Kornblit-Rosenberg Family Papers

The Kornblit-Rosenberg papers documents the history of the Kornblit-Rosenberg family’s involvement in the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO) from 1960 to 2005. The first chapter of BBYO’s male youth group, Aleph Zadik Aleph, was formed in 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska. The B’nai B’rith girls (BBG) were established in 1944. BBYO refers to the umbrella organization which encompasses both youth groups. The family participated in the Houston Chapter of the Lonestar Region BBYO, which includes central and southern texas.

Suzanne (Suzie) Kornblit was born Suzanne Platt in Houston, Texas. Her parents were both born in 1912 and immigrated to the USA in 1913 from Poland and Russia. Suzie participated in BBG while she was at Pershing Jr. High and Bellaire High School from 1960-1966 in the BBG 63 chapter. She was elected V.P. of programming and worked alongside her cousin Bonnie Kotler, who was chapter President. In BBG 63 Suzie held several positions such as parliamentarian, reporter, VP of her Chapter, MIT Mom, and President of the Chapter.

After Highschool, she went on to Oklahoma University for undergrad and earned a degree in Special Education. In college Suzie served as an advisor to a BBYO group in Oklahoma. After college, she was married to Sam Kornblit for 13 years and had two children together. She taught in Pearland for 3 years in a classroom for children with disabilities. Through her experience teaching, she learned that she had a passion for creating engaging lessons that help children prepare for their future responsibly. Her passion for teaching motivated her to earn a Masters of Education and became a diagnostician. She then realized that she wanted to help create institutional changes to aid those struggling in education and pursued a degree in law. She started law school in 1977. In her law career she worked mainly with wills, probate and guardianship.

Her daughter, Kymberly Kornblit was born in 1970. Kym went to live in Israel in 1984 with a program through Jewish Family Services. She stayed 5 months and lived on a Kibbutz. When she returned she decided to participate in BBYO. Since BBYO had already started for the year, Kym could only join if Suzie was an advisor to a new group. Suzie agreed and became an advisor in 1984. Kym went on to be her chapter and Council President.

In 1992, Suzie and her 2 children moved to Sugar Land. Suzie became the advisor for her son Todd’s AZA chapter, Cyrus Adler in 1994. CA was a small group with only 8 kids. By the end of her time with the organization CA had grown to over 50 kids. There was a large population of Jewish boys in the Sugar Land area who eventually became a part of CA during her time as advisor. Her co-leader was Mike Kirk, father of Joe Kirk. Suzie continued working as an advisor until 1998.

History Narrative - BBYO BBYO Lonestar Region - BBYO