Frito-Lay president Irene
Rosenfeld and
Cornell president Jeffrey Lehman |
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
It’s The Best Of Times For
Women In Corporate America
Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
 ORNELL UNIVERSITY’S celebration of 350
years of Jewish life in America, and Jewish presence on its campus
since its founding 140 years ago, brought some two dozen rabbis,
scholars and diplomats to its Ithaca, N.Y., campus in May for an
enlightening weekend of seminars and discussions.
Rabbi Albert Gabbai said his Mikveh Israel
was the first synagogue to be established in Philadelphia in 1782.
When the congregation was in dire need of funds, Christ Church
donated a check for $1,000, and when Christ Church needed funds,
Mikveh Israel wrote a check for $1,000. "That check has been
going back and forth to this day," he said.
The intense learning event, organized by alumnus Dr.
Norman Turkish of Ithaca, culminated in a black-tie dinner
that called attention to the thriving Jewish spirit at Cornell.
In accepting the 2005 Masters of Excellence Award
from the Center for Jewish Living at the dinner, Dr. Irene B.
Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of Frito-Lay since September 2004,
recalled the challenges of keeping kosher as a Cornell student in
the ‘70s.
She would eat at the Kosher Dining Hall (since
renamed 104 West) because that’s where the fellow she was dating
took his meals. Although that relationship lasted only one year, her
culinary experience was "a logical step along the path of my
lifelong love of Judaism and played a key role in my decision to set
up a kosher home."
Norman Turkish escorts
Israel
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger
around campus. |
For Rosenfeld there is no better time to be Jewish
in corporate America. She recalled the first time she lit Chanukah
candles next to the Christmas tree in the lobby of the General Foods
head offices.
The retirement dinner for her predecessor was held
on the first seder night, so she had the PepsiCo chairman deliver
her congratulations and explain that she was observing the Passover
holiday with her family.
After years of scheduling the Frito-Lay annual plan
to PepsiCo management on Yom Kippur – which created a problem for
the two Jewish members of the senior team – this year she managed
to have the date changed.
Previously she spent 22 years with Kraft Foods, most
recently as president of Kraft Foods North America. At her request
Kraft Kitchens now provides Passover recipes on its website.
Mark Moller and
Yeshiva
University chancellor
Norman Lamm. |
What all this means, she said, is that "it is
an especially good time to be a Jew in the food industry." She
noted that there are more than 10 million consumers – Jews,
Muslims, vegetarians, lactose intolerant – who keep kosher.
A quarter of Frito-Lay products carry the Orthodox
Union certification. To convert the balance of its line is Rosenfeld’s
next challenge.
It is also a good time to be Jewish at Cornell. When
Rosenfeld accompanied her daughter Allison at freshman
orientation last fall, she was thrilled how far Jewish life has
evolved since her college days.
She learned that Friday night services are held for
all three denominations, a Hillel-sponsored barbeque attracts more
than 1,000 students, seders are held every year, Shabbat dinners are
a staple on campus, among other Jewish activities.
Among the dinner guests were Cornell president Jeffrey
Lehman, Yeshiva University chancellor Norman Lamm, Rabbi Marc
Angel of New York’s Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, former U.S.
Ambassador to Israel Edward Walker, Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona
Metzger, Rabbi Avrohom Goldstein of the Diaspora Yeshiva
in Jerusalem, ROTC officers, law school professors, and visiting
rabbis from Newport, Philadelphia, Charleston, Savannah and Houston.
This being Rabbi Lamm’s first visit to Cornell’s
ivy league campus, he said he was almost in violation of the
commandment "Thou shalt not covet."
Irene Rosenfeld and daughter,
Cornell freshman Allison. |
Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, head of Cornell Hillel,
related how Lehman, the university’s first Jewish president,
attends Jewish functions. At the recent campus-wide Shabbat dinner,
Rosenthal put Lehman on the spot. He told the president to just hold
the cup of wine while everyone joins in Kiddush.
That was not enough for the president, who asked,
"Should I start with Yom Hashishi?"
"Yes," Rosenthal said, "Do you want a
siddur?"
"No," Lehman said and proceeded to recite
Kiddush by heart.
"At our seder," Rosenthal added, "we
concluded with President Lehman singing Chad Gadya in
Ladino."
What other president of a secular university can do
that?
PS: A month later, in June, Lehman resigned as
president, but continues as professor of law.
|
