Time to say goodbye

This month, I am writing to you all for the last time as president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

My term as president is coming to an end. It has been an extraordinary three years, filled with challenges and triumphs, with problems faced and problems solved, and some problems that we will continue to face into the future.

And it has certainly been the most extraordinary three years in my life as an involved and concerned participant in the MetroWest Jewish community. I hope I have done my best, I certainly have tried to do so, but I believe I have gotten more from all of you and from the work we've done together than I ever could repay.

The list of our achievements together over the last three years is impressive. We have served an uncountable number of people in need, and we have built a solid foundation for a flourishing Jewish future.

We have had many successes with Jewish education, and in particular, in the establishment of the MetroWest Community Day School Fund for Academic Excellence and Affordability. Our three MetroWest community Jewish day schools have been invigorated and more parents than ever will be financially able to send their children to a quality and more affordable Jewish day school.

Our outreach to the next generation has been the focus of many other initiatives. We have the Diller Fellows program and the Iris Youth and Family Philanthropy to engage our high school-age teens. Also, in collaboration with the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life, the Grinspoon Foundation, and Paula and Jerry Gottesman, soon we will begin providing Jewish-based educational materials for our young children through the PJ Library.

And, through grants from the Foundation for Jewish Camping and local donors, we are offering "camperships" for first-timers to residential Jewish camps. In addition, incentives are being offered for participation at the NJ Y camps this coming summer. It is our response to the statistics that show that Jewish overnight camping is one of the most transformational experiences a child can have.

And there has been so much more. We have created SNAC, the Special Needs Advisory Council, which is helping to provide guidance and oversight for individuals with special needs and their families, in the same way that MetroWest Cares does for the elderly. We have expanded our leadership development programs with the new Jerry Waldor Institute-Wexner Heritage Program, working in conjunction with the Wexner Foundation to educate and inspire a new generation of leaders. And through the efforts of our Israel Program Center, our Israel and Overseas Committee, and our UJC MetroWest office in Israel, we have been bringing new levels of the vitality and energy of Israel to MetroWest as well as taking our donors to Israel on exciting missions.

We are continuing to focus on the collaborative FRD model of fundraising for segments of our campaign in supplemental giving while we raise $24 million in our general campaign. We have continued to restructure our planning and allocation process and have added a targeted funding piece to focus on additional community priorities.

But in the end, what I am proudest of, and what I will remember best about the last three years, is the people I've worked with and the relationships I've developed during my time as president of UJC. This is the most extraordinary, dedicated, and hard-working group of people I can imagine becoming involved with, and what we've been able to do together has gone beyond anything I could have hoped to achieve. All of you make the nearly impossible seem easy, you have taught me and continue to teach me every day what it means to be committed to the future of our people, and you make me feel humble. I feel humble to be among you, to be a partner with you, and to have been the temporary leader of a group of involved people who need no leadership – who know what to do, why it needs to be done, and how to get it done. You have made it clear to all who can see what the soul and meaning of Judaism are about. It has been my good fortune to have been among you.

And I will continue to be among you. You will see me at functions and events, and I will be looking for so many of you – those I've gotten to know and those I've yet to meet. And we will continue to do our important work together, and to show the world what Tikkun Olam truly means.

Together, we
Live Generously!

Kenneth R. Heyman
President
United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ

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With Beena and Steven Levy, their involvement in the Jewish community is a direct reflection and application of their core values in Judaism.

What is central for them is Jewish continuity, and the key to promoting Jewish continuity is providing a high quality Jewish day school education to as many children as possible.

As a result, Beena and Steven have both been greatly involved in the Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County (HAMC), where all three of their children – Rachel (24), Jaime (19), and Jacob (18) – attended school. In fact, Steven has served as president of the board of trustees of HAMC, and Beena is about to take on the same position.

In addition, Beena and Steven are among the founders of the Herskowitz Society, a day school donor society. Steven also sits on the advisory council of the MetroWest Community Day School Fund, along with serving on a number of other community boards and committees. Between them, their involvement in the MetroWest community and their efforts in behalf of insuring Jewish continuity are impressive and extensive.

But working for affordable, high quality day school education is at the heart of their dedication.

"We've been involved with Hebrew Academy since our daughter started there, 21 years ago," Beena explained. "Continuity for the Jewish people is key. And if we want our children to follow in our footsteps, we have to educate them that way."

"The data is incontrovertible," Steven observed, "that children of day school educations are much more likely to live Jewish lives as adults and form the backbone of the leadership of the Jewish community. The numbers are staggeringly supportive of that. A day school education is as close as you can come to an insurance policy that Judaism will continue, for everybody."

Their involvement in HAMC began out of purely self-interested motives, and grew from there.

"At first, it began from the importance we felt about providing a proper day school education for our own children," Steven remembered. "That's why we both become involved in the Hebrew Academy. It was the commitment to our own children. As our children became older and we had the time and the resources, we were able to help make that educational process available to as many children as possible."

Jewish continuity is not just a phrase for them. It has a very clear meaning.

"Jewish continuity was explained very clearly to me as a young adult by my father," Steven noted. "The real question of Jewish continuity is whether someone's grandchildren are likely to be Jewish. And there are different aspects of being Jewish. It's a matter of religion, of culture, and of the land of Israel. Our history is the history of a people, of a religion, and of a country. And all three are under attack to some degree.

"Israel is attacked by other countries, and by the media. That one is pretty straightforward. About Jewish culture, through our history we've had periods in which we've enriched our culture through education, learning, and study. But at the same time, we've sometimes had the feeling of the need to fit in, to assimilate, especially into cultures that have long tried to keep us separate. And for religion, I'm a member of a synagogue with an orthodox service, and I fully respect those who belong to the other segments of Judaism. But I feel that there is, if not a questioning, an erosion of Jewish religious practices."

Even so, the Levys feel that the core of the contemporary Jewish community is very strong. They have become more involved in UJC and in community-wide efforts in the last two and a half years, since Steven retired from his full-time job on Wall Street. What drew them is "the current leadership, the people who are committed to values similar to ours, and the time and effort they put in," Steven explained.

"We've been incredibly impressed with the things that UJC is doing for our community, and how important it can be for Jewish continuity. We felt, if they can do this, we can do this. That's the example we want to create, for our children and also for our peers. To get people to think, 'if they can do it, I can do it.' Or, more importantly, 'if they're doing it, we should do it'."

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MetroWest young adults who travel to Israel this July with Taglit-Birthright Israel are going to experience a special treat. On July 22, they, along with all the young adults in Israel on Taglit-Birthright Israel trips at the same time, will attend a Taglit-Birthright Israel Mega Event at Caesarea.

Mega Events have fast become a tradition for the young adults who participate in Taglit-Birthright Israel, which itself is fast becoming a tradition for Jewish young adults from MetroWest, and from around the world.

Taglit-Birthright Israel is a program that provides – for free – first-time, peer-group, educational trips to Israel for college-age Jewish adults, ages 18-26. The Taglit-Birthright Israel program has become the most exciting new program introduced in the MetroWest community in many years.

This summer will be the first time a Taglit-Birthright Israel Mega Event will be held in Caesarea. Caesarea, which is on the Mediterranean coast midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa, is an ancient port city that, with its 2,000-year-old ruins, is a major tourist attraction. It also has become one of the most exclusive, upscale residential communities in Israel.

This summer will also be a first for MetroWest participants, who will be attending Taglit-Birthright Israel Mega Events for the first time. The event at Caesarea promises to be an impressive introduction. Several thousand Taglit-Birthright Israel participants will be there, coming from all over the world. Their countries will include Brazil, Argentina, the United States, and Canada.

According to Whitney Cooper, who participated in Taglit-Birthright Israel from New York City and attended a Mega Event last August, the event is an extraordinary thing to see.

"Before you go in for the event, you enter an open space where there are stands," Cooper recalled, "where you can buy ice cream, food, and drinks. You just circle around and socialize. There are people playing drums, and dancing, and just a lot of congregating for about an hour or two."

Then, the participants go into an auditorium, where they attend a show for several hours.

"There was an emcee to welcome everyone, saying welcome home, this is your country and we're glad you're here. There were a lot of performances: Israeli musical groups, lots of singing of Hebrew songs, and several speakers who talked about how much money has been raised, how glad they are that we have come, and how they hope Birthright continues to thrive."

The event is always a gala production that causes enthusiasm to spread through the auditorium. Participants are up on their feet, singing with the musical acts.

"Most of us knew the songs and everyone was singing along. The most amazing thing was to see how large this organization has become. Everyone was in Israel to enjoy the experience, and to learn. And there was this amazing feeling, a very unusual, exciting feeling, and everyone shared it together."

Any UJC MetroWest donors to Taglit-Birthright Israel who wish to attend the Mega Event or spend time with the Taglit-Birthright Israel bus should contact Rebecca Hoffmann at (973) 929-3045 or rhoffmann@ujcnj.org.

DOI's Herr Day Center keeps older adults active, healthy

"The whole mission of the center is to prevent or delay institutionalization," explained Jennifer Rutberg, Director of the Herr Adult Medical Day Center, located at the Daughters of Israel (DOI) Plafsky Family Campus.

The case of "Diane," who came to the center with a very complicated medical situation, was a remarkable success. "We've been open for more than 30 years," Rutberg observed, "and Diane was with us for 24 of those years. We delayed institutionalization for all that time."

When Diane came to the center, she had severe rheumatoid arthritis, emphysema, had been suffering frequent falls at home for decades, and had been treated since she was a teenager for paranoid schizophrenia.

"She had been given just about every medication you can imagine," Rutberg recalled. "Back in the time it was used, she was given electroconvulsive shock therapy, which unfortunately left her with no sense of time. She can recall events from 50 years ago as if there were happening today. Some of the memories are good, some are painful."

Her doctors felt there were two choices for Diane: a supervised setting for day time, or a nursing home. She and her husband decided to try a day setting. After trying a number of other situations, which did not work out for Diane, they came to the Herr Day Center at DOI.

"It was a last ditch effort for them," said Rutberg. "It was almost literally the last stop on this train. They came here, and it worked, for 24 years. In fact, at the 30th anniversary of the center, we gave Diane a plaque for being a member at that point for 23 years."

Unfortunately, during the summer of her 24th year at Herr, Diane had a bad fall at home while her husband was out of town.

"We had known he was out of town, so we were paying very close attention to her. When she didn't answer for the bus, I drove over to her house. I ended up getting the local police, they got the fire department, and they ended up tearing down her door. It turned out she'd been on the floor since the middle of the night."

Once she was stabilized, Diane went to live in a nursing home where one of the former activity staff from the Herr Day Center is working.

"They immediately recognized each other," Rutberg said, "even though they hadn't seen each other for 20 years. When they met, Diane said, 'I'm home now. I'm home now.'

"Diane is doing extremely well now. And she was our success story for 24 years."

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