A Minyan for Sabbath Services at JHR
While it is the mission of the Jewish Home Family to keep people in the community as long as possible, it is equally important that once they choose to move to Rockleigh, they continue to be part of the community. For this reason, we have developed many programs which will make the transition easier.
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Our kosher meals have been made available to the community through meals-on-wheels and kosher nutrition sites since the mid-70’s. At that time we started delivering meals to places like the Teaneck Jewish Center and the Bergen County JFS, as well as the JCC and the Y-JCC programs. More recently we began delivering meals to the JFCS in Fair Lawn and Wayne. We also continue to deliver to the JCC in Bayonne, Hudson County. These programs, as well as our Gallen Adult Day Health Care Center, outpatient rehabilitation and our Bergen County transportation program help make the transition easier for the elderly.
Recently we reached out to ask for assistance in creating an ongoing minyan for Sabbath services at JHR. It’s often difficult to get a minyan together for the Orthodox services in our chapel as there are many more women residents than there are men. As a result of correspondence and a timely conversation with Alan Litt, a member of Temple Emanu-El in Closter, we have begun to solve this. As a first step, all the rabbis in the community were contacted, requesting that they ask members of their congregation to attend Sabbath morning services at the Jewish Home, and accept responsibility for completing a minyan on designated Sabbaths. Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner at nearby Temple Emanu-El in Closter was the first to respond. The newly appointed Rabbi, who has been with the synagogue since July of last year, called on members of the Men’s Club and Youth Club at the synagogue who started attending Sabbath morning services at JHR once a month. JHR provides a bus to pick up a group of 15 to 20 people at the synagogue in Closter and brings them to Rockleigh.
“Since we want to help our community, we found some families who had just celebrated a bar mitzvah and do this as a father and son event,” said Rabbi Kirshner. “It caught on. Some fathers are coming with their daughters.” He emphasized the importance of a program such as this one to the synagogue and the community. “The stronger our community is, the stronger our synagogue isÉwhatever we can do to nourish [the residents] physically or spirituallyÉwe’ll be there.” He pointed out that two students from Emanu-El regularly volunteer at JHR, participating in other projects.
The service is from 10 to 11 a.m., followed by a kiddish. “The group from Temple Emanu-El comes for the service and then returns to their synagogue for their own kiddish,” said JHR’s chaplain, Rabbi Simon H. Feld. “I call them to the Torah. They do a wonderful mitzvah. The kids definitely get something out of it and they bring great joy to the residents. What a child can do for a resident, 100 rabbis can’t do. Being with young people brings back happy memories of their youth.”
The program is subsidized through the generosity of an anonymous donor in our community who wants to make the Sabbath experience as meaningful for the residents as it was for themselves when they lived in their previous home. We’re still looking for other congregations or members of the Jewish community to help us achieve on other Sabbaths each month what we’re doing with Temple Emanu-El’s congregants, that is, having the full service, including reading from the Torah.”
If your congregation is interested in performing this mitzvah, please contact Chuck Berkowitz at 201-750-4231.