Zionist Organization of America honors Lawrence residents with the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award

Iris and Shalom Maidenbaum, of Lawrence, were presented with the Zionist Organization of America’s Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award, at the organization’s gala at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan on Nov. 12.

Rabbi Kenneth Hain of Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence introduced the Maidenbaums as “two of the most beloved Jews in our community.”
“They are people that don’t want to be bystanders in Jewish history, they want to make things happen,” Hain said. “They have the imprint of Zionism in their DNA.”

Shalom Maidenbaum told the roughly 1,200 people who crowded the Grand Hyatt’s ballroom, “Iris and I remember the days when people were proud to be called Zionists. We will never be apologists for
Zionism.”

He praised the ZOA and its president, Morton Klein, for their “outspoken and unambiguous and unapologetic positions on the issues that face our beloved Israel.”

“Israel is now and will always be a place where Jews will be able to arrive freely and be counted among the most civilized countries in the world — the proverbial light unto the nations … a bastion of democracy,” Maidenbaum said.

The Maidenbaums earmarked their gift to ZOA to the organization’s college campus outreach, a program that “has done incredible work to combat the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement and is instrumental in supporting as well as creating a new young generation of outspoken proud Zionists,” he said.

Other speakers at last Sunday night’s gala included Woodsburgh resident David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel; Congressman Lee Zeldin, who introduced former White House Chief Strategist and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Steve Bannon; former Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman; Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, and Professor Alan Dershowitz.
Shalom Maidenbaum is a principal in the Cedarhurst law firm of Maidenbaum & Sternberg, LLP.