Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA

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Revision as of 17:30, 23 April 2016

Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA #2538 (also referred to simply as "Zelman") started in 2007, as a branch of Carl S. Erbesfield AZA in Atlanta Council. As CSE faded away, Zelman became the most prominent (and first) AZA chapter in Atlanta Council for the North Metro area.

Zelman is home of the Zelman chain (RIP), Zelman gum, sharknado, Garfield, Tiger Baum, the greatest sofer committee of all time, kahoot, and the nae nae.

Zelman was once the proud home of the Nesquik Bunny, the mascot of the glorious chapter. In 2013, Zelman voted to officially change its mascot to Bender, the robot from the TV show Futurama who was notorious for having a nihilistic outlook on life and being constantly inebriated. In 2014, Zelman changed its mascot via popular vote to Garfield the Cat, a symbol nominated by Jason Rothfarb, who viewed the celebrated cat as iconic to the chapter as his story was extremely pertinent to the story of Zelman's growth. A strong correlation was observed between Garfield's story of being picked up from the street by Jon, his eventual owner, while he was a skinny stray cat living on the street and the chapter's bildungsromaneque narrative of being a tiny chapter struggling with underrepresentation in its council before the arrival of eager, Zelman-loving AITs.

Zelman has had a harsh past, for it never had the "prestige" that the other chapters had. That, combined with poor leadership and lack of recruitment up until 2010 put Zelman on a path of folding. However, things have been going uphill since David Bernstein became G'dol. The board size has tripled, and active membership has tripled as well, and it's just the beginning of the year.

An update on membership, Zelman had the most recruits of Atlanta Council to start off the 2014-15 school year, taking in well over a dozen new AITs. Zelman plans on conducting its first AIT board elections in January 2015, which signifies the extent to which this previously bijou underdog chapter has grown. Zelman ended the year with over 25 AITs, which was the most for any chapter in Atlanta council.

At IC 2015, Zelman won the Henry Monsky chapter excellence award. For the 2014-2015 year, Zelman won Atlanta Council's most improved chapter award. In addition, Zelman's gizbor, Garret Colvin won his second straight Gizbor of the year award, while S'gan Jason Rothfarb won Atlanta Council's S'gan of the year award.

In August of 2015, Zelman appointed their first ever mekasher. This position will be used to more intensely recruit eight graders in bbyo connect on a chapter level.

New Member Convention 2015, was very successful for Zelman. The Chapter had three members on steering, and had over 15 AITs attend. AIT Jason Frey won AIT representative as well.

At SRC 2015, Abraham Zelmanowitz really showed how much the chapter has grown in both size, and in prestige. Not only did Zelman have the most members attending, with a staggering 33 members, the most in the chapter's history; They also won their second straight runoffs.

Zelman had a massive attendance at ACSC 2016, at which they had 22 alephs attend, and had three seniors (Jacob Penn, Joel Pozin, and Simon Miller) give senior life. In addition, Zelman had four members run for the 88th Atlanta Council Board, all of which won. Jacob Lewis was elected to serve as the 88th Atlanta Council S'gan, Jason Rothfarb was elected to serve as the 88th Atlanta Council Aleph Moreh, Zack Cohen was elected to serve as Atlanta Council Aleph Shaliach, and Jonah Weinbach was elected to serve as the 2nd Atlanta Council Aleph Mekasher. This is the first time since 2012 that Zelman has had a chapter member on council board, and they now have four. From almost folding just five short years ago, Zelman has shown their strength as they are now the biggest and strongest chapter in Atlanta Council.

Board History*

2015-2016 Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - Jason "Jewcy J" Rothfarb
• S'gan - Jacob "Chef" Lewis
• Moreh - Zach "Noz" Nozick
• Mazkir - Josh "Indian J-Cole" Gurin
• Shaliach - Zack "Pillsbury Doughboy" Cohen
• Gizbor - Garrett "Looks Like a Carrot" Colvin
• Mekasher - Jonah "Frat-God" Weinbach
• Sofer - Jake "Peachy-Ice" Peljovich
• Kohen Godol - Jacob Pennis

2014-2015 Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA AIT Board

• S'gan - Jacob Lewis
• Moreh - Jonah Weinbach
• Mazkir - Brad Freedman
• Shaliach - Zack Cohen
• Gizbor - Jake Peljovich

2014-2015 Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - Mike Goldstein
• S'gan - Jason Rothfarb
• Moreh - Jacob Penn
• Mazkir - Stephen Hahn
• Shaliach - Joel Pozin
• Gizbor - Garrett Colvin
• Sofer - Jared Naide
• Kohen Godol - Chase Barron

2013-2014 Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - Chase Barron
• S'gan - Jacob Penn
• Moreh - Mike Goldstein
• Mazkir - Alex Peljovich
• Shaliach - Joel Pozin
• Gizbor - Garrett Colvin
• Sofer - Simon Miller
• Kohen Godol - Ben Walters

2012-2013 Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - Ben Walters
• S'gan - Chase Barron
• Moreh - Chase Barron
• Mazkir - Alex Peljovich
• Shaliach - Andrew Gottleib
• Gizbor - Mike Goldstein
• Kohen Godol - David Bernstein

2011-2012 (aka "Part Dos") Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - David Bernstein
• S'gan - Ben "El Guapo" Walters
• Moreh - Joel Pollick

2011-2012 (aka "Part Uno") Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - Adam Schweber
• S'gan - David Bernstein

2009-2010 Abraham Zelmanowitz AZA Executive Board

• Godol - Alan Gerlich
• S'gan - David Bernstein
• S'gan - Adam Schweber

Liaison History

2013-2014: Adam Turry

2014-2015: Michael Cohen

2015-2016: Cole Sonshien

Mascot History

Before 2013: Nesquik Bunny

2013-2014: Bender from Futurama

2014-Present: Garfield the Cat

Sweetheart History

2013-2014: Amanda Abes

2014-2015: Megan Danz

2015-2016: Abby Elster

2016-2017: Anna Jackson

*Note that not all executive board positions were filled during Zelman's formative years.