Alice Handelman, a member of the Jewish Light’s Board of Trustees, has won five first place writing awards from Missouri Professional Communicators and two second place writing awards from the National Federation of Press Women for her feature articles in her Movers & Shakers column in the Ladue News. She is a member of Temple Israel.

Joel Frankel, former campaign operations director and  campaign manager of Jewish Federation of St. Louis, is the new executive director of Jewish Federation of Howard County (Md.). During his time at Federation in St. Louis, he led a comprehensive overhaul of the development process and helped transform the annual campaign that resulted in increased revenue and donor retention rates during his tenure. Most recently, that campaign raised over $10 million annually. He was responsible for raising more than $500,000 annually from 90 donors and prospects and oversaw a targeted and successful direct mail campaign. Frankel also managed most of the Federation’s volunteer solicitors.

Hannah Schwartz was crowned the 2021 United States Cherry Blossom Queen earlier this month. Schwartz is a staffer in the office of U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt in Washington, D.C. She was previously a classical ballet dancer with the Alexandra Ballet Company. Schwartz graduated magna cum laude from George Washington University in 2018 and she is pursuing a master’s program at the U.S. Naval War College. A graduate of Ladue Horton Watkins High School, Schwartz became a bat mitzvah at B’nai Amoona. Schwartz and her family are currently members of Shaare Emeth.