Sam Freedenberg, the chair of Tikvat Israel's Religious Practices Committee, called it "a slam dunk" - the decision to fete Terry Horowit and Jim Hendler as "Kallah Bereshit" and "Hattan Torah," respectively, on Simchat Torah 5767.

Literally "the bride and groom of the Torah," the two honors are accorded each year to a pair of TI members who have made significant contributions to the spiritual life of fellow congregants at Tikvat Israel.

The husband-wife team will be honored with special aliyot at the morning service on Simchat Torah, Sunday, Oct. 15, and at a luncheon in their honor following services in the social hall. (RSVPs are requested by calling the synagogue office.)

Both Terry and Jim have played essential roles in the religious and cultural life of the congregation since joining Beth Tikva in 1987.

Terry, a native of St. Louis, Mo., has served in numerous capacities at Beth Tikva and Tikvat Israel. She edited the synagogue bulletin for two years early on and has served on both the education and religious practices committees for several years.

She may be best known to congregants as a highly sought-after tutor of Torah and Haftorah trope, and she has conducted multi-session classes at her home at which dozens of adult congregants have learned the spiritual art of layning Torah.

Terry has assigned Shabbat morning Torah readers every week since the mid-1990s, as well as Torah readers for High Holidays and the marathon balagan Torah readings for Simchat Torah in recent years.

She even has filled in on occasion for Cantor Rochelle Helzner to lead Shabbat services. Terry completed the cantorial certification program at Ma'alot Seminary in Rockville in 2002. She performs with the musical group Shalshelet.

A native of Queens , N.Y., Jim has served since June 2006 as Tikvat Israel's co-president. He previously served two terms as a TI board vice president and chaired the religious practices committee on three different occasions over his two decades of membership.

Jim also has chaired the High Holidays Committee for the past decade, served as co-chair of the Beth Tikva Torah fund-raiser in the early 1990s and currently sits on the steering committee for raising funds for Tikvat Israel's new Torah, which is slated to be dedicated next spring.

In addition, he has been involved in the education committee, the men's club, the early childhood education committee and youth commission. Since 1994 Jim has served as "acting president for life" of the synagogue's Shehakol Society.

A pace-setting computer scientist and World Wide Web researcher at the University of Maryland, he recently accepted an appointment as senior constellation professor of the "Tetherless World Research Constellation" at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He officially joins the RPI faculty on Jan. 1 but doesn't expect to relocate with his family until the end of the 2006-07 academic year.

Terry and Jim will be joining Congregation Ohav Shalom in Albany, N.Y. Their daughter, Sharone, is a sophomore at Brandeis University.

"Tikvat Israel's loss will surely be Ohav Shalom's gain," says Sam Freedenburg, who made the announcement of Terry and Jim's selection for this year's honors.

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	Tikvat Israel Congregation 2200 Baltimore Road · Rockville, Maryland 20851 Phone: (301) 762-7338 · Fax: (301) 424-4399 · Send us an email!
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