Sarah Lewis - Connected By Service
- By Stephen Maloney
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- 16 May, 2022
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While She Joined The Federation Looking For Community, She Found So Much More
New Orleans, LA - May 16, 2022 - When Sara Lewis was a child, her family was very involved with their local Jewish community in Buffalo, New York.
Lewis, who now serves as a board member for the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and JNOLA, knew she wanted to get involved when she moved to New Orleans. While she initially wanted a sense of community, it’s safe to say she had no idea the impact getting involved with the Federation would have on her life.
“The other special place that JNOLA holds in my heart is that I met my husband there, sort of,” she said. “We technically met three days before, but we I guess hit it off, in a way, because he said he was going to be going to his first JNOLA board meeting that Sunday.”
Lewis’ husband, Leo Krasnozhon, was also looking to connect with the local Jewish community.
“My husband is also a transplant, from a little bit further away, Kharkiv, Ukraine,” Lewis said. “With everything going on with the situation in Ukraine and the war with Russia, Federation has just done some phenomenal work.”
Krasnozhon and Lewis are both grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and both sets of ancestors lived in the same region near Ukraine’s border with Poland. After Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine began, the couple was able to quickly join relief efforts through the Federation.
CEO Arnie Fielkow made a trip to Poland to deliver aid to Ukrainian refugees, and the Federation has hosted multiple fundraisers for the relief effort. As fate would have it, Lewis and Krasnozhon both found themselves heavily involved with one of the leading relief efforts for Ukraine, years after joining the Federation for completely different reasons.
“The work and the volunteers and the money and funds for humanitarian aid that are being raised through the Jewish Federation is something that is really special,” Lewis said. “Watching it from afar, you feel very helpless, and that you can’t really do much, and so I know he [Leo] does feel like the efforts that organizations like Federation are doing to bring some sort of relief, he feels like he’s able to aid in some way.”
Lewis said she would tell every young person interested in helping the community to get involved with Federation right away.
“The ability to become part of a community, and the ability to help people in your community - I don’t think you realize until you start doing it how rewarding it is,” she said. “It’s a gratifying experience, it’s a fun experience, and I like to think that at least you’re leaving a positive mark at the end of the day.”
--Stephen Maloney, STORYSMART, reporting for our client the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans
Lewis, who now serves as a board member for the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and JNOLA, knew she wanted to get involved when she moved to New Orleans. While she initially wanted a sense of community, it’s safe to say she had no idea the impact getting involved with the Federation would have on her life.
“The other special place that JNOLA holds in my heart is that I met my husband there, sort of,” she said. “We technically met three days before, but we I guess hit it off, in a way, because he said he was going to be going to his first JNOLA board meeting that Sunday.”
Lewis’ husband, Leo Krasnozhon, was also looking to connect with the local Jewish community.
“My husband is also a transplant, from a little bit further away, Kharkiv, Ukraine,” Lewis said. “With everything going on with the situation in Ukraine and the war with Russia, Federation has just done some phenomenal work.”
Krasnozhon and Lewis are both grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and both sets of ancestors lived in the same region near Ukraine’s border with Poland. After Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine began, the couple was able to quickly join relief efforts through the Federation.
CEO Arnie Fielkow made a trip to Poland to deliver aid to Ukrainian refugees, and the Federation has hosted multiple fundraisers for the relief effort. As fate would have it, Lewis and Krasnozhon both found themselves heavily involved with one of the leading relief efforts for Ukraine, years after joining the Federation for completely different reasons.
“The work and the volunteers and the money and funds for humanitarian aid that are being raised through the Jewish Federation is something that is really special,” Lewis said. “Watching it from afar, you feel very helpless, and that you can’t really do much, and so I know he [Leo] does feel like the efforts that organizations like Federation are doing to bring some sort of relief, he feels like he’s able to aid in some way.”
Lewis said she would tell every young person interested in helping the community to get involved with Federation right away.
“The ability to become part of a community, and the ability to help people in your community - I don’t think you realize until you start doing it how rewarding it is,” she said. “It’s a gratifying experience, it’s a fun experience, and I like to think that at least you’re leaving a positive mark at the end of the day.”
--Stephen Maloney, STORYSMART, reporting for our client the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans
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