Cynthia on the left, Dorothea on the right with Alan Katz.

This is the fifth year that Alan Katz, an estate agent from Raanana (originally from South Africa), has presented a trophy to outstanding Esra volunteers in his town. In his words, “it is to show his appreciation for the hard work these volunteers do”.

Cynthia Shapiro and Dorothea Walters who run Esra’s second hand bookshop in Raanana were the winners of the award in 2007. They have turned the Esra bookshop into a landmark. If you tell them of a book you want they will call you if it comes in. They both started volunteering in Esra’s bookshop in Raanana in 2003, when it was decided to revamp and expand it. Together they run the shop and have turned it into a successful venture.

They join Beverley Polatinsky, Frankie Cronin, Wendy Goldstein and Adele Hunter in showing what volunteers contribute to both Esra and the Raanana community.

Cynthia Shapiro was born in Sheffield, England and came on aliyah from Belfast, Ireland in 1980 with husband Stanley and their four children. The day after leaving Tel Aviv University in January 1998, where she had worked for 13 years as an English secretary, Cynthia started as a volunteer in the Esra Gan Rashel office three mornings a week doing anything and everything asked of her! She worked closely with the magazine secretaries in both Herzliya offices and is also a proofreader for the magazine. In 2003 she became active in the Raanana bookshop.

Dorothea Walters originally from London, made aliyah twice in 1964 and in 1983. She worked at the Tel Aviv Hilton for 26 years in sales and then in food and beverage until her retirement in 1999. When, in 2003, Esra decided to expand its second hand English bookshop she immediately volunteered to help set it up and works 3-4 days per week, continually striving to promote the shop in the community and further afield.