The Daniel Thursz Distinguished Jewish Communal Service Award

Howard Reznick is the epitome of an outstanding Jewish communal professional. His purpose throughout life has been to strengthen the lives of others, especially those in our Jewish community. He has dedicated himself to reducing stigma around mental health and substance use disorders, dispelling misconceptions that the Jewish community is immune to these diseases. Working alongside lay leaders, he helped start Jewish Addiction Services during the Cocaine epidemic of the 1980’s and continues to promote training and awareness efforts to respond to the ever-changing addiction and mental health issues facing the community. In more recent years, he has led our community’s response to the opioid epidemic.

Howard has a gift for creating partnerships and bringing together various professional and lay leaders to effect change. He has fought to make services and treatment more accessible by raising awareness, initiating and normalizing community conversations, training other professionals, and leading the charge to provide our youth with the information and skills they need to navigate the risks to their wellbeing. He also collaborated with volunteers from Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous to create meetings within Jewish communal settings. He worked tirelessly to educate lay and professional members of the community about HIV/AIDS, helping people understand and reduce their risk factors while advocating for and helping shift attitudes towards people who were infected. Additionally, he organized volunteers to visit Jewish inmates to help them maintain their connection to Judaism and the community.

Since assuming the role of Senior Manager of Prevention & Wellness for Jewish Community Services in 2008, he has built and led a team of Health & Wellness Educators who are committed to providing children, teens, young adults, adults, and older – in other words, all ages – with information and strategies that boost protective factors and reduce risk factors for serious physical, emotional, and behavioral health problems such as substance use and abuse, depression, suicide, bullying, violence, HIV/AIDS and unhealthy relationships. This carried forward the work Howard had begun during his tenure with the Jewish Big Brother Big Sister League/Jewish Addiction Services when it was apparent that experiences of childhood trauma were factors in development of substance use disorders and were associated with subsequent incarceration. Under his leadership, the team has created innovative ways to engage people in becoming more knowledgeable about these issues and in developing personal strategies for safeguarding their wellbeing and building resilience. Their ground-breaking approaches have included the use of media, theater, podcasts, person storytelling, gamification, and much more.

Howard has also played an instrumental role in the Jewish Community Critical Incident Response Team (JCCIRT), which provides critical incident stress defusing, debriefing, and psychological first aid to groups affected by a crisis or major occurrence. He has helped coordinate the team’s activities, provided training, and has been a primary responder to numerous incidents within our Jewish community.

Howard has exhibited an unparalleled expertise and comfort in working with diverse populations – all ages, denominations, races, life stages, abilities, etc. Within our Jewish community, he has successfully worked across all denominations with sensitivity and respect in addressing needs. He leads with a unique balance of mind and heart. Although Howard brings a wealth of knowledge and skills, he is always sensitive to and considerate of the emotions that may be generated by what is presented.

Howard has a passion for cultivating new visionaries and leaders for the future. He generously shares his expertise, talents, skills, and insight to grow the next generation of Jewish communal professionals. He has always embraced the role of mentor, seeing it as an honor and a responsibility to the future. He guides while giving each person the space to cultivate their unique strengths and creativity. This is evident in how he supervises his own staff and how he makes himself available to other professionals both within and outside of JCS.

One colleague summed it up beautifully. “Howard is one of the most well-known members of our community, a celebrity in his own right, where his exceptional knowledge, support and teachings have spread far and wide to Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike, from East Coast to West Coast, Israel and beyond. Howard wears many hats and his experience as a social worker, his role as a supervisor, and his position within the Jewish community have provided countless people with the tools to heal the heart and mind.” Howard’s warmth, humor, and larger than life personality shine through, encouraging positivity and lifting others. He has a heart of gold and willingly shares it with everyone round him.
Anyone who has had the privilege of collaborating with Howard, has been a beneficiary of his genuine caring and compassion, or has been witness to his skill and intrinsic drive to serve our community will agree that he is deserving of the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Jewish Communal Service Award.