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 kidnapped Israeli soldiers to the historic appointment of a woman rabbi at an 800-member synagogue in Marlboro.

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.

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.

A donation of $16,000 raised at the Monmouth-Ocean Celebrates Israel festival in May aided an Israeli effort to provide spiritual care for the surviving families of Israeli terror victims. The donation enabled the Temmy and Albert Latner Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma at Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem to provide additional workshops on coping with loss and building resilience, and to work with the Koby Mandell Foundation in bringing together psychologists and social workers who have been specifically trained in trauma intervention.

At Monmouth University in West Long Branch, an Israeli and a Palestinian served as Fulbright Scholars-in-Residence for the 2007 spring semester. Israeli psychologist Dan Bar-On and Palestinian educator Sami Adwan, who serve as codirectors of the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East, lent their knowledge and expertise to the university's global education curriculum.

The Consulate General of Israel in New York partnered with an American relief organization for Palestinian children, the Egyptian government, and a New Jersey congressman to bring a severely wounded child from Gaza to Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch for treatment. Adham Ghalia, 10, underwent extensive surgery for injuries suffered in June 2006 when Israeli artillery shells landed on a beach in Gaza.

The Marlboro Jewish Center-Congregation Ohev Shalom became the largest Conservative congregation in the world to have a female rabbi as its religious leader. Rabbi Toni Shy assumed the leadership of the 800-member congregation on Aug. 1. "I'm honored to hold the distinction of being the first female rabbi to lead a congregation of this size," Shy told NJ Jewish News. "But it's also a great honor to be the rabbi of this particular synagogue, which has a reputation of playing a leadership role in Monmouth County and within the Jewish world. I hope to maintain and increase that role."

Shy's appointment was a happy ending to a difficult year for the synagogue, whose previous full-time rabbi pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May to five years in prison for raiding his discretionary funds for personal expenses.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County established separate campaign "cabinets" in the eastern and western regions of the county in an effort to create more donor excitement for its annual campaign and to familiarize the Jewish population in each area on where and how the philanthropy spends the money it raises on behalf of Israel and local Jewish causes.

The newly formed Hebrew Free Loan Society of New Jersey opened an office in Monmouth as part of a partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County, which offered matching funds for its operation. With a dedicated staff person, Jewish Family & Children's Service of Greater Monmouth County will screen and process all prospective applicants for the interest-free loans, offered in a long tradition of Jewish support for struggling families, new businesses, and people in need of short-term relief.

In August, more than 225 Jewish teens from Israel, North America, and Ukraine took part in the 2007 JCC Maccabi ArtsFest, a celebration of the performing and visual arts held at the Ruth Hyman Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth in Deal.

Rabbi Michael Goldstein became the new religious leader of Temple Beth Torah in Ocean Township. Goldstein succeeded Rabbi David Booth, who returned to his native California in 2006.

On the eve of leading a trade mission to Israel in mid-April, Gov. Jon Corzine suffered severe injuries in a chain-reaction traffic accident on the Garden State Parkway. Corzine will reportedly reschedule his mission to Israel as soon as he is able to travel. The focus of the mission will be to promote trade among businesspeople in New Jersey and Israel — particularly in the areas of biotechnology and stem cell research.

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.

Rutgers Hillel purchased property on Rutgers University's College Avenue campus in New Brunswick for its proposed new 35,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Jewish student center. The site is at the intersection of George Street and Bishop Place, overlooking the Raritan River.

New Jersey had 244 anti-Semitic incidents in 2006, down from 266 in 2005. The Anti-Defamation League annual audit, released in March, reported 1,554 incidents against Jewish individuals or community institutions in the United States, a 12 percent drop from the 1,757 reported in 2005.

An unprecedented daylong conference, New Jersey Unites Against Hate, took place at the State House Annex in Trenton under the auspices of the Office of the Attorney General.

Mark Weitzman, director of the Task Force Against Hate and Terrorism and the associate director for education at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's New York City branch, was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual colloquium of The Center for Holocaust Studies at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft on May 9.