2021 HONOREES
Franco Harris-Community Leadership
Franco Harris is well known for his outstanding career in the National Football League, one so productive that it earned him a 1990 induction into The Pro Football Hall of Fame. He also was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011. During his years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Harris set the standard for NFL running backs - big, fast and agile with explosive cutback ability. He established many team and league records, played in nine Pro Bowls, and led the Steelers’ charge to four Super Bowl victories. Franco was named MVP of Super Bowl IX. His “Immaculate Reception” in the final seconds of the 1972 AFC playoff game against the Oakland Raiders is considered to be the greatest individual play in NFL history.
After football, Harris applied himself to his college degree in Food Service and Administration. He started out in the early 1980’s with a small distribution company called Franco’s All Naturèl, focusing on high quality, natural products. In 1990 Harris established Super Bakery with the goal of making it The Leader in Bakery Nutrition. Super DonutsÒ and Super BunsÒ are sold to school systems across America, providing MVP Nutrition!Ò to millions of students each year. As a result of its success, Super Bakery has made inroads into the Healthcare and Military market segments, and product testing in the retail marketplace. Always striving to be Your Bakery for Life, Super Bakery wants to reach people with its Super products from their earliest years to their golden years. Franco is a hands-on President/Owner, who is involved in the day-to-day operations with a special emphasis on sales marketing.
The company is also active in various school programs promoting kids’ health and nutrition. Franco served as the Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for eight years under Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey (1987-1995). In addition to his community involvement, Franco has given talks and been published on the subject of health and transition issues facing retired NFL players. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Promise, serves on the board of the Heinz Endowments and on the board of the Sports Museum at the Heinz History Center. Harris was also honored in 2011 for 20 years of helping promote LIHEAP, a program for energy assistance.
Throughout his careers, Franco has received numerous honors. Some of those include recognition as a distinguished alumnus of Penn State University, the Whizzer White Humanitarian Award, NFL “Man of the Year”, The American Academy of Achievement “Golden Plate Award”, and the National Urban League’s Whitney M. Young Award. In 1997 he was honored as the National Multiple Sclerosis Volunteer of the Year, and in the spring of 2001, Franco was honored as the Penn State School of Hotel, Restaurant, Recreation Management Alumnus of the Year. In October of 2005, Penn State honored him as an Alumni Fellow, the highest honor conferred by the Penn State Alumni Association. In 2005, Franco was a recipient of the First Annual OT 10 Awards for Community Impact. The awards are presented by OverTime Magazine and recognize athletes who contribute unyielding support through community service, charitable donations and entrepreneurial business endeavors. On December 23, 2021, he was awarded the Key to the City of Pittsburgh by Mayor Peduto.
Born March 7, 1950, at Fort Dix, New Jersey, Franco grew up in Mount Holly, NJ, one of nine children. He was a three-sport star at Rancocas Valley Regional High School, and received a football scholarship to Penn State University, graduating in 1972 with a BS in Food Service and Administration.
Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers-Community Leadership
Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers has served as the Rabbi and Cantor for the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh since the summer of 2017. He moved to the City of Bridges after spending decades in ministry in New Jersey and Long Island. He received a BA from Rutgers, an MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary and studied privately with Cantor Zvi Aroni before graduating from the Cantorial School of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. After the horrific morning of October 27, 2018, when a heavily armed gunman began a murderous rampage in the Tree of Life, Rabbi Myers—who survived the attack—became the face of the tragedy. Since then, he has set about sending the key message that love is stronger than hate. Rabbi Myers contends that a lack of understanding of our neighbors leads to fear and sometimes loathing, which can lead to acts of violence. Rabbi Myers believes that if we are ever to remove the "H word" from our society, it must start with pledging not to use that word in speech, just as he has done in honor of the 11 lives lost at the Tree of Life.
Rabbi Myers is a 2019 recipient of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Medal of Valor, given out to those who exemplify the good deeds of outstanding individuals who honor mankind and whose courage and bravery shine a light in the darkest of places. Because of his service and actions during and after the Tree of Life massacre, Rabbi Myers received the medal which is inscribed: “He who saves a single life, it is as if he has saved an entire world.”
Rabbi Myers also received Rabbinic Ordination from Mesivta Adath Wolkowisk. He organized the June 1998 gathering of nearly 1,000 children from the New York/New Jersey area to celebrate Israel’s 50th Anniversary in Central Park under the auspices of the 50th Anniversary Gathering of the Cantors Assembly. Rabbi Myers has served as a trustee on its Executive Council of the Cantors Assembly and chair of its Membership Committee. He also served as a trustee on the Executive Board of the Jewish Educators Assembly and co-chair of the Membership Committee. He was a board member on the National Education Commission of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the National Deliberation Team for Project Etgar, the new curriculum for the middle school that is a joint project of the United Synagogue and the Melton Institute. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Congregational School Principals Advisory Board.
Rabbi Myers was the recipient of a Schechter Award for his interfaith Evening of Harmony that commemorates the Holocaust and awards for synagogue and family programming. He was a visiting lecturer at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and has served as chair of the Downbeach Ministerium and the Interfaith Clergy Council. In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate in Jewish Music from The Jewish Theological Seminary, and an honorary doctorate of divinity from Washington & Jefferson College. He has also been privileged to receive the Heroes designation from CNN, a Rescuer of Humanity medal from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Rescuer of Humanity from Values in Action, and the John E. McGrady Award for Community Service from the Heinz Foundation. He has testified before both Houses of Congress and has spoken throughout the United States on the proliferation of H speech.