Ethel Gruen
Ethel Gruen was born in 1920 in New York City. She attended Julia Richman High School in downtown New York, which was the first time she and her twin brother, Sam, had been separated. Afterwards she went to Hunter College and married her husband, Ronnie z”l, in 1942. They settled down in New York and Ronnie was exempt from army service because he was a tool and dye maker. Ethel and her husband have always been very important advocates of Jewish education, having supported the Dallas Jewish community and its institutions like Akiba and Yavneh Academies in addition to Yeshiva University in New York. Ronnie and Ethel were involved with the establishment and development of both Akiba Academy and Congregation Beth Torah and have served as major philanthropists in the Jewish community.
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Boris Gremont was born in 1947 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up in the country on a farm. It was there that he attended primary school. His mother and father, whose family was tragically lost in the Holocaust, were from Lithuania and met in South Africa. Boris was in the South African military for nine months in an engineering corps. He met his wife, Joan, in college in Johannesburg, and they married in 1971. Boris maintains a strong interest in engineering, however he has worked throughout his life as an accountant. He and his wife, Joan, eventually moved to Dallas with their family; they have two kids.
Berta Goetz was born in 1927 in Tübingen, Germany. She moved with her family to Yugoslavia at age six in 1934, where they lived before making the long journey to America in 1939. Berta’s father started a scrap metal business once they arrived in Philadelphia. After attending high school in Philadelphia, Berta went to Moore College of Art and Design. She met her husband in New York while working as a designer for a textile studio, and they married in 1951. Berta & Arno z”l moved to Dallas the day after they married, as a result of Berta’s husband’s job in an international cotton firm. Together they spent a lot of time traveling and sharing in the joy of their four children. Berta is still an active member of the Dallas Jewish community.
r. Larry Genender, the oldest of three children, was born in 1934 in Montreal, Canada. His father was born in the country of Georgia and his mother in Poland; they came to America in the 1920s. Larry graduated from Strathcona High School in 1951 and then from McGill University in 1955, at which time he began medical school. He knew he wanted to be a doctor from the time he was in ninth grade, and was strongly encouraged and supported by his parents. Larry married his wife, Joan, in 1962. They moved to Montreal in 1966, and there, Larry, a surgeon, opened up his own practice. Eventually Larry’s family settled in Dallas where Larry and Joan have been important supporters of the Dallas Jewish Community.
Joan Genender was born in 1937 in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, where she lived until her family moved to Toronto when Joan was 16. Her father was an insurance agent and her mother had a store called “The Joan Dress Shop”. After graduating from high school in Toronto, Joan entered nursing school at Women’s College Hospital, leading her a few years later into Public Health Nursing. Joan moved to America in 1961 and married her husband, Larry, in July 1962 after a swift six month courtship. They settled in Brooklyn, and then Montreal for 11 years before moving to Dallas where Larry, a surgeon, accepted a job at Medical City. Joan has been inducted into the Temple Emanu-El Hall of Fame and has been very active in the Sisterhood, serving as president from 2003-2005. She has chaired multiple fundraisers and has initiated many new advancements with her wonderful leadership.
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