Pinellas, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco
Marvelous Mensch
Bill Israel
Bill Israel, of St. Petersburg, was honored April 27 in Cincinnati by the national Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies for his dedicated volunteerism and service to the Jewish community, especially for serving actively on the board of directors of Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services for the past 25 years. The Association of Jewish Family and Children’s agencies is composed of 147 Jewish family service agencies from throughout North America.
Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services President/CEO Michael Bernstein said, “Bill has been a tremendous leader to our agency, a dedicated volunteer and has been there when it counted.” Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services is the largest JFS agency in Florida with 500 employees.
As the current longest serving member of the Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services board, Bill has been Vice President and Treasurer several times each. Over the years he has been called upon many times to represent the board at various meetings, and advocate for agency services. He has been a leader in developing board-level management and planning strategies, and has helped organize and deliver multi-day training in Total Quality Management for both agency board members and staff, and other community agencies. He has provided valuable leadership on the Planning and Finance Committees, and has served on other committees as well over the years.
Bill also is active in the local Jewish community, including having held leadership positions in the Jewish Genealogical Society, American Technion Society (Israel Institute of Technology), Temple Hillel, Pinellas County Jewish Federation and Temple Beth-El, in addition to being a key officer on more than a dozen other local and national professional and civic organizations.