Aleh Foundation Honors Irma Cardoza at 2014 Gala Dinner

    NEW YORK, NY, October 25, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Aleh Foundation is pleased to announce that the distinguished Aleh Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Mrs. Irma Miriam Lopes Cardozo (nee Fernandes Robles).

As President of the Sisterhood of Congregation Shearith Israel, Irma Cardoza has been a staunch supporter of the Aleh Foundation since 1992. She is the author of As I Lived It. In her book she recounts her journey from her native Suriname, Dutch Guyana to her present home in New York City. As the wife of Rev. Abraham Lopes Cardozo, Hazzan of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel-the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States-Mrs. Cardozo forged her own path as an advocate for Jewish children, Jewish education, immigrants, the poor and the State of Israel. Among other leadership positions, she was a founder of the Sephardic Studies Program at Yeshiva University, the American Sephardi Federation and the World Sephardi Federation; was president of the American Friends of Misgav Ladach Hospital and the Women's Division of the Central Sephardic Jewish Community. Mrs. Cardozo continues to serve as president of the Sisterhood of Congregation Shearith Israel. Written in her own forthright style, Mrs. Cardozo describes Jewish life in Suriname and in New York and the trials and joys of community service. While a personal memoir, the book she wrote depicts many important historical events, such as the Sephardic renaissance movement; and figures, such as Rabbi Dr. David and Tamar de Sola Pool. Included in the volume is a short history of Jewish life in Suriname, a lexicon of words in the native taki taki dialect spoken in Suriname, her famous recipe for haroset, as well as photos reflecting important events and people. As I Lived It is tribute to Mrs. Cardozo's will, spirit and faith, and makes for delightful reading. It is the story of her life as she lived it. See http://www.amazon.com/Lived-Irma-Miriam-Lopes-Cardozo/dp/1449917909

Please join friends of Aleh Foundation in recognizing the heroic efforts of Irma Cardoza and her beloved husband, Rev. Abraham Lopes Cardoza at the Awards Dinner on May 21, 2014. Call the headquarters at 800-317ALEH or visit the website at www.alehfoundationusa.org for more information.

Proceeds for the event will go to build our latest project, http://www.alehfoundationusa.org/PRG_school.html the Special Education School, which is presently in its final construction stage at Pardes Katz, a 10 minute-drive from Tel Aviv.

Rabbi Shlomo Braun is the Founder and Director of the Aleh Foundation located at 5317 13th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11219. It is only due to the energetic and successful public relations and fund raising affords of the Aleh Foundation in the USA, during the past 30 years, that Aleh is Israel was able to become Israel's foremost provider of the care and treatment of the severely disabled children. Aleh's spacious, ultra-modern dormitories, treatment centers, special education schools and occupational training schools of Aleh house and treat hundreds of special children in four cities in Israel. Today Aleh operates a system of spacious, modern facilities throughout Israel that house and care for more than 700 children with special needs. Because of dedicated friends and supporters throughout the states Aleh Foundation was able to forward more than a quarter million dollars ($275,000) this year to Aleh's facilities in Israel.

The Aleh Foundation was formed in 1984 by a group of women to help cope with the staggering need for disabled children in Israel. In 1989 a delegation from Israel reached out to Rabbi Shlomo Braun to establish a US fundraising office and expand the Aleh Foundation's public relations and fundraising activities. The Aleh Foundation opened its first office in the United States in 1989, and developed a network of more than 30,000 friends throughout the USA who became staunch supporters of our activities. With the Aleh Foundation's help, the rehabilitation centers in Israel grew from a hospice program of 23 children to become the nation's largest provider of educational rehabilitative services to severely developmentally disabled children operating in four different cities in Israel.

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