Over 500 community leaders and friends of the Colorado Agency for Jewish Education gathered on August 26, at BMH-BJ Congregation for the Third Annual CAJE Dinner. This very successful evening honored Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, as the CAJE 2001 Leader of Learning, and Ellen Beller, immediate past president of CAJE, who received the first annual Spirit of CAJE Award.

Highlights of the dinner included a video tribute to the honorees, produced by Steve Feld of Imagine That! Engertainment. The table centerpieces, created out of art supplies, were later distributed to Denver and Boulder Jewish day schools.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is renowned spiritual leader and holder of an endowed chair at the Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Due to ill health, he was unable to attend the dinner, though his wife, Eve Ilsen, was there to accept his award and to speak on the Rabbi’s behalf.

Ellen Beller is immediate past-president of CAJE, founding member of CAJE, a Wexner scholar, and current Women’s Chair of the Allied Jewish Federation, as well as an advocate for Jewish education and innumerable other Jewish causes.

The newly established Spirit of CAJE award honors those who have provided extraordinary support for Jewish learning in the Rocky Mountain region.

Honorary chairs of the dinner were Rabbi Tirza Firestone and David Friedman, and Richard and Karyn Schad, of Boulder; Evi Makovsky, Andrea and Jack Hyatt, and Susan and Cliff Weinberger, of Denver.