Contact: Max Rosenblum or Daphne Price
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org
Washington, D.C., April 4, 2016 – This week, the Jewish community lost a visionary philanthropist. Audre Rapoport, in partnership with her husband Bernard, was passionately committed to Reform Judaism, social justice and fostering a new generation of leaders among young Jews. Together, Audre and Bernard, of blessed memory, endowed the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s L’Taken Social Justice Seminars for high school students. Thanks to their tremendous generosity, in the last decade thousands of teens from 39 states and 2 Canadian provinces have participated in these life-changing weekend-long programs. Many of these students have gone on to pursue careers in public policy and Jewish life.
Rabbi Michael Namath, the RAC’s Program Director commented:
Our Jewish tradition tells us that a teacher is considered a parent. Audre Rapoport’s fierce commitment to the power of education as reflected in her and Bernard’s support for the RAC’s L’Taken program continues to raise a generation of Reform Jews who are inspired to change the world, strengthened by the experience the Rapoports made possible. Each of the more than 20,000 L’Taken alumni are in their debt, as are we all at the RAC.
May Audre Rapoport’s family, including her son Ronald and his wife Patricia, granddaughters Abby and Emily and two great-grandchildren, Lewis and Bina, find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. And in the words of the Jewish tradition: May Audre Rapoport’s memory ever be for a blessing.