Temple Beth Am Lowen-Kaplan Award for 2022-2023

I. Lowen-Kaplan Award & Relationship to the Mission

A. History of the Walter Lowen and Seymour Kaplan Awards and Their Consolidation

In 1988, the TBA Board of Trustees established two awards in honor of two notable founding members: the Walter Lowen Award “for outstanding service toward the enrichment of Temple life” and the Seymour Kaplan Award “for the enhancement of the religious and educational life of the Temple.” The TBA Board (or designee(s)) chose deserving members of the congregation each year to receive the awards, which were presented at the Annual Congregational Meeting each May. In 2016 the Board re-evaluated the awards because of overlap in meaning and lack of consistent selection procedures and criteria. Board leadership met with Howard Lowen and David Kaplan, current members of TBA and sons of the founding members. With their blessing, the two awards were consolidated into one--the Lowen-Kaplan Award for the communal enrichment of Temple Beth Am. The consolidation of the awards pre-dated the Board’s adoption of a mission, vision, and values.

B. Relationship to the Mission

Temple Beth Am’s mission is to “deepen relationships to Judaism and our community by engaging the soul, heart, and mind.” By recognizing individuals who have gone above and beyond to advance this mission, we hope to deepen the relationships of many volunteers to our community and to each other as they draw inspiration and express appreciation through the nominations process. We also hope to deepen the community’s relationship to Judaism as these awards focus the community’s expression of one of Judaism’s core values—gratitude.

II. Lowen-Kaplan Award Criteria

The committee will use the following criteria in selecting the 2022 recipient of the Lowen-Kaplan Award:

1. An eligible nominee must be a member of the congregation in good standing, as determined by the Executive Director.

2. Current members of the Board of Directors are ineligible to receive the award.

3. Nominators are encouraged to focus on a nominee’s significant contribution(s) to communal enrichment and in alignment with Temple Beth Am’s mission and values.

4. A nominee’s contributions may be narrow in scope (one significant project) or broad in scope (varying contributions over time to multiple facets of the community).