For many, Super Bowl Sunday starts with a mitzvah lesson
It is hard to know which program will stir up the most emotion this Sunday — the Conservative movement’s World Wide Wrap, or the Giants and the Patriots going at it in the Super Bowl.
At Temple Emanu-El in Closter, youngsters will be singing original “Wrap songs” to celebrate the morning event, a global celebration of the mitzvah of t’fillin; while at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation B’nai Israel (FLJC/CBI), the same men’s club that sponsors the Wrap early in the day will be hosting a Super Bowl party later on.
It is no coincidence that the two events fall on the same day.
That is how Haworth teen Micaela Mangot explains an incident that took place when she was a little girl, distributing food and toiletries to the homeless in Washington, D.C.
“My family was always big into philanthropy,” said the 16-year-old, a student at Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest. “They taught me good morals and values — that you should always help people and treat them as you want to be treated.”
“I was around 7, and we were in Washington, D.C.,” remembers Micaela. “There was a lot of poverty there, and I got very upset. I saw the homeless standing above the subway grate for warmth. I went back to the hotel and took the candy and toothbrushes and soap and conditioner and gave them to them in pillowcases. I had to.”
Brushing her teeth one day last spring, Woodcliff Lake teen Paige Alenick had an epiphany. “I was thinking about the little things we take for granted,” she said. “But some kids can’t afford simple necessities like a toothbrush.”
Then 15, Paige decided to do something about her “small idea.”
After doing research on dental health around the world, “I started collecting toothbrushes and asking friends for donations. Then I started reaching out to dentists and suppliers.”
Arthur Joseph, a champion of Jewish education and a beloved communal leader, died last Friday at the age of 85.
In 2007 — when Joseph and his wife, Joyce, were honored by Jewish Educational Services (JES) — an article in this newspaper, citing tributes to the couple, noted that when they moved to Teaneck in 1954, little of the current Jewish infrastructure existed in our area.
According to those who knew them best, the Josephs helped create many of the institutions we take for granted today.
The couple served as leaders in the community until a near-fatal car accident in Maryland on the eve of Passover in 2006. Joseph was in a coma for several months. When he revived, it was decided that he and his wife would live near their daughter, Marcy Markowitz, in Potomac, Md. Despite the relocation, the Josephs’ ties to the community remained strong.
It used to be, said Hannah Kehat, that only Orthodox women appreciated the value of Kolech, “the first feminist organization of religious women in Israel.” In recent years, however, women from all sectors of Israeli society are turning to the group for help.
Kehat — who holds a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem — is one of Israel’s leading experts on the interface between feminism and religion. She founded “Kolech: Religious Women’s Forum” in 1998.
Describing it as a “movement of feminist women in Israel acting against discrimination and the exclusion of women,” she noted that with incidents such as those in Beit Shemesh increasingly in the public eye, the activities of her group are receiving wider attention.
After 40 years, the Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School in Rockland County is closing its doors, causing “a lot of sadness” in the community.
“It’s the end of something really special in our county,” said Debbie Roth, vice president of the New City school’s board and the parent of Gittelman alumni.
Headed by Teaneck resident Rabbi Scott Bolton and serving students from a handful of Bergen County families, the school, serving Pre-K through 8th grade, will dissolve at the end of the current school year.
“We’ve had a drop in enrollment over the last few years,” said Roth, noting that changing demographics and widespread economic woes have taken their toll on the school. Parents were informed of the decision on Jan. 10. The board voted for the closure on Jan. 9.
Benjamin Shull, rabbi of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Woodcliff Lake, said his fifth-grade son, who has attended Rockland County’s Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School for two years, was devastated by news of its closure.
“He started there when he was in third grade,” said Shull. “He had a wonderful experience.”
According to the rabbi, the school’s closing “came as a shock. We had heard rumors from a variety of sources, but we didn’t know what would be said at the meeting. To hear the words ‘we’re closing’ was difficult because the board didn’t make it clear months before that there was such a serious problem. The school gave us a fait accompli. The meeting was very emotional. Some parents were in tears.”
Sometimes, it is hard to tell whether someone is simply doing his job or is driven by his convictions. In the case of Rabbi Neal Borovitz — longtime spiritual leader of Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge — that distinction is particularly blurred.
“My volunteer work on behalf of our federation allows me to merge my vocation with my avocation,” said the rabbi, current chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey .
In that position, he has worked particularly hard to foster positive interfaith relations — an effort that clearly paid off. When two Bergen County synagogues were vandalized last month, religious groups from across the spectrum rallied to support the Jewish community.
“It’s also a hidden workout,” says Melissa Avalo, Zumba instructor at the Bergen County YJCC in Washington Township.
Missy, as she is known to her students, makes no secret of her love for the fitness craze.
“It clears your mind, it’s good for your heart, you lose all your stress — and you do it to great music. It’s a big dance party,” she said.
“I see the faces of the students glowing, enjoying the music,” she said. “Even if they don’t get all the moves, or it’s too intense, they can always do it to their own level.”
Just one week after a similar incident in Maywood, a Hackensack synagogue has been spray-painted with swastikas and slogans of hate.
According to Mark Zettler, president of Temple Beth-El, the vandalism was discovered at the Summit Ave. synagogue on Wednesday morning by the shul secretary, Joanne Rose.
“She called me and I told her to call the police,” said Zettler. “Then I went down to the temple.”
The president of the shul, which has some 110 congregants, said the police came immediately, although it appeared that the first officer on the scene had not heard about the incident in Maywood. “The police were very responsive,” he said. “Everybody was sympathetic.”
