978 recipient of the Nobel Prize for discovering the use of chemical scalpels in analyzing DNA.
• In 1993, he was the recipient of the nation’s highest scientific award, the National Medal of Science.

Solomon H. Snyder, M.D.
• Distinguished Service Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins.
• Many advances in molecular neuroscience have stremmed from his identification of receptors for neurotransmitters and drugs.
• Applications of his techniques have enhanced the development of new agents in the pharmaceutical industry.

Walter Sondheim Jr.
• Championed Baltimore’s downtown renaissance.
• Instrumental in guiding the city through desegregation of its schools in the 1950s.
• President of the Board of School Commissioners.
• President of the State Board of Education.
• Pushed projects such as Charles Center, Maryland Science Center, the National Aquarium and the Inner Harbor.

Bert Vogelstein, M.D.
• Led a Johns Hopkins team that discovered the specific mutations responsible for colon cancer.
• Pioneering studies of the genetic causes of human cancer have earned him many awards including the Medal of Honor of the American Cancer Society and the Lounsbery Award of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Abel Wolman
• Johns Hopkins professor of environmental engineering.
• World renowned water treatment expert, working to standardize the methods used to chlorinate a city’s supply of drinking water.
• Helped build water treatment systems in 40 countries.
• Named Marylander of Century by the Baltimore Sun in 1999.