Passaic students learn about prejudice at D.C. museum
As a language arts teacher at the Lincoln Middle School in Passaic, Sharon Surloff realized that her eighth-grade students, mostly black or Latino, had grown up knowing little, if anything, about the Holocaust.
Projects to remedy this were already under way. In her class, the teenagers had already studied Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and had been deeply moved, she said. She was also engaging them in discussions, bringing in survivors, taking field trips, and doing Holocaust-related projects.
Something was missing, however.
“As a teacher, I know that providing students with an educational opportunity that will touch them emotionally is the most promising way to turn a school lesson into a life-changing experience,” noted Surloff, who grew up in Fair Lawn.
The vandalism at Reconstructionist Temple Beth Israel in Maywood is both distressing and unacceptable, says Jarah Greenfield, the congregation’s rabbi. It may also offer an important opportunity, however.
Greenfield said that as shocked as people were to see the signs of hatred etched around the synagogue, “The stronger impression was how this desecration so quickly transformed into an opportunity to strengthen our community relationships. The sense of solidarity in the town is truly amazing.”
After the shul board convened an emergency meeting to discuss the damage — swastikas and hate symbols were spray-painted on four areas outside the building — Greenfield reached out not only to town authorities and Jewish communal groups, but to interfaith venues, as well. Their response, she said, “has been nothing less than impressive and beautiful.”
Over the past two years, the number of hate crimes in New Jersey has remained fairly steady, says Etzion Neuer, the Anti-Defamation League’s Director of Community Service and Policy.
Still, said Neuer, “We always want to see it go down. There’s little consolation in seeing it be constant.”
Neuer pointed out that the ADL website maintains a visual database of hate symbols (adl.org/hatesymbols), used frequently by law enforcement agencies but accessible to the public, as well.
At a crime scene, he said, “These numerical and graphic symbols are critical indicators [for law enforcement] of just what they’re dealing with — much the same way as law enforcement learned that numbers scrawled on walls may indicate gang affiliation.”
Daughter of a Pentecostal minister, the 38-year-old became an Orthodox Jew 11 years ago, leaving behind not only her childhood faith, but a blossoming musical career. Now, as the mother of a child with special needs, her journey has led her to the Sinai Schools.
Three years ago, Davids — originally from Southern California and named Daisy Lee — moved to Monsey, where her son, Asher Chaim, who has been diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, on the autistic spectrum, attended a public school special needs program. When it became clear that he had was not making progress, a therapist suggested that the boy needed something more intensive.
Chanukah will trigger an increased caseload, said Leah Kaufman, executive director of Jewish Family Service of North Jersey. “We’ll easily provide over 100 families with gifts for kids,” she said.
Those gifts, said Kaufman, were obtained “through generous donations by community members,” including, for example, Hebrew school students at the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation B’nai Israel, who held a toy drive for the agency.
Presents were also received from Flames of Giving, established several years ago by Sari Gross, a congregant at Wayne’s Temple Beth Tikvah. Students at the shul’s religious school collect items for JFS, the Federation Apartments in Paterson, Café Europa (a project for Holocaust survivors), and Paterson elementary schools.
The 71-year-old Clifton resident, now on dialysis, believed until recently that he would receive a kidney transplant from his son. Unfortunately, said his wife, Arlene, “When they did a CAT scan on my son’s kidneys, they found a problem. So now there are two people I’m worried about.”
Arlene, who said her husband is a “young 71,” noted that while he has joined waiting lists at two hospitals, the shortest wait is approximately five years.
“We don’t want to wait that long,” she said, “so we’ve started reaching out to the community. The longer they do dialysis, the more it shortens your life.”
As an engineer for Black and Decker, Matt Holland held 19 patents.
“The plaques hang proudly in my basement,” said the Highland Park resident, now community purchasing manager for the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey’s Kehillah Partnership Initiative.
Holland is the man responsible for negotiating savings for the JFNNJ catchment area’s nearly 160 eligible groups — including synagogues, day schools, affiliated agencies, and community centers. He says his technical knowledge has come in handy.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Alan Sweifach — co-managing director of community planning for the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey (JFNNJ) — had four grandparents born in this country. It is the music of European Jews, however, that fired his imagination.
The Teaneck resident has been playing klezmer music since age 14. Clarinetist for the Hester Street Troupe — which includes his brother, Jay, on keyboard, and drummer Jim Bazewicz — Sweifach said the music brings back memories for older adults and “allows them to see their traditions and music still being carried on.”
With much of its publicity centering in recent years on the issue of hunger in the community, it makes sense that Jewish Family Service of Bergen and North Hudson is using food to help attract attention to this growing problem.
Yet organizers of the group’s 10th annual “Night of 100 Dinners” are hopeful that the evening resonates on another level, as well.
“It’s about family,” said Jeff Nadler, JFS director of development. “There’s something different about this kind of event, where people who support [JFS] are welcoming people into their homes.”
Book month presentation to stress positive aspects of growing old
Dr. Marc Agronin has learned a good deal from his elderly patients as medical director for mental health and clinical research at Miami Jewish Health Systems. Most important, said the geriatric psychiatrist, he has learned that the “true scales of aging are not one-sided. You can’t list the problems and complications of aging without also tallying the possibilities and memories.”
Agronin’s book, “How We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old,” draws on his experience counseling the residents of the Miami facility, showing how his own views on aging were transformed by these encounters.
The author will speak about his book on Nov. 29 at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades as part of the center’s program, James H. Grossmann Memorial Jewish Book Month, which this year is spread out over several months.
