Elaine Arnovitz sat for an interview with The Observer on Feb. 17, three days before she was to retire. The evening prior to her final day — after 14 years as Beth Abraham’s business director — a fire suppression system valve broke, flooding the second and first floors of the building at full force for more than 30 minutes.

“I couldn’t just walk out the door,” she says. “A lot had to be done.”

Since then, her husband, Matt, chair of the Oakwood synagogue’s building committee, has worked with the remediation specialists and contractors while Elaine has handled the day-to-day tasks, “following up with contractors or working with Susan Schear on interior design and helping on the ground here daily.”

With the congregation’s return to the second-floor sanctuary level of the building Aug. 23 and the social hall and kitchen expected to be completed over the coming weeks, Elaine says her goal is to retire by the end of September.

“I don’t have an official date. Everything is a moving target around here.”

Beth Abraham will honor Elaine for her years of service at 11 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 1.

“It’s not like I’m moving away or walking out the door,” she says. “I’m still here.”

Elaine grew up in the congregation and sang with its famed youth chorale, led by Cantor Jerome Kopmar.

“I don’t have any official plans, but I’m looking forward to not waking up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘Oh, I have to do this,’ or ‘I forgot to do that,’ or making decisions about things.”

Relaxing may not come naturally. “I’m a doer, so I’ll find things to do, volunteer, get things done in my house.”

And she and Matt will have more time with their two grandchildren in Cincinnati.

She beams when she recalls her work on Beth Abraham’s 125th anniversary celebration in 2019, packed with a year full of events.

“We were thinking really big, but we had the volunteers and the dedication, the people to do it, to make it happen. It was fulfilling for those people who participated. It brought a lot of people together. It was nice, too, for people to learn more about our history that they really didn’t know.”

The sisterhood’s Women of Valor luncheon was another favorite. “It was very enjoyable year after year, bringing people outside of the Jewish community to honor women who had participated not just in the Jewish community, but were giving in the general community.”

Elaine says her greatest fulfillment has been working with congregants and volunteers.

“If somebody wants to come and talk, I’ll drop everything to meet with people and make sure I’m connecting with our volunteers and whatever they’re doing, or trying to bring new people who maybe aren’t connected yet into the fold, finding what interests them. I’ll always be here if somebody has questions. That’s just who I am.”

— Marshall Weiss

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