Below are excerpts from his remarks.

Whenever I am confronted by the Ten Commandments, as in this week's Torah Reading, I am reminded of a vacation that my wife Navah and I took with some other families in Eilat during Hanukkah recess, decades ago. Each afternoon, adults and children had separate activity time. When all of us reconvened one late afternoon, the children, including David and Ilana Harlow and others from gan chovah to kitah gimel, presented their parents with the conclusion of their selfinitiated discussion. They presented us with the eleventh commandment: "Honor your children."

Treating children with respect is an imperative that Jacob and David Behrman fulfill admirably, without fanfare or spotlight. It is part of the daily routine that informs their lives. They clearly believe in the Rabbinic interpretation that the commandment to honor parents includes honoring teachers. This is one of the reasons why it is such a pleasure for me to share some thoughts about them with you.

I first met Jacob Behrman in the nineteen-fifties when I was a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. I had wandered into the Behrman House suite in an unassuming office building in the West Thirties of Manhattan...

Of course, my main reward for having wandered into Behrman House was and is Jacob's friendship. Over the years, that friendship came to include Navah as well. It is an important part of our lives...

Jacob, behind that casual exterior, always did his considerable best to celebrate significant events. Decades ago, when Russia was Russia, Navah and I were asked to go there one Pesach to lead Sedarim for refuseniks. Jacob drove us to the airport. Jacob does like to drive, but he did not just drive us there. After all, this was an important moment not only for us but for Jews in Russia, indeed for history. After we had checked in, Jacob insisted that we sit together at a table in the airport where, over coffee (and, for Jacob, cigarettes) we could discuss the implications of what Navah and I were about to do...

Whenever I speak with David, usually on the phone, I am impressed by his sweetness, by his enthusiasm, and by his desire to respond fully to any request. David has an enviable reputation, demonstrated by what many educators as well as others say and feel deeply about him. Chief among them is Jacob, a man who is not given to overstatement. The fact that Jacob is so pleased with what David has done and continues to do at Behrman House is perhaps the greatest testimonial….

David invites people to "drop in," in order to seek out the opinions of others as well as to establish and maintain relationships and friendships, to become aware of what bothers people as well as to be open to ideas that educators can contribute to the success of their mutual concern: the education of Jewish children, and the support of their teachers, to help perpetuate Jewish knowledge as the basis for the future of the Jewish world. For the Jewish world is the world of Behrman House

David and Jacob pursue their goal with imagination and an unmatched dedication and integrity in maintaining standards of quality in Jewish education, for the sake of the children and for the sake of their teachers.