Kushner High honors good deeds in memory of its late principal
Yaacov Wahrhaftig, son of the late Rabbi Abraham Wahrhaftig, in photo, speaks
at the May 30 ceremony inducting 55 students into the Chesed Society named for his
father at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston.
Sidebar: Wahrhaftig Chesed Society inductees
What Rabbi Abraham Wahrhaftig loved about students at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, he told a videographer shortly before his death in 2005, was their dedication to community service.
"There's a certain sparkle, a certain sense of enjoyment," he said, as he listed the array of hesed projects, including Habitat for Humanity, Panim el Panim, Israel activism, support for troops in Iraq, and tsunami relief.
"There's a constant sense of trying to be involved in life and donating to good causes," Wahrhaftig said.
The video was shown May 30 as 55 students were inducted into the school's Rabbi Abraham Wahrhaftig Chesed Society. Formally dedicated last year, the society celebrates community service in memory of Wahrhaftig, who served as principal of the school from 2004 to 2005 and died at the age of 60 shortly after the end of that school year following a battle with cancer.
Some 250 people attended the induction ceremony, including Wahrhaftig's widow, Joyce, and his two children. 2006 marked the inaugural year for the society.
"If my father were here, and I feel like he is, he'd be honored to be in the room with you," said his son, Yaacov Wahrhaftig, in remarks during the ceremony. "I can only imagine the sacrifice that you guys have done, the hard work, and the true ahava [love] of Judaism and fellow men to do all these hours of hesed."
Three students — Rebecca Rubenstein, Jessica Blank, and Avi Scher — spoke about their commitment to community service projects, one from each of three levels of community service identified according to number of hours completed.
Avi, a senior inducted into the highest of the three levels, offered a well-known teaching by 16th-century kabalist Rabbi Isaac Luria. Luria taught that certain vessels were filled with the light of God, but the vessels could not contain the light and shattered.
The 17-year-old explained the lesson.
"Each and every time we help another person — each individual act of hesed allows us to play a part in physically repairing the shattered shards of creation," Avi said. "Tikun olam is not about ending world hunger or finding a cure for disease; it is not an unattainable goal that we simply dream about our entire lives. Tikun olam is about helping to reconstruct the world in the most simple and everyday actions."
Avi put in over 600 volunteer hours this year; he and his friend Ben Maas together joined the Volunteer First Aid Squad in West Orange.
"It's a way to give back to people," Ben told NJ Jewish News. "And it's something I can do at this moment in my life. Once I started, I needed to keep going back because it makes such an impact on people."
Other students participated in projects like the Friendship Circle, helping families who have children with special needs, and Care One, a senior facility in Livingston.
Barbara Listhaus, a psychology teacher at the school as well as mother of inductee Jessica Listhaus, said creating the society was her own labor of love. She said she had known Wahrhaftig since she was nine, when he was a teacher at her camp. "Throughout the time I knew him, he embodied the characteristics of kindness, giving to others, and he always acted in a very gentle and approachable manner," she said.
Barbara Listhaus, center, with inductees Avi Scher, left, and Ben Maas,
created the Rabbi Abraham Wahrhaftig Chesed Society to honor the memory
of the former Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School principal. Photos by Johanna Ginsberg
All rights reserved