Nearly 160 members, family and friends of the Zoroastrian Association of Florida (ZAF) covering community members residing in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties came together in Parkland to celebrate the silver jubilee of the Association with prayers, music, dance and a hearty repast. At the celebratory event on Shahenshahi Navroz, August 17, 2019 senior priest Ervad Soli Dastur led the thanksgiving jashan performed with Ervads Khushroo Daruwalla, Zubin Panthaki, Firdaus Dhabhar and Jehangir Bhada.
Dastur conveyed a message from Homi Gandhi, president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America, congratulating ZAF president Jimmy Dubash and his committee as also the community for completing this milestone. ZAF constitutes nearly 100 families, mostly young professional couples, around 20 seniors who are retired and 60 youngsters aged under 19 years. Twenty of these children aged under 16 years attend religion classes every month.
Fire, sunshine and water, the three natural elements venerated by Zoroastrians and enjoyed in abundance by ZAF members, feature in the ZAF logo. "The vision of ZAF is to protect and preserve the Zarathushti faith, values of education, philanthropy and culture in our newly adopted homeland, giving relevance to the Zarathushti identity and making future generations proud and confident of their heritage, religion and culture,” added Dubash.
1st row, from l: Celebrating in Florida, Ervads Zubin Panthaki, Jehangir Bhada, Soli Dastur, Khushroo Daruwalla, Firdaus
Dhabhar; Nellie Unwalla, Soli and Jo Ann Dastur, Jasmin Deboo, Perry Unwalla; 2nd row: Merzy Karanjia, Zeus Avari, Farhad
Vankadia, Farhad Dumasia, Daisy Patel, Jimmy Dubash, Ali Lankarani, Shiraz Mehta, Firdaus Dotiwala;
3rd row: children’ s sari dance; mothers’ Persian dance
For 25 years of dedicated service to the South Florida Zoroastrian community, Dastur was presented the Ervad Darab B. Unwalla Award. The support of his wife Jo Ann was also acknowledged. Awards were additionally given to teachers of the religion classes, Jimmy and Freny Deboo, Azita Dotiwala, Hovi Shroff and Jasmin Deboo as also to Simon Gee for his efforts to maintain the ZAF website and update the directory, and to Rumi Major for his long-standing service as ex vice president of ZAF.
It was 25 years earlier that Unwalla had invited his Zoroastrian friends to his house in Boca Raton and recommended the forming of an association. Those in attendance unanimously supported this decision and thus was born ZAF. "A lot of time and effort was spent to legally establish the Association and to get non-profit tax exempt status,” wrote Dubash in his email responses to Parsiana.
Whilst Dubash who was formerly a director, aircraft engineer and aviation consultant is now retired, ZAF vice president Farhad Dumasia is in the hospitality industry, working as vice president of operations, handling Marriott, Hilton and IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) brand franchised hotels in Fort Lauderdale. Secretary Farhad Vankadia works for Tata Consultancy Services in the US, treasurer Firdaus Dotiwala is vice president and controller for a Florida company. His co-treasurer Zeus Avari is senior product manager, Aon.
For the silver jubilee function entertainment elements were drawn from the Persian, Indian and US culture. Shroff, who had organized a successful raffle for the 25th anniversary, also choreographed a Persian folk dance performed by the mothers, Daisy Patel choreographed a sari dance for the children to the tune of Rang De, sisters Farah and Natasha Irani rendered a Bollywood dance and Cyra and Oscar Mobed performed the Latin cha cha.
The hearty repast included masala dosa, chaat, pani puri, laganshala stew, patra ni machhi, chicken pulao dal with delicious desserts of ras malai and gajar halva. Dubash lauded the hard work of his fellow board members that resulted in an enjoyable evening for all.