On Sunday morning, Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck will host the first of eight sessions of a professionally facilitated support group for Jewish families who have experienced infant and pregnancy loss at any time in their lives.

Nechama Inc., which began in January 2009 with sessions at Englewood Hospital & Medical Center, was founded by Reva Judas of Teaneck. She knows the pain of those she seeks to help, as her first child lived for only 12 hours and she suffered several miscarriages between the births of her four healthy children.

Judas, a kindergarten teacher at The Moriah School in Englewood, is a certified hospital chaplain. She named her support venture Nechama — “comfort” in Hebrew — and recently received 501(c) non-profit status for the organization.

Reva Judas is the founder of a support group for Jewish families who have experienced infant or pregnancy loss. Courtesy Reva Judas

“The main point of this group is for people — mothers and fathers, grandparents, siblings — to be able to deal with this publicly. Even a miscarriage will affect your life forever,” she said. “For example, I worked with two grandmothers this past year to guide them in helping their bereaved children and in working through their own grief.”

The timing for the new group meshes with International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, highlighted by a national “walk to remember” taking place Oct 24 at Holy Name. This non-denominational memorial day will feature readings by several clergy members, including Judas’ father, a rabbi visiting from California for his grandson’s bar mitzvah the day before.

Nechama was modeled on Johanna Gorab’s existing pregnancy and infancy loss support group at Holy Name. Judas borrowed some of her mentor’s ideas, such as memory boxes including photographs, a hospital bracelet, and other memorabilia from the deceased infant. She assures parents that it’s fine to include Jewish prayers or psalms and even a lock of hair, because that does not violate Judaism’s guidelines on burying a body intact.

She also tells families that even without a seven-day shiva period, which does not apply for miscarriage or stillbirth, there are specifically Jewish ways to mourn the loss.

On Nov. 15, she will address rabbis’ wives from around the country at a conference sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future at Cong. Keter Torah in Teaneck.

“My goals now are to start one-on-one counseling and to train social workers and clergy to man a hotline. Certain things have to be decided so quickly when there is a loss,” said Judas, who recently started phone counseling for New York-based clients of Chai Lifeline, an organization for families of children with cancer and genetic diseases.

“We’re training the hospitals in what they’re allowed to do for Jewish families, and also trying to establish guidelines for all Jewish communities for handling these situations regardless of their different philosophies. We want to get across the idea of how important the grieving process is.”

This summer, a rabbi in Passaic called Judas for advice concerning a congregant who had just experienced a miscarriage late in her pregnancy. She worked with the rabbi and directly with the family to answer questions and offer suggestions. The family later traveled to Israel and planted a tree in memory of the baby, Judas said.

She hopes to set up Nechama chapters around the country with the help of grants and donations (a website is in the works). She would like to establish a national office and grief center as well.

The Holy Name group will meet from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for eight consecutive weeks. If there is need and interest, Judas said, a monthly support group will be considered. Call Judas at (201) 692-9302 for further information.

The Teaneck headquarters of the Union for Traditional Judaism and Institute of Traditional Judaism, which both declared bankruptcy earlier this year, is heading back to auction on Nov. 1.

Real estate development company 333 Realty won a previous auction this summer with a bid of $1.45 million for the property at 811 Palisade Ave. The buyer, however, decided not to move forward at that price, according to Janice Grubin, the bankruptcy attorney assigned to UTJ. A new price of $1.2 million was negotiated, but that has to receive court approval, and in order for that to happen, a new auction must take place.

“We have a responsibility to test the market,” Grubin told The Jewish Standard. “We have to make sure this is the highest and best price, and the only way to do that is to test the market.”

In the meantime, UTJ has submitted a controversial request to U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking approval to remove a tree on the property, if the new auction winner decides it does not want the tree. That hearing is scheduled for Oct. 18, but regardless of the decision, no action would be taken on the tree without the request of the new auction winner.

“The real estate market is very difficult these days, and the presence of the tree and the congregation that is still on the premises together with the difficulty of the real estate market were among the factors leading to this,” Grubin said.

The congregation refers to Netivot Shalom, a modern Orthodox synagogue of about 80 families that has met in the UTJ building for 10 years.

With the building heading back to auction, Netivot Shalom’s leaders are hopeful that the synagogue can make a successful bid. The congregation’s board sent out letters to its membership last month to help raise at least $400,000, which would allow the synagogue to cover a down payment on a bid.

“Our choice would be to remain in the building,” said Pamela Scheininger, the synagogue’s president. “We’re optimistic that this presents us with an opportunity to do that in a very serious way.”

Netivot Shalom filled out paperwork for the August auction but did not make a bid.

UTJ declared bankruptcy in May and its leaders decided to sell its headquarters to cover its debts. Controversy erupted in July when the organization began work to remove a large oak tree that towers over the property. Union leaders argued that safety concerns prompted them to seek the tree’s removal, while the tree’s supporters argued that the removal was a ploy to get more money for the property. The tree, estimated to be between 200 and 300 years old, is considered the oldest in Teaneck.

Spurred by protests and petitions by eco-activists, the Teaneck Township council took up the issue at its July meeting and considered making a bid on the property to save the tree. The council ultimately decided not to intervene, but UTJ left the tree up through the auction.

The Puffin Foundation last month stepped into the picture with an offer of up to $200,000 to the successful bidder to maintain the tree.

Perry Rosenstein, the foundation’s president, said he is waiting for a document guaranteeing that the tree will be preserved.

The question remains one of liability, said Rabbi Ronald Price, UTJ’s executive vice president.

“People have expressed their feelings for the tree, and I certainly understand and share appreciation for its beauty, but the risk that comes along with it is significant,” he said.

Children of various backgrounds study at Hatikvah International Academy Charter School, says principal Naomi Drewitz. Courtesy Hatikvah International Academy Charter School

Shalom Academy, a charter school set to open in September with Hebrew-language immersion as its stated purpose, is facing a legal challenge from the board of education in Englewood, one of the two districts it is approved to serve. The other is Teaneck, which is awaiting the outcome of the Englewood challenge.

The academy, proposed by Raphael Bachrach of Englewood, was granted a charter by the state on Jan. 18 after four rejections. The Englewood school board has filed an appeal in Superior Court, asking it to overturn the approval.

Englewood’s appeal is based on two points, as spelled out in a written statement — demographic and financial. The district notes that 97 percent of its students are members of minority groups, and it is under an integration order. The statement says the Hebrew immersion school “would appeal to a population that will be almost entirely white.”

The statement continues: “This would create two separate public education programs within Englewood: one virtually white and the other virtually minority.”

The issue of funding is also raised in the appeal. The statement says the students who applied to attend Shalom Academy come from “private and/or religious schools. This significantly increases the number of students included within the district budget at a time of cuts to public education funding.”

Englewood is projecting a budget of some $64.5 million. The projected costs for charter school students is some $2.9 million, up $702,000 from last year, the increase being the projected cost of Englewood students going to Shalom Academy. Under the law, school districts are required to fund charter schools on a per pupil basis.

Another charter school, Englewood on the Palisades Charter School, serves Englewood students in grades K-5. The Teaneck Community Charter School serves pupils in K-8.

While Englewood is challenging the approval, Teaneck is taking a wait-and-see approach. “We’re very interested in the case, but at present we are not taking the legal route,” Barbara Pinsak, interim schools superintendent, told The Jewish Standard. “We understand Englewood’s position,” she added.

According to Pinsak, Teaneck school officials still don’t have details about Shalom Academy. “We’re waiting for student numbers,” she said. “Who are the students? Do they represent our diversity?”

Teaneck is still working out the budget details, but the total will be some $86.5 million. This includes some $5.9 million for pupils in charter schools, with some $1.4 million of that for Shalom Academy. “We’re grappling with that right now,” Pinsak said.

Charter schools are authorized by the state. Among their goals, according to the State Department of Education website, are to “increase the availability of choice to parents and students” and to “encourage the use of different and innovative learning techniques.”

Charter schools cannot charge tuition, and “all teachers and staff must be properly certified.” Enrollment is open to all students on a space-available basis, with preference to those living in the district. As of January there were 73 approved charter schools in New Jersey.

Charter schools are run independently of the public school district. “We have no management role,” Pinsak said. “They run their school and we run ours.”

Funding must be supplied by the local school district, according to the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, and can be up to 90 percent of the per pupil cost in that particular district. The exact amount depends on a state aid formula, and charter schools can raise more funds by their own efforts.

In New Jersey, school budgets are subject to voter approval in the board of education elections, this year April 27. If the budget is rejected, it goes to the municipal governing body, which can recommend cuts and send it back to the school board. The board can either accept the cuts or appeal to the state. The board is obligated to fund approved charter schools, so there is no room to cut there.

The school budgets in both Teaneck and Englewood were rejected by voters last year.

Bachrach, who led the campaign for Shalom Academy, did not return telephone calls. In an earlier public forum, according to published reports, it was announced that the school will open in the fall with 160 students chosen by lottery from Teaneck and Englewood. It would then increase by 20 per year to a maximum of 240.

Initial plans were for the school to be K-8, but approval is for K-5. It was unclear as of this writing how many students have applied to the school, and if a location has been arranged.

The school’s website (http://www.shalomacademycharterschool.org)maintains that “Shalom Academy Charter School will graduate students that are proficient in the Hebrew Language. Intertwined in the attainment of this competence will be the development of attitudes, skills, knowledge, and responsibility essential to successful achievement in school and society.”

While the concept of a Hebrew immersion school is controversial, one in East Brunswick is a success, according to its principal. The Hatikvah International Academy Charter School serves 106 students in grades K-2 and is doing “really well,” Principal Naomi Drewitz told the Standard.

Asked if the students were all Jewish, she said “absolutely not.” The diverse makeup includes children of African-American, Chinese, and Indian backgrounds representing a spectrum of religions, she said.

The school has “nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with religion,” Drewitz said. “We study the nations of the world” as part of the curriculum, she said, noting that many of the students speak different languages at home.

Criticism comes from those who don’t understand the school’s mission, she said. The “highly rigorous” program uses language to “open the minds of children.”

Learning Hebrew is valuable because it is “one of the world’s first tongues,” she said. The youngsters learn conversation first, and the language’s phonetic nature makes for a “natural progression to writing.”

A 2007 editorial mistake by an unnamed Canadian has been roiling Teaneck township council meetings.

Earlier this year, Teaneck resident Rich Siegel discovered an article on Wikipedia that asserted that Teaneck was a twin city with Beit Yatir, a Jewish village just over the 1967 border in the west bank. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is one of the most popular sites on the internet.

Siegel, who describes himself as a Jewish anti-Zionist activist, set out to find the origins of this relationship.

“First I wrote the mayor and he ignored me,” Siegel told the Jewish Standard. Teaneck Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin did not return requests for comment.

“Then I sent certified letters to the mayor and all the members of the town council. It was at some expense, but I wanted to show them I was serious about getting an answer,” Siegel said.

Siegel did hear from Elie Katz, a council member who is a former mayor, who said he had never heard of the twinning. Neither had Jacqueline Kates, a former mayor and former council member whose tenure on the council dated back to 1996.

Siegel spoke at a council meeting in January, demanding that township officials publicly renounce the connection. In February, following a letter he wrote on the topic that appeared in the Suburbanite, five other residents stood up at the council meeting to protest the reported twinning.

“We were able to determine that no one had brought this before the town council. They just decided to set the thing up unilaterally,” said Siegel.

Who “they” were was not clear to him.

However, an investigation of the editing history of the Wikipedia article about Beit Yatir shows that the reference to a twinning with Teaneck was inserted by a Canadian editor who goes by the name “Shuki.” Shuki had added a line that Beit Yatir was twinned with Teaneck in 2007, shortly after creating the article, which he based on one in the Hebrew edition of Wikipedia.

The Hebrew article, however, made no mention of a twinning relationship with Teaneck.

Shuki did not return a request for comment left on his Wikipedia user page. According to that page, he has created 149 Wikipedia articles and is responsible for more than 10,000 editorial changes to the site in his five years of Wikipedia involvement. Most of his articles concern Israeli places and personalities. He has been heavily involved in the disputes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian editors that make articles on topics as apparently neutral as hummus deeply contentious. In December, he was banned from editing Wikipedia for six months, for allegedly using a false account to vote on the deletion of controversial articles concerning Israelis and Palestinians.

So why did Shuki claim a connection between Beit Yatir and Teaneck?

Most probably because there actually is a link between the two communities: Beit Yatir has long been twinned with Teaneck’s Beth Aaron congregation.

The synagogue has supported Beit Yatir’s summer camp and playgrounds, according to congregation president Larry Shafier. Synagogue members visiting in Israel have gone to Beit Yatir and posted snapshots on the congregation’s website. Beit Yatir residents have written articles for the Beth Aaron newsletter.

As for the Beit Yatir article on Wikipedia: This week it was corrected to read that the twinning was with the congregation.

Could Teaneck decide to officially twin with an Israeli town?

“It would be something to be viewed on a case-by-case basis,” said Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen. “We certainly don’t have a policy for twinning with other municipalities.”

Siegel said he personally would oppose an effort to twin Teaneck with an Israeli city. “I’m an anti-Zionist. I would be personally against a twin town relationship within the Green Line as well.”

Nonetheless, he said, “if it went through proper channels, by a vote of the people of Teaneck or the town council, that would be none of my business. My concern is people acting unilaterally.”

At present, 18 New Jersey municipalities are twinned with foreign partners — if Wikipedia can be believed. And in the case of its listing of New Jersey municipal twinnings, it can’t be. According to the listing, the city of Camden has twinned with Gaza City.

But there are no citations, no references to the twinning discovered online, and, perhaps most compellingly, said David Snyder, the local Jewish official whose job it would be to monitor official ties between Camden and pro-Palestinian groups, that it’s news to him.

“I have never heard of this and cannot imagine it,” said Synder, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. “I’ve been in the community for 20 years and that has never come up.”

Other synagogue twinning projects

Beth Aaron’s twinning with Beit Yatir is only one of a number of direct connections between Bergen County and Israel. At least two other Orthodox congregations have twinned with communities in the west bank. Cong. Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck has twinned with Otniel, a village of 120 families about seven miles northwest of Beit Yatir. The American congregation has bought security equipment for Otniel, and sends shalach manot to each resident on Purim. The Young Israel of Fort Lee partners with Dolev. “In the early years, we supported them financially and helped them found a day care and kindergarten,” says Rabbi Neil Winkler. Three additional congregations, two Reform and one Conservative, have twinned with Israeli congregations: Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes is twinned with Cong. Yozma in Modiin. “In 2006, we brought a Torah to them. Since then, we visit Yozma every other year with our congregational trips,” says Rabbi Elyse Frishman. Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge has a long-standing relationship with the Leo Baeck Center in Haifa, which includes sponsoring scholarships at the Reform community’s school. The Jewish Community Center of Paramus is an overseas member of Kehilat Yaar Ramot, a Masorti congregation in Jerusalem. “We try to support their fund-raising efforts when we can,” says Rabbi Arthur Weiner.

Shavuot was bittersweet for Cong. Beth Am, a Reform synagogue in Teaneck that never wanted to grow too big, but after 47 years grew too small to continue. Last Tuesday night the congregation held its last communal dinner and its last service, celebrating the festival while calling up memories, saying goodbye to old friends, and reuniting with former members and grown children of members who returned for the occasion.

“It was very heartbreaking,” said Phyllis Betancourt, a member for 20 years. “Boxes of Kleenex were being handed back and forth. We all shared tears.”

Beth Am’s 26 member-families are dispersing to three area Reform synagogues: Temple Emeth in Teaneck, Temple Sinai of Bergen County in Tenafly, and Cong. Adas Emuno in Leonia. Each congregation is receiving one of Beth Am’s three Torah scrolls, and at the conclusion of the Shavuot service the scrolls were removed from the ark and escorted from the building.

Temple Sinai of Bergen County receives a Torah from Teaneck’s Beth Am. Michele Harris, chair of Temple Sinai’s transition committee, and Sheldon Burnston, Beth Am’s president, are pictured. Ophelia A. Yudkoff

Three nights later, Temples Emeth and Sinai welcomed the former members of Beth Am in special ceremonies. Adas Emuno is holding its ceremony tonight.

Before the Temple Emeth service, Beth Am’s president, Sheldon Burnston, discussed the music with Temple Emeth Cantor Ellen Tilem. “She incorporated a lot of the melodies that were our standard melodies into the service,” he said.

Burnston, along with Beth Am’s Rabbi Harvey Rosenfeld, carried the Torah down the center aisle of Temple Emeth’s sanctuary up to the bimah, with their fellow Beth Am congregants following behind.

“As it turned out, there were spaces for seven sifrei Torah in the ark. Ours made the seventh and filled the spot. The symbolism was quite lovely,” Burnston said.

At the Temple Sinai welcoming ceremony, which Burnston and Rosenfeld also attended, Rabbi Jordan Millstein used the metaphor of a marriage to describe the union of the two congregations.

“Rabbi Rosenfeld took the Torah from me, and he passed it to each Beth Am congregant to touch. Then they replaced the Torah cover with one similar to the others they used at Sinai and placed it into their ark,” said Burnston.

The three Reform congregations will receive the proceeds of the sale of Beth Am’s building, in proportion to the number of members joining each shul. Burnston said that 15 families moved to Temple Sinai, 11 families to Temple Emeth, and two to Adas Emuno.

In its last formal membership meeting last month, the congregation approved the sale of its building to Cong. Shaarei Tefillah, an Orthodox synagogue which has been meeting a couple of blocks away.

“We are bursting at the seams and need space for all of our members,” said Mark “Mendy” Schwartz, the shul’s president. The 10-year-old congregation started out as a neighborhood minyan meeting in a member’s house and now boasts nearly 100 member-families.

Schwartz said his congregation has been prioritizing possible renovations to the building, which will likely include “modernizing the sanctuary to accommodate an Orthodox minyan, fixing up the classrooms for our children to have a space for learning and prayer, and cosmetic upgrades to the social hall and kitchen.”

If all goes well, he said, Shaarei Tefillah will hold its inaugural services in its new building on Rosh HaShanah.

A dispute is simmering in Teaneck over new school bus routes, which parents of Jewish day school students say in many cases are dangerous and at best difficult to work with.

The new system establishes new central pick-up and drop-off points for the students. In the past students were picked up and let off close to their homes. Under the new plan, in some cases students must walk long distances or be driven to the central points.

A meeting is scheduled for Monday evening at 7:30 at the Richard Rodda Community Center, Gym 2, called by the parents’ group “Safe Teaneck.” Board of education officials and police officials have been invited, said Elie Katz. Katz is a councilman but was speaking in his role as the parent of a youngster who will use the bus service.

Allison Kobus of the State Department of Education said districts must meet state law, but beyond that it’s a local issue. She referred this reporter to the department website, which says elementary school students living more than two miles from school and secondary school students living two and a half miles from school are entitled to bus service.

Katz said the new arrangement will be a danger and disruption to the whole community. He noted that many pupils attending public schools, which will serve as hubs, will face waiting buses and cars dropping off youngsters for the buses. Also, at other pick-up points, homeowners will face the prospect of crowds of children waiting for buses in front of their houses at 6:30 or 7 in the morning.

In other cases, homeowners without sidewalks may be required to install them at their own expense, he said.

In a prepared statement, Katz cited the cancellation for this year of the proposed Shalom Academy charter school, and suggested that the funds freed up might be used for bus service.

A call to the Teaneck schools transportation coordinator office yielded a recording saying the board of education was working on the issue and would discuss it at its Aug. 7 meeting.

Board President Ardie Walser noted that budget constraints led to the changed bus schedules, and said, “We are working as hard as we can to lower the impact to our children.”

He said Teaneck is a “generous” community and if possible bus service would be available to all. He acknowledged that when schedules are changed there can be glitches and said that school officials will work to smooth them out.

Walser said bus service for public school students has been cut back, noting that a courtesy program, for pupils who live beyond nine-tenths of a mile from their school, has been dropped.

Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin said that although the busing issue is a board of education matter, “any public safety issue that arises will be addressed by council.” Speaking by phone, he said, “We hope that the board of education comes up with a solution” that will satisfy all sides.

Among schools attended by Teaneck youngsters are The Moriah School in Englewood; Yavneh Academy in Paramus; Ben Porat Yosef in Paramus; Yeshivat Noam in Bergenfield and Paramus; the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge; and the Frisch School in Paramus.

A parent involved in the dispute, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “The overarching issue is safety,” and spoke of “little kids crossing big streets.”

“The board should have warned us; it’s only five weeks before school starts,” she said.

Ari Weisbrot, a Hackensack attorney retained by the parents’ group, stressed that the issue is “completely one of safety” and not a matter of convenience. “Unfortunately, the board has taken steps that are putting these children in danger,” he said.

While the parents are exploring the possibility of legal action, “We hope the matter will be resolved amicably,” Weisbrot said.

The Teaneck busing fight seemed to roll to a complete stop this week, as the town’s board of education voted Sunday to restore all the cuts previously made to busing.

The conflict highlighted tensions within the town between the parents who send their children to public schools, who are predominately non-Jewish, and those, predominately Orthodox Jews, who send their children to private schools.

The conflict may have reached its peak at a public meeting of the board last Wednesday when one resident yelled, “I don’t want you as my neighbor just as you don’t want me as your neighbor.”

At the meeting, the board voted to use money originally budgeted for the Shalom Academy Charter School to restore both “courtesy” busing for public school students living more than .9 miles from school, and traditional, non-consolidated bus routes for the private school students.

The board decided to reject an offer of $85,000 from the Cross River Bank, which would have restored funding for the private school busing.

Some board members and residents said the offer was divisive in that it would only help certain children.

“We are voting on this measure with a gun held to our head,” said board member Margot Embree Fisher. “We’ve been threatened with a lawsuit.”

Looking ahead to next year’s budget, board member Henry Pruitt said that it is in everyone’s interest if the school budget passes, “because busing is on the chopping block.”

Board president Ardie Walser said, “Sometimes out of controversy little seeds begin to grow that make the world a better place.”

One resident said the controversy will result in greater involvement with the school board.

“I intend to go to more meetings, to participate in board of education elections,” said Lori Silberman Brauner, who had distributed flyers urging attendance at the public meetings that discussed the busing issue.

“If we all did a better job following the education issues in Teaneck, we would be a better community,” said Shelley R. Worrell. Worrell, a graduate of Teaneck High School whose daughter is entering the school, serves as co-president of the Teaneck Council of Parents and Teachers.

“We desperately need dialogue between the African-American community, the Orthodox community, and all the sectors of Teaneck,” she said.

At the board meeting, she had a sheet where people could sign up for a group that would provide an opportunity for such a dialogue. She called it “Fair Teaneck,” because “We need a fair Teaneck that takes into account the needs of all students, public and private, who reside in the community.”

Cong. Beth Sholom — a Conservative synagogue in Teaneck headed for three decades by Rabbi Kenneth Berger, now rabbi emeritus — recently welcomed Rabbi Joel Pitkowsky, most recently religious leader of Cong. Beth Israel in Worcester, Mass.

Pitkowsky is the third full-time rabbi to serve the Teaneck synagogue since it was founded 60 years ago. Born and raised in Fair Lawn, he held his first service at Beth Sholom on Aug. 5, after serving for eight years at the Massachusetts synagogue. Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001, he is one of only several dozen Conservative rabbis certified to write gittin, or Jewish divorce documents.

The rabbi, who arrived here with his wife, Ingrid, and children Jonah (10) and Lili (8), said he is “trying to adjust to the move, to the [children’s] schools, and to life in Teaneck.” Ingrid will be teaching kindergarten at the Solomon Schechter Day School in New Milford.

His is an unusual synagogue, because it includes as congregants a number of the very JTS faculty members who were his own teachers.

“They’ve been very supportive — wonderful and kind,” he said. “It’s clear that they are here to be supportive members of the Jewish community, providing whatever resources they can. I’m thrilled to have them.”

Far from feeling daunted, he said, “I feel I need to do my best to have something to teach everyone in the community — including my teachers.”

Pitkowsky said Beth Sholom is similar to his last congregation, in that they “both have a committed group of laypeople.” Still, he said, “There’s more of everything here. Larger regular Shabbat attendance; a larger number of other synagogues. I’m not used to it. There’s so much more Jewish culture.”

While this creates “a wonderfully rich community,” it also creates “an open market,” he said.

“We are in a strong position to help in building bridges to other synagogues in the community, to help explain what Conservative Judaism means, and to work together toward furthering common goals and interests.”

The rabbi said the synagogue has handled the transition from one rabbi to another “wonderfully.”

Berger served for 30 years, deeply affecting all aspects of the synagogue, Pitkowsky said, adding, “My role is to figure out where the shul is now and where we need to be in the future, building on the foundation he set.”

The 400-member-unit synagogue has a wide age range, he noted, with members ranging from people in their 20s to their 90s. There also are many children, he said “the vast majority” of whom go to day school.

The shul’s merger four years ago with Cong. Beth Israel in Bergenfield brought a religious school to the Teaneck congregation. “It’s now our religious school,” he said. “We’re pushing hard to have it be the best it can, so we can provide the best education in different settings.”

Pitkowsky is excited to arrive at the synagogue as it celebrates its 60th anniversary.

“I feel we have built a wonderful foundation of learning, commitment to Jewish life, and prayer, and [can now] take it into the next 60 years,” he said.

Among his duties, he said, he will “care for the religious, spiritual, and Jewish life of every member of the community, providing pastoral care, teaching classes, and helping to organize all the synagogue’s educational programs.” He will also teach occasionally in the religious school.

The synagogue has alternative minyanim each week, he said, adding that in addition to leading the sanctuary service, he plans on “having a presence” in each of the other services, as well.

While opportunities abound, there also are challenges.

One challenge is “creating a community that appeals to all different kinds of Conservative Jews,” he said. For example, if a family is shomer Shabbat [Sabbath observant], sending their children to day school and Jewish summer camps, that family should be as comfortable in the shul as a family whose children attend public school and receive supplementary religious education.

“My goal is to create an environment where people feel personally connected to the community, seeing how Judaism can enrich their lives and how a committed Jewish community can enrich the greater community. The mission of the synagogue is to be a vehicle for personal and communal growth,” he said.

“I’m privileged to be in a community where so many people care about what happens here, about the Jewish community, and about the broader community. We can really make a positive impact on the world around us. That’s something I want to help foster.”