Distinguished Service Award
The CJF Distinguished Service Award is given annually in the fall to a lay leader who has demonstrated exceptional commitment and service to the Jewish community. Recipients of the Distinguished Service Award have founded the Columbia Jewish Film Festival, the Columbia Holocaust Education Commission and made possible the Katie and Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center, among many other illustrious accomplishments that have benefited our Jewish community and often the community at large.
Distinguished Service Award Recipients
2021 Dr. Naomi Farber
2020 Minda Miller
2019 Larry Needle
2018 Steve Savitz
2017 Charlotte Kahn
2016 Bruce Filler
2015 Dr. Stephen Serbin
2014 Lyssa Harvey
2013 Arline Polinksy*
2012 Shep Cutler*
2011 Dr. Lilly Filler
2010 John Baker
2009 Jerry Kline
2008 Edward Poliakoff
2007 Bernard “Nard” Fleischman Jr.
2006 Shelley Kriegshaber
2005 Fred Seidenberg
2004 Heidi Lovit
2003 Norman Arnold*
2002 Dr. David Lovit
2001 Barbara Blau
2000 Frank Lourie
1999 Dr. Morris Blachman
1998 Dr. David Kulbersh
1997 Jane Kulbersh
1996 Hyman Rubin, Jr.
1995 Meta Miller*
1994 Dr. Herbert Niestat
1993 Eleanor Niestat
1992 Sen. Isadore Lourie*
1991 Samuel Tenenbaum
1990 Alan Kahn
1989 Sen. Hyman Rubin, Sr.*
1988 David Baker*
1987 Helen Silver*
1986 Lee Baker*
1985 Dr. Hilel Salomon
1984 Pat Baker*
1983 Arnold Bernstein*
1982 Howard Weiss*
1981 Melton Kligman*
*Of Blessed Memory