April 17, 2008
Rita Waldor of South Orange has been selected as the MetroWest recipient of the 2008 Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award. This national award, presented biennially by United Jewish Communities, recognizes one woman from each federation who has set a high standard for philanthropy through volunteerism and financial commitment.
Waldor will receive her honor at the UJC International Lion of Judah Conference, to be held in Tel Aviv Nov. 12-16.
Waldor has been a leader in the MetroWest Jewish community for many years. She is a longtime member of UJC MetroWest’s board of trustees and its Women’s Philanthropy board, and the UJA Major Gifts Cabinet. She has also served on the JCC MetroWest board of trustees.
Lori Klinghoffer has “known Rita since I was a young girl in West Orange and then in South Orange.” She describes Waldor as an inveterate fund-raiser on behalf of UJC. Klinghoffer currently serves as chair of UJC’s National Women’s Philanthropy.
“Rita does an unbelievable job of reaching out to other women to solicit their support,” Klinghoffer said.
She called Waldor the “quintessential” Lion of Judah, a UJC Women’s Philanthropy donor of $5,000 or more per year. “A Lion is someone who with their heart and their dollars wants to secure the future of the Jewish peoplehood with her generosity on an annual basis.”
Klinghoffer, who lives in Short Hills, also noted Waldor as an invaluable mentor. “She’s been a role model to so many people in the community — to young women who aren’t so young anymore and to young women who are still young.”
Together with her late husband, Jerry, who died in 2005, she established the Waldor Memorial Library, a Jewish reference and resource center on the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany, in memory of Jerry’s parents and brother.
In 2006, Rita was instrumental in the establishment of the Jerry Waldor Institute, an endowment for leadership development programs in the MetroWest community.
She is also a founding member of the Jersey Animal Coalition, a no-kill rescue shelter. She helped lead the campaign to build its new facility that opened in South Orange in 2005.
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