Clarissa (Hotche) Chen
David and Pamela Meisner of Cincinnati hosted a first birthday party for their first granddaughter, Clarissa Meiyan Chen. Clarissa’s Hebrew name is Hotche, named for Pamela’s mother, Hotche (Clara) Pastor. Clarissa’s parents are Meryl Meisner and Hector Chen of Yuma, Arizona and her big brother is Irving.
Paternal grandparents are Sui Lin, Lin Chen, and Medea Meng. David’s siblings from Detroit and Chicago came to Cincinnati to celebrate. Meryl’s brothers from Chicago, Detroit, and locally in Cincinnati were able to celebrate. Hector’s siblings and parents who also live in Cincinnati were there for the joyous celebration as well.
Clarissa is named for her maternal great grandmother, Pam’s mother, the late Clara Pastor. Her Hebrew name was Hotche and that is the name everyone remembers her going by.
Toby Samet’s 88th birthday
The Mayerson Jewish Community Center staff surprised her with a party complete with balloons for her 88th birthday. Dozens of people in the lobby all joined in with the staff as they all sang Happy Birthday!
I first met Toby as many people in the Jewish community have as my oldest son’s first teacher. I was a new mother and she provided guidance and nurturing through my son’s separation anxiety in the two-year-old preschool class at Adath Israel Synagogue in 1986.
From Rick Lefton: So…Toby was my teacher when I was a preschool student at the JCC in Roselawn in 1968-69! It’s amazing to me that I get to see her just about every day working at the JCC Welcome Desk and PJ Patch…doing what she loves most…making people smile.
Toby is very active attending community events…everything from Jewish & Israeli Film Festival screenings to Simchat Torah Dance Parties at Adath Israel.
She is a teacher and a life-long learner…when you look in her eyes, you can see that she is going through her mental rolodex and looking for just the right nugget to share with you.”
Toby Samet, a Cincinnatian by birth, graduated from Hughes High School and the University of Cincinnati College of Education (with high honors). She has taught at Adath Israel since 1966, while also teaching kindergarten at Yavneh Day School (Rockwern), preschool at the Jewish Community Center, and was Director-Teacher at Adath Israel Preschool. Her family includes son Mike, grandson Danny and daughter Michelle and husband Sam, (both of blessed memory). Hobbies are gardening, animal conservation (she volunteered at the Zoo for 25 years), classical music, and Mah Jongg. The Resource Room is where you can find her, supporting the needs of Religious School children.
“I saw the rooms downstairs in my (Adath Israel Synagogue) congregation and I felt we needed some young blood sitting in those seats and one of the ways to get them was to have little kids and their families,” explained Toby. “I made an appeal to the board, and they said, okay. So, I left the JCC and I started a preschool. I was a director and teacher. We had eight classrooms. I love working with little kids.”
When I asked her how she dealt with separation anxiety and introducing two-year-olds to school she told me: “I showed him how he could function with his own strength as an individual. And I showed him his strengths that he could move around the room and make choices with the toys. I was his support. I reinforced his capacity to make decisions and little by little develop what we call autonomy and his sense of self.
“When the J here opened, I wanted to be part of it and there was a room called, PJ Patch that was for parents and children to come together after parents drop their children off there. This was a place that parents and children could be together, and have fun, and some adult could show them the toys, help them play, and have fun. Parents could talk with each other, and I could help the children play and be safe on a climber and show them the fish in the aquarium.
“I’m doing what I love. At the Welcome Desk, I’m seeing former preschoolers with beards bringing their children in and working out upstairs as well as former Hebrew school students. I’ve also been working at Adath Israel teaching Hebrew for 59 years.
“It’s given me a lot, a reason to wake up. I’m blessed; I really am.”
Josh Hill and Alex Murtha
The hills are alive with the sound of wedding bells. The Hill family has been growing.
Larry and Brooke Hill originally of Cincinnati announce the engagement of their son Joshua to Alexandra Murtha of New Jersey. Josh and his brother Jason, who will be best man at Josh’s wedding, grew up in Wyoming, Ohio, as did their mother. Alex’s parents are Dennis and Donna Murtha of Farmingdale, New Jersey. Josh’s paternal grandparents are the late Esther and Manny Hill of Cleveland. Maternal grandparents are the late Sally and Bob Smith of Wyoming, Ohio.
Josh had a rousing bachelor party in Austin, Texas, arranged by Jason. The wedding reception will be at Westmount Country Club in Montclair, New Jersey in November.
The couple met online while living in New York City. They now live in Hoboken, New Jersey. Alex is the assistant vice president of human resources at L’Oréal, NYC, and Josh is a senior manager, workforce operations at Macy’s. Alex graduated from Rutgers School of Communication and Information and Josh is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
Josh’s older brother, Jason, lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Meg and two children, Charlie and Lucy. Jason is the Director of Constituent Affairs for Governor Mike Dewine and Meg is the Director of U.S. Communications for The Wendy’s Company. After traveling to Columbus to stay two days of every week to help with baby Charlie, Brooke and Larry moved to Columbus six years ago to be close to Jason, Meg and now their two children. Jason and Josh became bar mitzvahs at Plum St. Temple by Lewis Kamrass.
“Although, we left our heart in Cincinnati, our love is in Columbus,” said Larry. They return to Cincinnati frequently.
