David Morris & Elisheva Urbas, and Elaine Morris
Guests of Honor
Elaine Morris and her late husband Ronnie z”l joined AC in the 1970s, when their sons were teenagers, and were active participants in the shul’s revival.
Elaine, a scholar of Hebrew literature, taught at Hunter College, then helped develop curriculum as head of the Melton Research Center at JTS. She has also served the Jewish community at UJA-Federation of New York and what was then the Council of Jewish Federations (now, the JFNA). She is an active book club facilitator and a long-time stalwart of the neighborhood’s Hebrew fiction group, along with being active in the Schechter Manhattan grandparents community.
Ronnie, a partner for many years in the tax law firm Roberts & Holland, served as a trustee and as treasurer and finance committee member for both Ansche Chesed and the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, and mentored future generations of treasurers at both institutions. His wisdom and polite tenacity helped both institutions grow in strength.
Elisheva Urbas and David Morris returned to the neighborhood in 1990 and joined David’s parents at AC where he grew up and davened as a teenager. Since then, three generations of the family have been involved at AC. David and Elisheva joined Minyan M’at in their twenties, and after their children, Avital, Ronit, and Yemima, were born, Elaine and Ronnie joined them.
David, a litigation partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, has been a member of the Minyan troika and served several terms on the AC board and the executive committee, chairing the house, kitchen, and membership committees at various times. His most lasting contribution to the shul, however, may have been teaching several rounds of Torah reading classes, where many of the active readers in the Sanctuary and Minyan M’at learned to chant. David has also been chair of the Riverside Park Conservancy, and served on the Schechter Manhattan Board and the Ramah Berkshires advisory committee.
Elisheva is a book editor and the Editorial Director at the Hadar Institute. At AC she has served as one of the Hevra Kadisha’s co-chairs since its founding, as well as holding several coordinator roles at Minyan M’at. She is a past president and trustee emerita of the Schechter Manhattan board.
All three of their children, now in their 20s, celebrated becoming bat mitzvah at AC, and have grown up with deep, multi-generational roots in the AC and Upper West Side communities.