Isabelle Novak, chair of BZHS; Vivian Luchins, dinner co-chair; Rebbetzin Berni Breen Zierler, awardee; Dr. David Luchins, dinner co-chair; Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, awardee; and Martin Nachimson, OU president.

The Ben Zakkai Honor Society of NCSY, the international youth movement of the Orthodox Union, recently held its annual dinner, which honored Rabbi Lawrence S. and Berni Breen Zierler of the Jewish Center of Teaneck, and inducted Stuart Boyarsky of Teaneck as a BZHS member. Additionally, The Jewish Center of Teaneck was officially welcomed as an Orthodox Union member synagogue. At the dinner, Martin Nachimson of Los Angeles was installed as OU president. Dr. David and Vivian Luchins were dinner chairs.

The Zierlers received the Ezra Ben Zion Lightman memorial award in recognition of more than 30 years of Jewish communal service.

Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, Significant Others and their families (JACS), a program of the Rita J. Kaplan Jewish Community Services at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services of New York, offers a spiritual retreat weekend, set for April 26 to 28. The retreat, at the Ramada Conference Center in East Hanover, offers Jewish resources to help strengthen recovery, the chance to celebrate Shabbat with an extended Jewish family, one-on-one talks with clergy, and 12-step-oriented Jewish spiritual meetings and workshops.

For information, contact JACS at (212) 632-4600 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Graduating high school assistants are among the honorees. Courtesy JESC

Jewish Education for Special Children will hold its annual breakfast on Sunday, April 21, at 9:30 a.m., at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck. This year’s guests of honor are Chani and Laurent Bensimon, along with the assistants who are graduating from high school. In addition, JESC has invited back several alumni, including Meir Boruch Levi, Baruch Lunzer, Tamar Schlanger, and Avi Tsadok, to find out how they have progressed since graduating from the program.

JESC offers a three-hour program on Sunday mornings, directed by Rabbi Yisroel Schwab, for anyone between 3 years old to their mid-20s. The curriculum includes tefillot, Hebrew language, exploring holidays, arts and crafts, and music, gym, and dance. There are also yearly programs including shofar-making, an olive oil press, matzah baking, and a magic show. Participants are grouped according to age and ability. No one is turned away due to financial considerations or level of religious observance.

A team of teachers, assistants, and high school volunteers staffs the program, celebrating its 26-year anniversary.

For information, call (201) 262-1090 or www.jescnj.org.

Drs. Michael Berenbaum and Marcia Robbins-Wilf, left, are pictured with the Reverend John T. Pawlikowski at the annual Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Lecture. Bill Blanchard

The Sister Rose Thering Fund’s annual Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf lecture was held at Seton Hall University on March 10. This year’s talk, “Catholic-Jewish Relations Since Nostra Aetate,” looked at interfaith dialogue and its effects on Jewish-Catholic relations. The lecture was part of Seton Hall’s year long celebration, “Building Bridges: 60 Years of Jewish-Christian Dialogue.”

Keynote speakers included Dr. Michael Berenbaum, former director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute, and the Rev. John Pawlikowski, the author and editor of more than 15 books and also a professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he is director of its Jewish-Catholic Studies Program.

The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood’s Center for Family Education partners with the Fair Lawn Jewish Center/Congregation B’nai Israel to present “Mazel Tov, You’re Expecting A Baby!”

The four-week course begins on April 3. Classes will cover Jewish parenting and newborn care and will include a tour of the Valley Hospital’s labor and delivery and mother/baby units. Adoptive parents are welcome to the program.

Jewish parenting topics include the brit milah; baby naming/choosing a Hebrew name; holidays; how Judaism can help you raise a child in a happy, healthy family; family dynamics; bedtime routines; interfaith parenting; Jewish books, music, and toys for young children; tips for finding a childcare provider; traditions around childbirth and newborns; and Jewish community resources.

Registration is encouraged; it costs $86 per couple. Call (201) 291-6151.

Tenafly Nature Center presented the Founders Award for Conservation to Bruce Baker, left, and Charles Klatskin. The center’s board president, Mike Neus, stands between them.

The mayors of Tenafly, Alpine, and Haworth attended Tenafly Nature Center’s annual fundraiser on March 3 at the Clinton Inn, along with 250 other guests. Funds raised will support Tenafly Nature Center’s mission of environmental education and the preservation of open spaces.

Local broadcast professional Jen Maxfield of Tenafly was the event’s honorary chair and emcee. She presented TNC’s Founders Award for Conservation to Bruce Baker and Charles Klatskin, who worked together in 1976 to finalize the funding that made the preservation of 274 acres of woodlands atop the Palisades possible. At the time, Klatskin was a leader of the Jewish Community Center of Englewood, the forerunner to the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly. Klatskin, representing the JCC, was able to secure the final $1 million necessary to bridge the remaining financial gap, in exchange for a 29-acre parcel where the JCC would build its new community center.

Alan Zweibel, one of the original writers of “Saturday Night Live,” is a best-selling author and Billy Crystal’s collaborator on the Tony Award-winning one-man show “700 Sundays.” He will be the keynote speaker for Voices of Celebration, a benefit fundraiser for the Adler Aphasia Center and Livingston’s Hadassah chapter, on April 29 at 6 p.m. at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston.

The Adler Aphasia Center, a nonprofit post-rehabilitative therapeutic center based in Maywood and West Orange, addresses the long-term needs of people with aphasia and their families.

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate. It is most often the result of a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It does not affect a person’s intellect.

Jill Tekel of West Orange, a member of the Adler Aphasia Center’s board of directors and a former president of Hadassah’s Livingston chapter, will be honored as its Woman of Valor.

Zweibel’s television credits also include HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and late night shows including David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon. His award-winning children’s book, “Our Tree Named Steve,” and his latest novel, “Lunatics,” which was co-written with Dave Barry and is soon to be a Universal Studios feature film starring Steve Carell, will be for sale. A book signing will follow the benefit.

Proceeds will benefit both non-profits.

Call Sharon Seiden at (973) 533-0823, email her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), go to www.adleraphasiacenter.org, or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Kesher, the Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood, will hold its annual dinner on Thursday, May 23, 7 p.m., at Space Odyssey in Englewood. Deanna and Daniel Blank will be honored for their synagogue leadership and dedication, and Yaffa Regosin and Noam Ohring will be honored for their years of service. For information to place an ad in the video e-journal, call Kesher at (201) 227-1117.