- November 22, 2024
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“Sharing values, friendship and faith” is the mission of Temple Beth Israel in Longboat Key. One of the people who exemplified this mission the best was former co-president of the temple, David Gorin.
Gorin passed away peacefully at home from pancreatic and liver cancer on June 11, 2023. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Susan, and sons Jesse Nathan and Daniel Eli Gorin.
A month before his passing, Gorin stepped down from his leadership position at the temple to allow Michael Boorstein to transition into the co-presidency with Marion Levine.
Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Gorin was a longtime lobbyist and the chief executive for the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds from 1987 to 2001. Balancing his time as CEO and along with raising two sons, he also opened one of the early Play It Again Sports stores that sold new and used athletic equipment.
A year later, he started his own consulting company in the outdoor recreation industry. In 2016, he was inducted into the RV and Manufactured Housing Hall of Fame for his hard work in transforming the National Association of Campground Owners into the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.
After moving full time to Longboat Key in 2018 with his wife, Gorin became very involved in the temple, starting out as a board member. In 2022, he, along with Levine, became co-presidents of the temple because of his dedication and involvement in the community. Levine was originally nominated to take over the position herself, but she felt that collaborating with Gorin would allow them to better tackle the responsibilities of the presidency.
Boorstein and Gorin were colleagues as well as friends, which has encouraged Boorstein to continue the hard work that Gorin poured into the temple. Both of them were very dedicated to the temple’s poker group and bonded through this. Boorstein shared that Gorin was still playing with the group on Zoom until about two weeks before he died.
“I spoke to him every day, he was really very much part of my life,” said Levine. “I loved him as a person. He was very strong in his conviction. There were times that we didn't 100% agree, but we always came to some agreement because we really only got one vote. And I became very close with his wife and, you know, socially friendly. So, it's hard, I lost a good friend.”
New co-president Boorstein plans to continue Gorin’s legacy. Boorstein was the vice president of the Long Range Planning Committee for the temple while Gorin and Levine were co-presidents together, so they all worked closely on crafting plans for the renovation of the temple.
Boorstein formerly was a foreign service officer with the State Department which put him in charge of building and managing embassies around the world. These skills of negotiating arrangements with foreign governments made him naturally suited to serve in a leadership committee and attracted him to be more involved in the executive board of the temple.
Levine and Boorstein split the responsibilities of the presidency to make everything easier and run smoothly.
“The role of the president, if I can just sort of combine the two of us together, is to cover the gamut of everything the temple is involved in,” Boorstein said.
The co-presidency’s long list of responsibilities includes organizing Shabbat dinners, inviting scholars to teach programs, arranging security, and managing the membership committee, ritual committee and all other employees. Along with these, Boorstein plans to focus on Gorin’s plans for the temple renovation (see sidebar).
After being affected by the pandemic, the Education Center of Longboat Key merged with the temple, which developed into a great collaboration. At that time, the center had been run for over 30 years by Susan Goldfarb, who is now the program director.
“I actually developed a very big Jewish clientele,” said Goldfarb. “Because the founder was Jewish, but she always wanted to not publicize that, she wanted to make sure everything was secular. I said, we can stay secular, but I think what we need to do is look at who our people are, who the students are that are coming and really plug into that.”
Goldfarb explained how supportive the temple has been since the merger, especially her boss Issac Azerad and Rabbi Stephen L. Sniderman. She mentioned that Boorstein even taught a program for the education center based on his diplomatic experience.
“COVID just basically caused her to go belly up. So she was about ready to close her doors,” said Boorstein of Goldfarb. “We invited her in to be part of the temple. We made her an employee of the temple, and we've given her a lot of autonomy. She's brought all of her programming skills, all of her contacts, all of her mailing list of people who supported the Education Center in the past, to make it part of the temple. We've used that as a way of attracting new members.”
As the temple moves into a new era with their new co-presidents and plans, the spirit of the late David Gorin will continue to shine thanks to his loyal involvement over the years and the impact he left on people’s hearts.
