This page reports significant, newsworthy achievements of our members.
There was a face-to-face reunion of a kind some time ago at Temple Sharey Shalom in Springfield, when Florida rabbi, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, came to see the photograph on display at the temple showing his famous grandfather of the same name, the man described as the "Father of Modern Hebrew."
When Bruce Kahn, a Scotch Plains businessman and memorabilia collector, discovered the long lost picture of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in a Massachusetts secondhand store last year, he contacted the great man's grandson to see if he knew anything about it. He did. Now the rabbi of the Beth El Beaches Congregation in Ponte Vedra in Jacksonville, the younger Ben-Yehuda not only recalled the image - one of the few taken of his grandfather, and used as a popular postcard, he also remembered the photographer, Yaacov Ben Dov. "He said Dov was a neighbor of his family's in Jerusalem, and he studied photography with him," Kahn said.
Rabbi Ben-Yehuda called Kahn to say he would be visiting his mother-in-law, Shirley Malamut, who lives in Union, and they arranged for him to come see the picture. Kahn described the meeting as "a thrill." He also learned something new about his find. "He said to look carefully at the picture. You could see - from the way Ben-Yehuda was holding his pen - that he only had three fingers on his right hand."
Contacted at his mother-in-law's home, Rabbi Eliezer related the story: "My grandfather injured his hand when he was a child, living in Lithuania. It became gangrenous and he might have died. But his mother heard that there was a famous surgeon visiting the village and she took Eliezer to the inn where he was staying. He operated on him and probably saved his life. Without him, Hebrew might not have been revived as a modern language, and we might not have had the state of Israel."
He has written a book about his grandfather (and was looking for the right publisher for it), and was working on a movie about him too. Seeing the Dov picture "for the first time in many, many years" was one more contact with the man he describes as profoundly inspiring.
Mazel Tov to Sharon Moesch for being awarded the Professionally Recognized Special Educator Certificate in the area of Educational Diagnosis by the Council for Exceptional Children. This certificate is awarded to special educators who have demonstrated that they have met specific professional standards for practice in the field. The Council for Exceptional Children is the largest international professional association comprising special educators, related service providers, and parents.
Congregation Israel, Temple Beth Ahm, and Temple Sha'arey Shalom, Springfield, announce that Jaclyn M Herzlinger RN is serving their synagogues as Congregational Nurse. She will institute a Judaism and Health project. The program was made possible by generous grants from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey and the Wallerstein Foundation.
Over 8,000 nurses around the United States serve as Parish/Congregational Nurses in their churches. The idea is new in the Jewish community; there are fewer than ten nurses serving in synagogues today. Herzlinger has been active nationally in exposing Jewish communities to the idea of using nurses in congregations to serve as a link between healthcare providers and the community. A congregational nurse responds to the unique needs and priorities of its members of all ages. The nurse functions as an educator, a counselor, a referral agent and an advocate. Strong rabbinic support is essential to the program.
The mandate to preserve life and the obligation to care for one's self are integral to the practice of Judaism. These values have profound implications for Jewish perspective on issues of health and healing. Changes in medical technology raise complicated ethical questions. Individuals need counsel and support. Communities lack ways to provide that support. Nurses with community and public health backgrounds, acute care experience and additional training in the Parish/Congregational nurse specialty can increase a synagogue's ability to serve its members.
Herzlinger is an active member of the Oncology Nursing Society and the Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and holds both certifications. She currently serves as the secretary of the New Jersey State Nursing Association Board of Directors. She is a member of the Central Jersey Parish Nurse Association and is working with others at the state level to try to form a Forum for Parish nurses and a statewide chapter of the Health Ministries Association.
Locally Jackie Herzlinger is probably best known as a long time member of the Springfield First Aid Squad and for her many years of involvement in Girl Scouting. She is a 40+ year member of Temple Sha'arey Shalom. Her recent contribution there has been the founding of The Health Initiative. Her latest community endeavor is bringing together three diverse congregations for this Health in Judaism project.
Herzlinger has degrees from Smith College and Rutgers University. She is also employed by The Center for Hospice, a St. Barnabas affiliate, as a per diem hospice nurse.
Ask most American Jews about Ben-Yehua and they'll tell you about the vibrant street in the heart of Jerusalem. Ask Israelis, however, and they'll tell you that it's thanks to the street's namesake- Eliezer Ben-Yehuda-that they speak Hebrew. Many go further and say that without his efforts there might not be this intrepid nation of Israelis.
But ask even these Israelis what the "father of Modern Hebrew" looked like and few would be able to offer an accurate description. Though a dogged campaigner for the revival of the language and voluble writer (and sometime newspaper publisher), Ben-Yehuda wasn't one to pose for pictures and apparently few were made of him.
Born Eliezer Yitzhak Perelman in Lithuania in 1858, he immigrated to Palestine in 1881 armed with a commitment to restore Hebrew as a living, everyday language. He died in 1922, revered for his linguistic achievement but - given the times- his visage was not widely disseminated.
That makes all the more astonishing that Bruce Kahn of Scotch Plains - the owner of a laboratory equipment business and the avid collector of all kinds of art and objects - discovered a handsomely framed photograph dated 1910 of the great man himself. Kahn found the photograph in a secondhand shop in Lee, Mass., where he and his wife have a second home, and neither Kahn nor the store owner recognized the austere profile.
"The inscription is in Hebrew, which I can't read," explains Kahn, "but the date caught my eye. I'm interested in anything old." A white-bearded figure himself with a jaunty ponytail, he radiates his passion for the treasures that adorn every shelf and wall of his home. He has sturdy old radios, record players and the weighty disks that were played on them, intriguing medical knickknacks, and - most of beloved - an array of memorabilia from the 1939 New York World's fair. He unearths his finds at garage sales, flea markets, and stores, keeping a sharp eye out for possible collectibles wherever he goes.
The shop in Lee is one he frequents each time he goes to the Berkshires. Visiting a few weeks ago, he noticed the large black and white picture as soon as he walked in and knew it was a recent acquisition. Kahn relates how he turned the picture over and saw, written in english on the brown paper backing, the names Ben-Yahuda and Ben-Dov, the one familiar, the other not.
I looked on the Internet and found a drawing of Ben-Yahuda - I couldn't fine a single photograph of him-and it was obviously the same man." He inquired about Ben-Dov and discovered that there was a Yaacov Ben Dov who founded the Israeli film industry and who was a keen photographer back in 1910.
An expert at The Center for Jewish History in New York confirmed Kahn's findings and reported that there are published versions of the photograph- but his is the original print. Ben-Yehuda was 52 at the time, the photographer just 28. "He said that very few pictures were taken of Ben-Yahuda," Kahn says, relishing the affirmation his collector's instinct.
Via the Internet, Kahn discovered that Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yahuda, the linguist's grandson, lives in Pointe Verde, Fla. He called him, and the Rabbi said he remembered the photograph well because it was reproduced as a postcard. He also recalled that the photographer lived near his grandfather in Jeruslem, which is probably how he got the opportunity to photograph the great man.
The rarity of the picture obviously increases its value, but Kahn says he has no interest in selling it. Instead he has lent it to his synagogue, Sha'arey Shalom in Springfield, where it will be on display through September. That way the famous name will take on a new connotation, a fitting tribute at this time of heightened appreciation of all that it took to establish a Jewish homeland.
-- from NJ Jewish News, Aug. 1, 2002