The Charlotte Jewish News - December 2001 - Page 11
Best Friends
By Lenora Stein
Jewish education in Charlotte
lost one of its very best friends last
month with the death of Herman
Blumenthal.
Most people know about many
of the high-profile projects made
possible by the forward-thinking
efforts and support of the
Blumenthal Foundation that Mr.
Blumenthal chaired for the last 20
years. Among the most notable:
the North Carolina Blumenthal
Performing Arts Center; the
Blumenthal Cancer Center at
Carolinas Medical Center; the
Blumenthal Jewish Home in
Clemmons, NC; the Jewish
Community Education complex as
part of the JCC at Shalom Park;
Temple Beth El; Temple Israel;
the Charlotte Jewish Day School;
Wildacres Retreat in Little
Switzerland, NC; the Jewish
Federation. And then there are the
200 “other” humbler organiza
tions that are touched annually by
the generosity that was Mr.
Blumenthal’s trademark. The
Carolina Agency for Jewish
Education (CAJE) at Shalom Park
is proudly one of those.
First of all, by way of explana
tion, I never called Mr.
Blumenthal by his first name,
although I had the privilege of
working for him for more than 15
years. Not because he ever said
anything, or I doubt would ever
have minded if I was less formal;
ifs just that he always defined
himself to me in that respectful
way. He hired me without ever
asking for a resume, simply on a
couple of recommendations from
within the Jewish community —
and a handshake. He actually
interviewed me for the position at
CAJE while sitting in the bare and
empty room that has evolved to
become the Speizman Library at
the JCC, on a Sunday morning in
September 1986. CAJE, at the
time, had been in business for just
about three years, had gone
through a few executive directors,
and consisted of a bunch of hasti
ly packed cartons of Jewish edu
cational “stuff’ that had been
plunked down in Frances
Underwood’s former kindergarten
classroom at the old Temple Beth
El at 1727 Providence Road, when
Temple Beth Shalom on Fairview
December 11, 1983: Herman
Blumenthal, z”h addresses the
crowd at the groundbreaking cere
monies for the Shalom Park com
plex right here at 5007 Providence
Road. Herman was among the
many community leaders who
were visionary dreamers imagin
ing a Jewish community campus
that brought together all the syna
gogues and Jewish communal
agencies on one 54 acre location
in southeast Charlotte. The
CAJE
Road closed and Rabbi Robert A.
Siegel became rabbi of the newly
merged congregation. A humbler
beginning there wasn’t.
Mr. Blumenthal had started
CAJE with a friend of his, a
retired accountant Cyril Jacobs,
z”l, of Greensboro, NC, in 1983.
And if legend has it correctly,
CAJE was “birthed” as a dream
while the two men rocked away
on an afternoon at Wildacres
Retreat on the veranda overlook
ing the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The task was simple: to provide
creative Jewish educational
resources, programs and support
to a wide cross-section of Jewish
teachers, schools, congregations
and families across the greater
Carolinas region. Mr. Blumenthal
liked simple concepts that had the
potential to touch many people’s
lives and make a difference. From
the beginning, he chartered CAJE
under the auspices of the NC
Association of Jewish Men, later
to become the Carolinas
Association of Jewish Women &
Men. And Mr. Blumenthal began
“investing” in CAJE with his fam
ily’s Foundation dollars, which
has continued for 19 years. He
attracted some of his friends along
the way to co-partner with him.
He only asked that schools and
families make a nominal co
investment to see that CAJE flour
ished. He allowed CAJE to join
the family of Jewish Federation of
Greater Charlotte-supported agen
cies in 1989.
But over the years, it was his
own personal unflagging involve
ment that has made CAJE into a
community agency in its own
right in 2001. He attended every
CAJE workshop, meeting and
program he could, investing hours
of time in the evenings, on week
ends and sometimes in the middle
of the day to be a part of whatever
was going on in the CAJE calen
dar. There was always a seat
reserved for him. Often he even
reached into his pocket to pay for
his own lunch along with the
teachers at a workshop. He never
asked for any special recognition
or treatment. He just loved to
learn. That was it. I’m not sure he
ever had a specific agenda of his
own for CAJE in the grand scale
of things, at least he never com
municated one to me. He inspired
creative thinking, was personally
supportive of whatever novel idea
Herman Blumenthal (z’’l)
that had to do with the delivery of
Jewish education that was present
ed to him, and then allowed it to
happen. Sometimes I think he may
not have totally agreed with the
plans, but he was open-minded
enough to give things a chance.
Its probably not widely kjiown,
but the general operating support
that the Blumenthal Foundation
continues to give CAJE, provides
approximately 50% of the annual
budget. In addition, Mr.
Blumenthal saw to it that CAJE’s
rent for the modular building at
Shalom Park to the Foundation of
Shalom Park was covered over
and above that amount — CAJE’s
rent is not subsidized by commu
nity dollars from the annual cam
paign of the Jewish Federation.
CAJE stationery got printed in the
Radiator Specialty print shop
gratis, every time our address
changed. When CAJE needed a
fireproof safe to store the precious
original materials for its Historical
Society project, Mr. Blumenthal
magically provided one. One
Sunday morning he personally
delivered a brand-new computer
to CAJE ... along with the VP of
Information Systems at Radiator
Specialty Co. to install it and train
me on how to get started using it.
That’s the way he was.
On a more personal level: I
have yet to encounter a “boss” in
the Jewish community quite like
Mr. Blumenthal. He was definite
ly unique: in his quiet yet pro
found wisdom, in his inquisitive
nature, in his southern gentleman
liness (for lack of a better word),
in his ability to listen. And for a
talker like me, that was a wonder
ful gift. I barged into his office at
Radiator Specialty Co. on numer
ous occasions, sometimes bounc
ing off the walls, the words tum
bling out. The first time I went to
meet with him there, I was defi
nitely awestruck as he sat at the
big desk at the end of the lo-o-o-o-
o-ong conference table. I wasn't
sure where to sit, he didn’t indi
cate anything, and so, shyly I sat
down in the furthest seat from him
at the far end, out in the galut.
Later on, as the years passed by,
he would sit across from me at
that table, which to me was the
ultimate signal that I had earned
his trust. His office was a fascinat
ing place of mystery. The family
photos on the wall begged asking
a million questions. They spoke
much about his wide-ranging
interests in community, and most
of all in people.
Some people hesitated
approaching Mr. Blumenthal, I
discovered, because, after all, he
was a powerful philanthropist, and
many who bear that title inspire
aloofness and distance. He, on the
(Continued on page 15)
“Chapel in the Oaks”
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FUNERAL DIRECTORS
500 Providence Road Telephone: 704-332-7133
CELEBRATING
OUR
118th
ANNIVERSARY
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Do You Remember When?
national trend began
right here in Charlotte
18 short years ago. This
photo is from the digi
tal image archives of
the Charlotte Jewish
Historical Society, a
project of the Carolina
Agency for Jewish
Education (CAJE) at
Shalom Park. CAJE and
the Historical Society owe their
very existence to Herman
Blumenthal and the Blumenthal
Foundation, whose support allows
others to dream and bring creative
ideas to reality so that all in the
Jewish, as well as at-large, com
munity may benefit. Herman
attended almost every Historical
Society meeting that he could,
adding his personal touch to its
work, since it was founded in
1988.
Salvatore Aiello's
With the CTharlotte Symphony
Experience the
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December 14-23
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704-372-1000
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