Yaniv Rosenfeld, 22, of Rosh HaAyin is the area’s first post-army shaliah dedicated full-time to a single synagogue — Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills.
Rishonim in MetroWest
THIS YEAR’S Rishonim are Bar Nitzan from Rishon Letzion, who is working with White Meadow Temple in Rockaway, the Bohrer-Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph, and Israeli Scouts of Fair Lawn; Nadav Kalderon, also from Rishon Letzion, Temple Sha’arey Shalom in Springfield, Temple Shalom of Succasunna, Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union lower school in West Orange, JCC MetroWest’s seniors’ group, kids’ club, and Israeli Scouts; Maya Szabo of Ra’anana, Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, SSDS upper school, Israeli Scouts, and Central Hebrew High School; and Racheli Ben Shimol of Ofakim, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob & David in West Orange, Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston, Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center early childhood center in Livingston, Adath Shalom religious school in Parsippany, and JCC MetroWest’s special needs group and kids’ club.
November 13, 2008
Yaniv Rosenfeld, 22, dressed casually in jeans and a white oxford shirt, gathers a group of eight ninth-graders in a small classroom on a recent Monday night. Most of the teens put their water bottles down to hear what he has to say about suicide bombings in Israel. “What is a terrorist?” he asks them, starting off the discussion. They know he speaks from experience when he tells them, “Every person in Israel knows at least one person who died either in a war or in a terror attack.”
He describes his own close call. As a teen, he was traveling to Tel Aviv to get his eyebrow pierced when a terror attack took place — involving the bus that was just behind the one he had been on. “When I left the shop, I looked at my cell phone and I had 40 messages. Everyone knew I was taking that bus,” he says. Then he begins showing photos on his iMac of terror attack perpetrators and victims.
Rosenfeld is from Rosh HaAyin, near Petach Tikvah in central Israel; he is young, enthusiastic, and the area’s first post-army shaliah, or emissary, assigned to a single synagogue. He is three months into a year-long stint at Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills.
Rosenfeld joins four younger peers, all 18, serving as this year’s Rishonim shlihim. Post-high school but pre-army, they will rotate through a variety of schools, synagogues, and organizations, sharing their love for Israel and living with a series of local families throughout the year, as their predecessors have done since the program began in 2003-04.
All five shlihim work within the local community under the auspices of the Legow Family Israel Program Center of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. While the IPC office at the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany serves as home base for the Rishonim, Rosenfeld’s home base is his office at B’nai Jeshurun, where he is considered part of the professional team; he does spend Thursdays at the IPC.
Part of the team
Rosenfeld may have come to New Jersey for the opportunity to impart to others his love for Israel, but New Jersey is already having a profound impact on Rosenfeld. In Israel, he said, Judaism “is a big part of my identity, but I take it for granted.” That’s something he found he can’t do here. “I’ve been meeting people who are not Jewish who tell me about the wonders of Jesus Christ. Suddenly, Judaism seems a lot more important.”
He also discovered the importance of ritual when the surrounding world takes no interest. “I haven’t fasted on Yom Kippur in at least four to five years,” he told NJJN — until this year. “If I don’t fast in Israel, my friends call me a heretic. But here, it’s a normal day. I wanted to take something from Israel, where everything is closed.” So he decided to refrain from eating.
The sixth group of Rishonim from Israel, brought to MetroWest in August through the Legow Family Israel Program Center, are, from left, Bar Nitzan, Nadav Kalderon, Maya Szabo, and Racheli Ben Shimol. All are 18 and will begin their army service when they return to Israel.
Rosenfeld’s addition to the B’nai Jeshurun staff this year marks a step in that synagogue’s reinvigorated embrace of Israel since Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz took the helm. “When I got here, it felt like Israel was on the agenda, but not in a clear, coherent fashion,” Gewirtz told NJJN. The rabbi began leading trips to Israel, the education team began bringing Israel programming to the students, and the synagogue brought one of the Rishonim to lead programs there during the 2007-08 year. But Gewirtz wanted more. “It was like an intermittent connection,” he said. “Now we have Israel here all year long. Yaniv is part of our team.”
A happy coincidence led to Rosenfeld’s posting. As Gewirtz was considering how to intensify the congregation’s commitment to Israel, Rosenfeld’s father, a longtime friend of Gewirtz, suggested his son come as shaliah for a year. The details didn’t take long to work out. The rabbi arranged for congregant Jeff Cohen and his family to host Rosenfeld for the year, and the IPC agreed to provide logistical, educational, financial, and institutional support.
Now, three months into the year, Gewirtz said, “Israel is becoming beloved at the congregation. Between the trips and the education and having Yaniv, these are the subtle and overt ways of saying Israel is a central part of who we should be as a congregation.”
--TOP--
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
