Paul Schwartz AZA – Advisor

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Jerry Emanuel

      In April 1975 AZA advisor Billy Goldstein asked Jerry Emanuel for help with a chapter project, a dance marathon to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  The event raised about $1,000.  A few months later, Goldstein left as advisor and Emanuel found himself the only adult among 18 teenagers. 

       “I had no idea what BBYO was having never been a member,” Emanuel said.  “I had to learn by listening, by doing and by making mistakes.”

       Emanuel credits the chapter leaders for introducing him to the order. 

        “Bruce Garber, Andy Kaffee, Louis Lourie, David Denberg, Herb and Billy Stern and Ralph Golson made the job easier,” he said.

        Over the years the chapter has held some interesting programs.  They’ve written to Jewish families in the former Soviet Union, they provided a residential clean-up service for the Jewish Community Center’s Chai Bid auction, they painted the lobby of the JCC, heard from a variety of speakers – U.S.C. Head Basketball coach Eddie Fogler, who was made an honorary member of the chapter, Charleston police chief Reuben Greenberg, Holocaust survivor David Miller, prisoners from “Operation Get Smart” and others.

       “For many years members of Columbia AZA held offices on the council and regional boards,” Emanuel said.

       In 1990 and 1993 the chapter won the prestigious Henry Monsky Best All Around Chapter Award, one of only 37 chapters world-wide to receive the award.

       Emanuel grew up in New Hyde Park on New York’s Long Island.  He was a member of the first graduating class at Great Neck South Senior High School.

         Unsure of what career to pursue Emanuel thought back to his high school days and Radio Workshop where students aired plays over the public address system.  His first full time job in broadcasting was at KAIM in Honolulu.

       “I played classical music four days a week while I was in the Army,” he said.

         That came to a halt in 1965 when he volunteered for temporary duty in Vietnam.

       After his discharge Emanuel went to work for WHN in New York City as an audio engineer eventually moving up to the parent network, the Mutual Broadcasting System.  A few months after joining Mutual he became a member of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA) so he could do voice reports as a reporter for the network.

        In 1972 he won top prize as writer, producer and director in the Trans World Airways Broadcast competition for a radio documentary on the development of commercial supersonic airliners.

       When Mutual moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C. Emanuel joined the NBC Radio Network again as an engineer.

       When he and his family moved to Columbia he worked for a number of radio stations in town eventually winding up as sports director and news reporter at WOLO-TV.

         He was lured away from the glitter of television in the mid 1970’s to become the program director at the Jewish Community Center where for six years he had been a member of the Center’s board and its vice president.

         He’s held positions as Public Information Officer for the Richland County Department of Social Services and as editor of the Fort Jackson “Leader” newspaper.

         He’s appeared as an actor in numerous productions of South Carolina’s Educational Television Network.

         He’s written editorials for “The Point," "The Free Times," and “Columbia Star” newspapers and is an award-winning writer and editor of the “B’nai B’rith Update,” a newspaper he created in 1989 to keep the Jewish community up to date on events involving B’nai B’rith and BBYO.

         In 1992, disgusted with the bickering on Richland County Council, Emanuel tossed his hat into the ring and unsuccessfully ran for council office as an independent candidate.

         In 2003 he completed a television documentary on the exploits of his great grandfather who was an engineer on board the “Keokuk,” a union ironclad, as it and eight other ironclads sailed into Charleston harbor to demand the surrender of the city in 1863.

          In 2006 he published his memoirs, "Tales of a Nobody." A copy is in the Zone at the Katie and Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center.

          Encouraged by a former member of the AZA chapter he started a blog in March 2008.  View it at www.advisornotes.blogspot.com. 

        He currently is manager of Mayo’s Suit City in northeast Columbia.