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Two New Haveners who have spent lifetimes quietly making our community better got a moment in the spotlight Sunday.
The pair — Miriam “Mimi” Glenn and Harold Miller — had that moment over Zoom, where they were inducted into the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven (JHSGNH) Hall of Fame.
The occasion was the 45th annual meeting of the society, a New Haven treasure that has maintained archives, conducted oral histories, and published 10 books detailing the Jewish community’s “history from below”.
Glenn and Miller represent the epitome of civic service: They have devoted their adult lifetimes to volunteer work within the Jewish community as well as in the community at large, the kind of work that requires showing up and rolling up sleeves and coordinating with other people, with little fanfare. Active members of the JHSGNH, they have both made and helped preserve history.
Harold Miller at Sunday’s event (left), and as Santa during an annual Xmas visit to the VA Hospital.
Miller, a retired certified public accountant, was born into a family of civic leaders (who also ran a clothing store in town). For 35 years he has coordinated the distribution of Passover meals to needy Jewish families through a group called Project Hope. Through B’nai B’rith, he has for decades coordinated Christmas visits to the VA Hospital in which volunteers sing carols and distribute gifts (filling in for Christians who are celebrating the holiday). He was the driving force behind the creation of a 40-unit subsidized senior apartment complex, Fountain Heights B’nai Brith at 345 Fountain St. Those are a fraction of the volunteer duties he has taken on.
In accepting the honor Sunday, Miller spoke of being raised in the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world.”
“We know we cannot repair the entire world. But as our sages have told us, we are all here to do our part, however large, however small that may be,” he reflected.
Glenn receives her award Sunday from society Co-President Marjorie Drucker; right, at a NHPS volunteer visit.
Mimi Glenn ran the former Roger Sherman Pharmacy on Whalley Avenue with her husband Effi after they moved to the U.S. from Israel in the early 1960s.
A full recitation of her volunteer duties would also run too long for a meeting or an article. Some highlights: She collects clothing for the Immanuel Baptist homeless shelter, serves as a reading tutor in New Haven public schools, volunteers at Casa Otonal’s after-school program, has presided over and remained a stalwart of the Hadassah women’s organization, chairs the Sisterhood at her synagogue (Congregation Beth El Keser Israel), works on the “Abraham’s Tent” program hosting homeless mean for a week at a time in houses of worship, established youth scholarships for summer camps and trips to Israel, established a fund to provide New Haven public-school fifth-graders with books about the Holocaust.
Mayor Justin Elicker forwarded official proclamations congratulating both Glenn and Miller on their Hall of Fame inductions.
Marvin and Mitzi Barger being honored at Sunday’s annual meeting.
At Sunday’s event, the society also presented an award to Marvin Barger, who is retiring as archivist after 20 years.
The event included recognition of the passing this past year of two society mainstays, Samuel Faiman and Shulamith Chernoff, a childhood educator who continued writing and reading poetry into her late 90s.
