Neal Karasic and his wife, Michelle Stern; he will receive the 2008 Young Leadership Award from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston.
Photo courtesy Honey Karasic
July 22, 2008
A Massachusetts engineer with roots in the local Jewish community is being honored by the Jewish federation of Boston.
Neal Karasic, son of Dr. Larry and Honey Karasic of Ocean, will receive the 2008 Young Leadership Award from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston on Sept. 4.
The award marks his commitment to the organization for which he cochaired a mission to Israel, served as campaign chair for the Young Leadership Division, and chaired the Technology Industry Affinity Group.
Karasic, 36, lives in Brighton, a Boston suburb, with wife Michelle Stern, who has served in CJP’s young leadership division. He learned the meaning of tzedaka at an early age: When he was eight years old, he began volunteering on Super Sunday, the largest one-day fund-raising event of the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County.
His parents were his role models and continue to be his inspiration, Karasic said. Larry and Honey Karasic have long been involved in the Jewish community; Larry is a past president of the board of directors of both the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County in Deal.
“Giving and tzedaka were always a part of my family’s life,” Neal Karasic told NJ Jewish News. “My parents were, and still are, involved in the Monmouth federation and the JCC, and my parents and grandparents were involved in synagogue life at Temple Beth Torah in Ocean. I learned by example and by the way they demonstrated what it meant to contribute to your community, whether through volunteering, financial support, or soliciting others to participate and give.”
With that upbringing, it seemed perfectly normal for him to volunteer on the federation’s Super Sunday and to help raise money for the JCC’s annual swimathons, Karasic said.
“When I was nine, I remember being very disappointed that I only raised the second-highest amount of money for that year’s swimathon,” he said. “But my parents told me that I had done a good deed that would help others. They said they were proud of me, and I felt their pride. It was inspiring.”
Karasic is director of project management at JumpTap, a company based in Cambridge, Mass., that develops mobile search and mobile advertising solutions. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1993 from Harvard University.
His involvement with Boston’s CJP, where he chairs the technology division, has greatly enriched his life, Karasic said.
“CJP has provided me with amazing opportunities,” he said. “I’ve really been able to see firsthand how our community is addressing its priorities — caring for people in need in Boston and around the world, enriching Jewish culture, and fostering Jewish learning.”
But there also was another CJP benefit that changed his life.
“Most importantly, Michelle and I meet at a CJP-sponsored Shabbat event in 2002,” said Karasic. “That’s obviously been the best part.”
His life-long involvement in the Jewish community in Monmouth County and in Boston receives high praise from his parents.
“Of course, we’re very proud of him,” said Larry Karasic. “We tried to teach him the importance of Jewish values, but it was Neal’s choice to take them to heart.”
“Neal knows how to do the right thing,” added Honey Karasic. “I’m glad his family helped him to learn these kinds of values.”
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