January 2010

Hello everyone! Allow me to introduce myself to those of you who may not be aware, I have been voted in as President! My name is Scott Bresalier, I’m a Sergeant with the Nassau County (NY) Police Department and am currently the Recruit Coordinator and Specialized Training supervisor with the Police Academy. I have been a member of Shomrim for over 25 years, beginning my Shomrim career with New York City PD then leaving NYPD for the Nassau County PD, where I immediately became a member there. I have been active in National Shomrim for over 10 years and have made many lasting friendships and experienced great camaraderie from the members of this organization. I hope to continue this journey but this is something that requires the participation of all members and groups. Only together can we continue to build this camaraderie and be there to support each other.

2010 got off to a great start for National Shomrim. Our national convention was a great success with over 80 participants. Although the weather didn’t cooperate with us, not the usual temperatures you would expect for Florida and Mexico….getting together with old and new friends provided a warmth that the weather didn’t provide! Thanks to Murray and Marty for all their hard work and dedication to making the cruise a success year after year. Thanks to Art Krinsky for scheduling and arranging the training programs, which were well attended and meaningful. Thanks to those who gave their time and efforts to provide the training sessions – I’m not going to mention names in case I forget anyone – your efforts are greatly appreciated. Plans are underway for the 2011 convention which will most likely be held in early January.

A special thanks to Sam Miller for his past two years of service to the organization as President. Sam assured me that he will assist with my transition into the presidency so the ball can keep rolling in this new position and we can keep on doing the great work we have done in the past. I would like to work closely with our Board to make sure that we continue to reach out to our member organizations and also to individual members who do not have a local chapter. I would like to try to add additional chapters, if anyone knows of chapters that are not affiliated with us (that should be) please let them know we are here and let me know so I can reach out also.

I would like to congratulate the incoming board which consists of Allison Schloss, 1st Vice President;Steve Litwin, 2nd Vice President; Marty Turetzky, Treasurer; Murray Ellman, Recording Secretary; Betty Astrizky, Corresponding Secretary; Ari Bleifeld, Sgt. at Arms; and Larry Wein, Assistant Sgt. at Arms. Additionally Lou Weiser, one of our founding members, continues on as Executive Vice President. Stuart Portner continues on as our webmaster. I just want to personally thank everyone for their continued support of this great organization.

I plan on attending the NYPD installation dinner on March 14. If you are attending, please come on over and say hello! Some more dates to mark on your calendar are May 14th and 15th which are the National Shomrim Kaddish Service and Peace Officers Memorial Day in Washington, DC. Following that will be the Salute to Israel Parade in NYC on May 23. If you have never attended, maybe this is the year you should….if you’ve been here then maybe you will plan on coming back. Please make sure to advise either myself (president@nationalshomrim.org) or Stu Portner (stublue@aol.com) of your chapters events so we can communicate this information to our chapters and post the events on our website.

Best regards to all – stay safe out there and wish for warmer weather for those of us up North! May Spring come soon!

Fraternally,
Scott Bresalier