Sarasota Dinner Raises Money for Children’s Scholarships

A gala dinner benefitting Sarasota, Fla.’s Chabad-Lubavitch center honored local physician Dr. Leonard Schwartzbaum for his more than 20 years of support of the area’s Jewish community.

Community members joined Schwartzbaum’s personal friends and colleagues for the event last month at Michael’s on East Ballroom, which raised money for Chabad of Sarasota’s Children’s Scholarship Fund. The fund provides assistance to families wishing to enroll their kids in the center’s preschool, Hebrew school and summer camp.

In his speech, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz admitted that it wasn’t easy to get Schwartzbaum to agree to the honor.

For years, “he has refused recognition or praise for his countless deeds of kindness,” said the rabbi.