around town
Out & About
1 2
3 4
5 1 Perelman Jewish Day School fifth-graders learned about the human body via various experiments. Courtesy of Perelman Jewish Day School
2 Walmart Market 165 donated boxes of non-perishable food to Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties. Courtesy of Jewish Family Service of
Atlantic & Cape May Counties 3 Jewish Residents’ Council of Ann’s Choice welcomed on Feb. 23 Jewish educator Steven Chervin, who discussed the
Dead Sea Scrolls. Photo by Bernard Roseman 4 , 5 The Abrams Hebrew Academy marked Twosday on Feb. 22, 2022 with a day of crafts, activities and fun.

Courtesy of the Abrams Hebrew Academy
30 MARCH 3, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



last word
THE LAST WORD:
Frederick Strober
W Photos by Christopher Brown
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
hen Frederick Strober
was at
Temple University’s
Beasley School of Law, he didn’t see a whole lot
of other students like him.

He was in his 30s and studying at
night, and it took him four years to
earn his law degree, not the usual
three because he was still working his
day job.

Strober’s path was hardly traditional,
but it allowed him to build his founda-
tion as a real estate and construction
law giant in the Philadelphia area.

A partner at Saul Ewing Arnstein &
Lehr LLP, where he’s worked for 40
years, Strober has led projects in the
nonprofit sector with the mission of
“seeking justice” for his clients and
those they serve.

“I would rather be working for insti-
tutions that have the mission to serve
people, whether it’s in the health care,
or educational or cultural sphere,”
Strober said.

Strober also served as chair
and president of American Jewish
Committee Philadelphia/Southern
New Jersey from 2014-’16 and 2016-’18,
respectively. He served as president
of Congregation Rodeph Shalom and
has served on the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia’s board of trust-
ees three times over three decades.

AJC Philadelphia/Southern New
Jersey will present Strober the 2022
Judge Learned Hand Award at a virtual
event on March 9 to honor his work at
AJC, in the community and beyond.

“Fred brings a high level of knowl-
edge, ethics and integrity to his work
at AJC and has the ability to affect
those around him positively,” AJC
Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey
Regional Director Marcia Bronstein
said. “He works outside the spotlight
and helps others to find a place at AJC
both locally and nationally. He engen-
ders trust and respect from his fellow
board members as a leader who sets the
tone for community work.”
The Judge Learned Hand Award
was created in 1964 to “honor those
who have contributed meaningfully
to the legal profession and whose
work ref lects the integrity and broad
humanitarian ideals exemplified
by Judge Learned Hand,” Bronstein
said. As a real estate and construction
lawyer, Strober is tasked with rep-
resenting clients buying and selling
commercial properties, most of whom
are nonprofits.

For 15 years, Strober oversaw the rede-
velopment of the Philadelphia Shipyard.

Counseling Philadelphia Shipyard
Development Corp., a nonprofit corpo-
ration created by the city, Strober helped
the corporation ensure that it was abid-
ing by the appropriate environmental
agreements and aligning with the vision
the city and commonwealth have for the
commercial space.

Most recently, Strober has taken
on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life syna-
gogue complex as a pro bono client,
where he is assisting in its “Remember,
Renew, Rebuild” initiative to construct
a Holocaust remembrance center and
a center to combat hate and antisem-
itism. “It didn’t take me a nanosecond to
say ‘yes,’” he said. “The ability to work
with Tree of Life ... is to me, at this
point of my career, just something I
couldn’t pass up.”
But real estate law was not Strober’s
passion growing up. Strober, a New
York native, moved to Philadelphia
after high school, where he received
a bachelor’s in American civilization
from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1970 and a master’s in educa-
tional administration from Temple
University in 1977.

Strober became a teacher at Greene
Street Friends School before teaching
at Green Tree School, a small Quaker
school, where he taught students with
disabilities. He eventually became the
director of development there, where
he learned grant writing and public
relations. But the experience from Strober’s
pre-law days that gets him talking the
most is his year in Israel, where he lived
on a kibbutz and paid visits to his aunts
in Jerusalem.

“I was single, I was 25, and I had a lot
of relatives in Israel,” Strober said.

Strober’s roots in Israel run deep.

His family first moved to Jerusalem
in 1809, and his mother’s family, the
Rivlins, stayed while Strober’s mother
moved to New York. Reuven Rivlin,
Israel’s 10th president from 2014-’21, is
Strober’s cousin.

“He could be considered a
Jerusalemite,” Rivlin, who will speak at
the AJC’s virtual event, said of Strober.

Strober’s time in Israel in 1973-’74
coincided with the Yom Kippur War,
when there was a shortage of men able
to work in kibbutzim. The kibbutzim
at which Strober worked comprised
mostly of young Germans, and Strober
spent the year with the children of
Holocaust refugees.

When he returned to the states,
Strober continued his path in educa-
tion, but ultimately decided to become
a lawyer, something he had wanted to
be since childhood but didn’t seriously
consider pursuing until adulthood.

“It’s been a great ride,” Strober said. JE
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 31