H eadlines
Raymond was an incredibly generous
philanthropist who understood the importance
of supporting Jewish identity and investing in a
Jewish future.”
NAOMI ADLER
a businessman, as board chair
and in countless initiatives
over the course of a lifetime
that was as remarkable as it
was long.”
“The National Museum
of American Jewish History
mourns the loss of our trustee
emeritus and generous patron,”
museum CEO Ivy Barsky and
chair Phillip Daviroff said in
a statement. “May his Only
in America legacy live on at
NMAJH and may his memory
be a blessing.”
“Raymond Perelman is
an individual, in my hum-
ble opinion, that symbolized
and reflected a very import-
ant part of the period of prior
to, and during and after,
the Holocaust,” said Rabbi
Avarham Shemtov. Shemtov,
a leader in the worldwide
Chabad movement for decades,
is a close friend and confidante
of Ronald Perelman.

“I was there yesterday,”
the rabbi said, “just before he
passed, and I looked at him,
and I saw in him a reflection
of a very important part of our
history, of Jews in America.

And that’s how we saw him off,
just now in the funeral.” l
Furlough as a single mother, it’s gonna be
a very difficult thing for you to
not have your paycheck come
in on Friday.”
What’s more distressing for
him is the work left undone.

As a contracting officer, Ozer
issues contracts to evaluate the
level of contamination at haz-
ardous Superfund waste sites
in Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Delaware, Virginia, West
Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Pennsylvania alone, home to
92 of the 1,338 total Superfund
sites in the country, requires an
inordinate amount of attention
from the EPA.

Continued from Page 1
be built along the U.S.-Mexico
border. Trump has said that he
was prepared to wait “months,
or even years” for Democrats to
relent. As of now, there doesn’t
seem to be an end in sight.

Sidney Ozer, 61, grew up
on West Oak Lane and has
been an EPA employee in
Philadelphia since 1987, one
of 800,000 furloughed federal
workers. He’s thankful that
his savings and his relatively
high pay grade have given
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Raymond Perelman was “one of our city’s great civic leaders and philanthropists,” Mayor Jim Kenney said.

Jacques-Jean Tiziou/jjtiziou.net
have on the federal government’s
ability to attract labor to its ranks
in the future.

“People come to the federal
government because we want
to serve, we want to protect
public health and the envi-
ronment. But you’re going to
question it if you don’t have
the security of knowing that,
y’know, I’ll be able to feed my
family, pay the rent, send my
kids to school, etc.,” he said.

In the meantime, he said,
all he can do is support the
Local Federation of Federal
Employees 3631, which rallied at
Independence Hall on Jan. 8 and
I don’t think the public understands what the service is that we
provide.” Dec. 24, one that would’ve been
paid. Now, she said, she’s off
of work, but without compensa-
tion. (Last week, Congress and
the president agreed to give fed-
eral employees back pay from
the beginning of the shutdown,
but the government would have
to end the shutdown first.)
Snoparsky’s ability to help
out on student loans for her son,
a translator and cybersecurity
expert living in Israel, is com-
promised, and she had to ask
her synagogue to defer payment
of dues. Like Ozer, she’s worried
about the work left undone.

“It’s not easy to just go back
in and pick up where you left
off,” she said.

She looks forward to return-
ing to her post if and when the
issues surrounding the shut-
down are resolved; she enjoys the
regulatory aspect of her work at
the EPA, and while she’s worked
in private industry before, it’s
just not for her anymore.

“I don’t think the public
understands what the service
is that we provide,” Snoparsky
said, “and they just think, ‘Ah,
they’ll get paid, what’s the
big deal?’”
In the meantime, she’s try-
ing to keep busy. She went to
the union rally at Independence
Hall, for one. There’s also her
new hobby.

“Talking to reporters,” she
laughed. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
MINDY SNOPARSKY
him a cushion with which to
absorb the blow of receiving a
half-paycheck for the last pay
period, but he knows he’s an
outlier in that respect.

“I’m a little bit older, and I
happen to have some savings,
so the immediate impact is not
there,” he said. However, “if
you’re making $50,000 a year
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM “It feels very bad,” said Ozer,
“because we’re not able to pro-
tect the health and welfare of
the people of the mid-Atlantic
states and across the country.”
Beyond the immediate impact
of letting hazardous waste sites
fester without constant attention,
Ozer said, he worries about the
impact that the shutdown will
at the AFL-CIO building in D.C.

on Jan. 10 in concert with more
than 30 other unions affected by
the shutdown.

Mindy Snoparsky, 62, has
been an EPA hydrogeologist
for 32 years, also working in
the Superfund program. The
Roxborough native intended to
take a vacation beginning on
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