New York—Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), an affiliate of Yeshiva University, will celebrate dedicated leaders and educators of the Jewish community at its Annual Gala Evening of Tribute on Sunday, March 8, 2015, at The Grand Hyatt in New York City. The dinner will honor the memory of Herb Smilowitz, z”l, as well as Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, and Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg, director of the Morris and Gertrude Bienenfeld Department of Jewish Career Development and Placement at YU’s Center for the Jewish Future.

Smilowitz on the RIETS board for more than 20 years was chairman of the board at Congregation AABJ&D of West Orange, and served as president of the Jewish Education Center of Elizabeth. He was an active leader in the New Jersey MetroWest Federation. Rabbi Genack will receive the Harav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik Aluf Torah Award in recognition of the far-reaching impact he has made on Torah Judaism worldwide. CEO of OU Kosher, he oversees the kosher certification of more than 600,000 products in 10,500 facilities in more than 80 countries, and has also published dozens of important volumes on many topics as founder and general editor of OU Press.

Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg, will receive the Distinguished Rabbinic Leadership Award. He served as director of the Morris and Gertrude Bienenfeld Department of Jewish Career Development and Placement for Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future since 2005, Rabbi Schwarzberg previously served as a pulpit rabbi at Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park. He also developed Ahavas Achim University, that enlists top-tier scholars and religious leaders to teach at the synagogue.