Joseph Efraim Davis will celebrate his bar mitzvah on March 14 at Beth Jacob Congregation. Joey is the son of Rich Davis and the late and beloved Susan Jacobs Davis. He is the brother of Jake Davis. He is the grandson of Rachel Jacobs and the late Steven Jacobs of Dayton, Phyllis Davis and the late Arnold Davis of Florida. Joey attended Hillel Academy of Greater Dayton and now attends The Miami Valley School. Joey also plays bass in the MVS Jazz Band.

Peter Benkendorf, founder of The Collaboratory, has announced the successful completion of its Miami Valley Medical Debt Relief Campaign project. As reported by The Dayton Daily News, The Collaboratory raised $137,850, which it used to buy up and eliminate $21.95 million in qualifying medical debt for 15,378 people. Benkendorf notes that each dollar the campaign received eliminated about $178 in medical debt. Next up, Peter says, is The Collaboratory’s Cars4Work, in collaboration with The Equity Center and Impact Garage. “We are ensuring that transportation is not a barrier to employment or employability by providing affordable, reliable transportation to individuals who are working their way out of poverty, through recovery, or are formerly incarcerated,” he says. The Collaboratory is actively looking for people to donate vehicles.

The League of Women Voters of the Greater Dayton Area will honor Bonnie Beaman Rice as one of its five 2026 Dangerous Dames of Dayton, Tuesday, March 24 at UD’s Daniel J. Curran Place. Along with Bonnie’s myriad community advocacy and volunteer activities, she serves as chair of Dayton’s Jewish Community Relations Council.

Miami University has named Addison Caruso one of its “18 of 9” alumni award honorees for the 2025-26 year. It’s MU Alumni Association’s way of recognizing 18 leaders, innovators, and changemakers from the last nine graduating years. MU’s charter year was 1809, the inspiration for “18 of 9.” Addison is a staff attorney with Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services in Cleveland. The firm litigates environmental cases representing individual and nonprofit clients. Proud parents are Patty and Mike Caruso.

Steven H. Solomon has been elected president of the Lincoln Society of Dayton. This is the group that funded the 11-foot-tall bronze statue of Lincoln by sculptor Mike Major that was unveiled at Courthouse Square in 2016; it was also instrumental in the 2024 installation at the Dayton VA of a statue of Lincoln signing legislation to establish the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The society holds monthly meetings at Woodbourne Library in Centerville. Steven was also elected to his second three-year term on the board of the Central Ohio Public Information Network, which increases awareness and education of the role of public information officers during a crisis, assists with training opportunities for greater disaster communications skills among its members, and facilitates requests for emergency communication backup support from members able to assist qualified organizations that serve community needs. Steven is the external relations lead for the Central and Southern Ohio Region of the Red Cross and a public information instructor with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

Send your Mazel Tov announcements to mweiss@jfgd.net.

To read the complete March 2026 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.