2007 Foundation’s Legacy Award:
Service to the Jewish community
Last year, for the first time, our Board of Trustees choose to honor a member of our community in recognition of their long-time advocacy and service to our Jewish community. At that time, we titled it the “Unsung Hero” award and Michael Moss was our first worthy honoree. Now we are renaming the honor to the “Legacy Award” and we are pleased to announce this year’s winner is Sheldon J. Kruth.

Sheldon was a founding member of our Foundation board. He served as our founding Secretary/Treasurer and worked pro-bono to get our Foundation established. Although his term of office as a member of our Board of Trustees ended 2 years ago, he remains a wonderful advocate for the Foundation.

When asked about the Foundation, he stated,“I supported the founding of the Foundation because I encourage: family philanthropy; sound estate and gift tax planning during one’s lifetime; the ability to have influence over the use of a family’s charitable assets; the ability to pass the responsibilities and values of family giving on to the next generation. I believe in the Foundation’s ability to monitor and administer assets by continually cultivating responsible leaders and the likelihood that the Foundation can endure in our community for generations.”

Sheldon Kruth is a partner in the accounting firm Kruth, Stein, Squadrito, Liberman & Silverman. He has served on many boards of our local Jewish organizations including the Federation and Jewish Family Service. He is a past president of the Jewish Community Center, and served as chair of the Holocaust Education & Research Center and campaign co-chair of the JCC’s Sport & Fitness Center.

Sheldon lives with his wife Karen in Fayetteville. They have 2 children and 1 grandchild.

Joshua Ian Davis Memorial Fund Established at the Foundation
Joshua died tragically in a car accident on May 1, 2007 along with his friend Kevin Goich. Joshua was the son of Isaac Stephen (Kathleen) Davis and Lori (Jerry) Raymond. He was the beloved brother of Louis H. Davis. He was the grandson of Martin and Bunny Mann and Carol and Shelly Hershman. His grandfather Louis Davis predeceased him.

The Joshua Ian Davis Memorial Fund has been established in his memory. Josh’s goal in life was to help others and, with this fund, his family and friends will be able to help keep his dreams alive.

His parents described Josh in this way. “Josh was a wonderful son who accepted both his new stepparents with an open mind and a loving heart. Josh was everything we hoped he would be, kind, loving, strong-willed and giving. He was a determined young man, book smart and street wise and able to achieve whatever he set his mind too.”

Joshua won the “Mensch Award” when he graduated from the Syracuse Hebrew Day School in 6th grade. The definition of a mensch is, “A role model. A “mensch” is a particularly good person, like “a stand-up guy,” a person with the qualities one would hope for in a dear friend or trusted colleague” according to author Leo Rosten. That was Josh. According to Josh’s “home” friends, he was everybody’s best friend. He was the first person everyone went to for a shoulder to lean on. He had a smile that could light up a room and compassion and maturity beyond his 17 years.

Josh also won the “Most Spirited Leadership Training Award” from his beloved Camp Schodack where he spent the happiest 10 summers of his life. He was the youngest non-family (owner) member to ever go to camp and the youngest activity counselor to persue his passion for rock climbing instead of just living in a bunk. We have heard so many stories of new campers that said: “I was the new kid in camp and Josh was the first person to introduce himself to me and make me feel like I belonged.” He loved camp so much he had to stop there every time he went through Albany on one of his many road trips.

When his brother Louis was asked to write about Josh, this is what he said, “Josh was a very good man in my eyes. He had every good thing to say to people always. When you would enter a room with him you would know that he was there. He always lit up a room all the time. I could never find one person that didn’t like him. I can say truthfully that guys at the school wanted to be like him and girls wanted to date him. He will never be forgotten…” Josh’s love, guidance and patience helped Louis become the young man he is today.

Rabbi Ain interviewed family and close friends in her quest to understand Josh before for his funeral. Her intuition was remarkable, “He understood that life wasn’t about the applause but about the actions that the applause stood for. He was determined to make this world a better place by treating each person the same. With love, respect and dignity. That was Josh.”

Josh was supposed to go to South Africa this summer to tour with a group of young adults he had never met. A large part of his trip would have been helping build a school and performing community service with young children. His dream in the fall was to attend the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to study medicine.

Serving as advisors to the fund will be Josh’s parents, I. Stephen Davis & his wife Kathleen, and Lori Raymond & her husband Jerry. In addition, Martin Mann (gramps), Stanley Germain, Michael Romano, and Paul Roth, long time family friends will be advisors to the memorial fund.

Contributions can be sent to the Jewish Community Foundation at 5655 Thompson Rd Dewitt, NY. For more information, contact Linda Alexander at 445-2040 x 130.