Temple Beth Israel has announced first co-presidents in its 43 years

Are two heads better than one, or are there too many cooks in the kitchen? Temple Beth Israel is about to answer that question. For the first time in the temple’s history, the board will have co-presidents. Marion Levine and David Gorin took the helm of the temple this month. 

So far so good, the pair says. They’ve only worked together for a couple months but have known each other socially for years. The co-presidents had dinner with a group of friends last week but left the work talk at the temple.

The role of president has been knocking on Levine’s door for eight years. But when it first came up, she wasn’t a full-time resident. And her husband was against the idea because Levine was already running a household and a full-time business.

When the role was placed in her lap again, she wanted to accept but insisted on a co-president. The head of the nominating committee, Murray Bluegrass, was initially against the idea of two leaders simply because they’d never done it before. After some back and forth, he agreed. 

Mostly because Gorin seemed a natural counterpart. While Levine keeps her thumb on events and the more social aspects of temple life, Gorin keeps his nose in the books and stays on the business side of things. Both agree that the job is simply too much work for one person and that any final decisions are made together. 

“It may look on a piece of paper like we’re divided,” Levine said. But, Gorin added, “We talk at least every other day, if not every day, when she’s around and I’m around.” Luckily, the co-presidents share a similar style and vision. The main goals for their two-year term are to increase memberships, deal with the temple’s financial issues and keep meetings to a two-hour max. 

TBI took on three more employees because of the Education Center. “It was a decision that we made as a board. And we’ve had one year under our belt, but one year is hardly enough, especially during the pandemic,” Levine said. “It didn’t quite pan out with the number of in-house events that we had hoped for because of the pandemic. Teachers didn’t want to come in and teach.”

Leading up to the transition, Gorin and Levine spent time recruiting and encouraging other hard-working members to run and be elected to the board.

“We really needed to bring in people who were sympathetic to the temple, who understood Jewish life on Longboat, who understood how temples operate,” Gorin said. “We were able to talk with them about responsibilities, and that we cannot do this ourselves.” 

Levine and Gorin are both technically retired, but neither one may ever fully retire. Levine owned a chemical distribution company for 22 years. She sold the business in 1993 and still does sales consulting for her successor. Levine spent 30 years traveling back and forth to New York. She didn’t become a full-time Longboater until three years ago. 

Gorin merged his business into Gorin+Cohen Consulting Group in 2015 and continues to work regularly. The company consults, invests and develops RV parks and campgrounds. Gorin began visiting Longboat Key 20 years ago when his in-laws retired to Sarasota.

His business led him to a more full-time stint in 2007 when he bought a property to develop in Cortez. Three years later, he and his wife bought a place on Longboat. They called themselves “snowflakes” and visited for a couple weeks here and there. In 2018, his wife retired, and they made the switch to year-round Longboat Key residents. 

Levine and Gorin’s term lasts two years, but given the temple has been around 43 years, their work will live on. “We are lucky to have two people who can work in harmony, so it becomes very easy to run things.” Executive Director Isaac Azerad said.