News and Updates Committee of 100 ‘Family of the Year’

We Salute the Karsenti Family, honored as the Committee of 100’s 2020 ‘Family of the Year’

Each year, Temple Beth Am is proud to recognize an outstanding family of volunteers. Congratulations to the Karsenti Family — Rebecca, Arnaud, Gabriel, Sarah and Ari — who were honored on February 9, 2020 as recipients of the Committee of 100’s 2020 “Family of the Year” Award, for their continued participation in our Temple community and their ongoing commitment to congregational leadership.

Arnaud was born in Paris and met his wife, Rebecca, in the fourth grade. They both went to Duke University, where they become great friends. Arnaud has been an instrumental force in our “Beyond the Curve” Capital Campaign, our campus renewal project, serving as a member of the BTC Steering Committee since the inception of the campaign. He also is Co-Chair of the Building/Operations Committee. Arnaud is Managing Principal of real estate investment and development firm 13th Floor Investments, and in November 2019, he was named to the Miami Herald/Business Monday CEO Roundtable, where he shares views on the most important civic and economic issues of the day.

A Temple Beth Am Day School alumnus, Rebecca always thought that she would be a pediatrician because she loved the idea of watching children grow over the years. However, from her first delivery, she realized that her fate was to follow in her father’s (Richard Strassberg, M.D.) footsteps as an OB/GYN, where she practices at Miami MDs for Women. At Temple Beth Am, she is a member of the 2019–2020 Day School Board and is active in PATIO (Parent and Teacher Involvement Organization), where she has served on the Parent Ambassador Committee. When not busy working or parenting their three children with her husband, she loves to dance and practice yoga.

In the community, Rebecca & Arnaud are involved in a variety of organizations and causes, including the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, for which they served as Chairs of the 2018–2019 Pacesetter Event. Arnaud is a frequent speaker at Federation’s Real Estate Division events, and at the GMJF 78th Annual Meeting on June 1, 2016 was awarded the prestigious Sandra C. Goldstein Young Leadership Award.

Gabriel is a sixth grader at Ransom Everglades School, having graduated from Temple Beth Am Day School, where he began his studies in our Early Childhood Center. At Temple Beth Am, he continues his involvement in our youth group, BAFTY. His family is so proud that he will become a Bar Mitzvah at Beth Am in September 2021. Among Gabriel’s interests are mathematics, robotics and tennis.

Sarah, a third grader at Temple Beth Am Day School who also began here in the Early Childhood, loves soccer, playing piano and spending time with friends.

A first grader at Temple Beth Am Day School, Ari loves basketball, piano and — like his older brother — playing tennis.