WW II. Notably and locally, Michael’s father, Max Orovitz, is credited with founding Mount Sinai Hospital, the Community Chest which predated the United Way, the Citizens Board at UM, among so many other preeminent organizations. He, too, was key to nurturing the nascent tourism/hotel industry in Israel with Miami partners drafted to support what became the Dan Hotel group. Mount Sinai Medical Center, the University of Miami, and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation are legacy interests that we have adopted and continue to sustain with sweat equity and financial support. That group has grown to include Miami Jewish Health, The Jewish Museum of Florida/FIU, Save Dade, Faith-in-the-City and the former American Jewish Congress, but Temple Israel has been the centerpiece of our stewardship. As a retired senior executive with City National Bank of Florida (Michael), and a former journalist with the late Miami News and Jewish Floridian and, later, longtime development director at the Miami Jewish Home (Norma), we took our professional crafts, skills and reputations and merged them with our philanthropic and volunteer community interests. Each of us has served as president of Temple Israel, as well as at multiple other institutions throughout the region. Just as the mandate to serve was inherited from our parents, we hope to provide role modeling for our children, now adults, and their children. Our home was punctuated always with a sense of community and awareness of our joyful obligations, buoyed by ability and desire. That macro vision of tikkun olam on a grand scale is mirrored in a micro version as we support and care for an aging parent as she nears her own centennial.
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