Featured Members

Featured Member

Rita Lusky

I’m originally from Denver, CO, where my mother, Belle Bernstone Smernoff, was a life member of Brandeis, as well as many other Jewish organizations. She always gave of her time and energy to help others, and she was on the Board of Brandeis for many years. My brother, Barry Smernoff, received his Masters Degree after graduating from M.I.T., and his PhD at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. So there’s been much affection and support for Brandeis in my family for at least 75 years.

About 20 years ago, my friend and fellow Bet Shalom congregant, Joyce Martin, encouraged me to join Brandeis in the Twin Cities. I knew what an important organization it was, and I promptly joined and became a life member. While I’m not a “committee person,” I found a way to become involved with Brandeis, now BOND, through playing the piano. I’ve been the pianist at Bet Shalom for 40 years, playing for services, weddings and other life cycle events, and accompanying the adult choir and our Ruach Ensemble. I’ve also provided piano music for many organizations throughout the Twin Cities, including the Sholom Alliance. at Methodist Hospital early most weekday mornings.

In 2005 I began playing for BOND’s spring luncheon, style shows, Chanukah luncheons and, of course, the Book Author luncheon each summer. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed participating in this way, and it’s been a joy to see our group grow and thrive over the years. It’s been a wonderful way to get to know so many of you and to help in a small way to support the great work BOND does. I love seeing the commitment of BOND members and knowing how much they care about helping others to reach their full potential.

The other activities I love are playing tennis, walking, poetry, and drinking in the beauty of nature and art in every form.

It’s my hope that someday human beings may realize that, because we’re all on this planet together, we should respect one another and look at each other as though we’re all created in the same image, so that wars can end, and fear, anger, enmity, xenophobia and the like will disappear.

Thank you to BOND and its leadership for doing everything humanly possible to help accomplish this goal, and for caring enough for others to actually DO something constructive to make the world a better place.