The New Jersey Jewish community entered 5767 still reeling from the Second Lebanon War, and continued to support Israel by raising funds and visiting the country to support its battered North and the beleaguered town of Sderot on the border with Gaza. But a number of local and global concerns also grabbed the attention of New Jersey's Jews, from intensified efforts to free three Israeli soldiers to a community's embrace of a family whose mother was stricken with cancer.

Below are just a sampling of some of the top stories of the year:

Two items dominated the local Jewish activist agenda in 5767: the crisis in Darfur and the continued captivity of three Israeli soldiers.

A June 16 rally at the United Nations' Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, which drew participants from around the state, was among the largest of many demonstrations of efforts to secure the release — or at least gain information about — the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped a year ago and another five Israelis missing in action.

In December, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey hosted a panel discussion involving community and political leaders, and in May, it successfully lobbied Trenton for support. That same month, at the Women's Campaign's Main Event, Ehud Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, was honored as a Woman of Valor. In July, Central federation sent busloads of supporters to rallies in Manhattan on the soldiers' behalf.

Following the lobbying efforts earlier this month by local Jewish community activists, resolutions calling for the release of the three soldiers are to be considered by both the New Jersey State Senate and Assembly. The Senate resolution was sponsored by Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Dist. 21).

"New Jersey is the first state in the country to make a move like this," said Felice Maranz, the federation's JCRC director. "We hope that others are going to follow this example."

The genocide in Darfur, where the predominately Arab Sudanese government continued to sponsor the slaughter and exile of black Sudanese, inspired outrage and action. In March, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) called for a ban on U.S. dollar transactions with those who do business with Sudan and travel to the country.

Jewish activists also mobilized to counter a call by a British academic union to boycott Israeli scholars. The heads of Drew, Princeton, Rutgers, and Seton Hall universities were among the 11 academic leaders in New Jersey to sign a full-page ad in The New York Times opposing the boycott. Kean University president Dawood Farahi also condemned the boycott call.

In July, Jewish community leaders welcomed the announcement by Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-Dist. 7) that he has overcome "the toughest hurdle" to get $200,000 in federal funding for the Natural Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC) program run by Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey.

After serving as Gov. Jon Corzine's chief counsel, then the state's attorney general, Stuart Rabner of Caldwell was appointed in June as chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Kenneth Zimmerman, executive director of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, was named chief counsel for Corzine.

In April, June Walker of Rockaway, former national president of Hadassah, became the chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which coordinates pro-Israel White House and foreign policy lobbying for the leaders of 50 Jewish organizations.

Steven Goldstein, the Teaneck rabbinical student who has led lobbying efforts to legalize gay and lesbian marriage in New Jersey, was named by Corzine as a member of the state's Civil Union Review Commission. The 13-member body will monitor the state law, enacted this year, that allows civil unions as an alternative to marriage for same-sex couples.

The Central federation joined a national effort to aid Sderot, the Israeli town reeling under the bombardment of Kassam rockets hurled by Palestinian militants in nearby Gaza.

National United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization that includes UJC MetroWest, and Jewish organizations worldwide have provided more than $220 million in funding through the Israel Emergency Campaign to aid Israelis affected by the Second Lebanon War. The Central federation also pledged $50,000 a year for each of the next three years to help cover the costs of repairing and fortifying a sports hall in Sderot that faced almost daily rocket fire, as well as $102,000 for Lev Echad (One Heart), a project designed to boost morale and provide for some of the acute needs that go unmet in Israeli towns like Sderot.

As arguments rage about the treatment of Israeli evacuees from Gaza and whether the Israeli government and the Diaspora community have provided them with appropriate help, the Central Jewish community has taken concrete steps to assist them.

UJC also approved a resolution, spearheaded by the Central federation in cooperation with leaders of other federations, to ensure that community leaders are fully informed about the needs of Gaza evacuees so that a concerted effort can be made to help them "restore their lives and their place in Israeli society as quickly as possible."

Yaniv Tayar, the first-ever Israeli emissary stationed with the Central federation, took up his post last September. His appointment, through the Jewish Agency for Israel with financing from the Herb Seidel 21st Century Fund, is intended to galvanize local awareness of Israeli culture and history.

In August, Israel's interior minister fired Moty Brill, the mayor of Arad, a town with close ties to the Central federation under the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 program. Brill had not succeeded in passing his 2007 municipal budget more than eight months into the year. The dismissal took effect even as Central federation officials were planning with their Israeli and American partners ways to strengthen the effectiveness of their support for Arad; they said that the firing would have no bearing on the partnership.

In March, the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey celebrated the 20th anniversary of its founding with a gala dinner honoring its past and present presidents, and the man who led it through those decades, executive director Richard Corman. Corman resigned in June to take up a new position in Manhattan. In July, his successor was named: Barak Hermann, the assistant executive director of JCC MetroWest, who will take up the position at the JCC in Scotch Plains in October.

The Conservative Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, with campuses in West Orange and Cranford, broke ground June 19 on a $4.5 million renovation funded largely by Eric F. Ross, a resident of South Orange and Boca Raton, Fla. And earlier in the year Joyce Raynor, principal of the upper school for 16 years, was appointed head of school.

Jewish Family Service of Central New Jersey opened a new satellite office in Scotch Plains, at 2253 South Ave., where it offers services for children with special needs, individual and family counseling, and adoption counseling.

The death in March of 42-year-old Rochelle Melville brought an end to the extraordinary circle of community support that had formed around her and her husband, Philip, and their four young children. According to Julie Singer, a family friend who headed up the support effort, around 300 people, many of whom didn't even know the Melvilles personally, joined forces to help them. Her cancer and death mobilized parents at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union lower school in Cranford, staff and leaders at the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, members of the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey, and congregants at the family's synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains.