Area mourns Jerry Waldor, known to many as ‘Mr. UJA’

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

Jerome Waldor, a leading benefactor of the MetroWest Jewish community who served on myriad boards and committees and was president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey from 1990 to 1993, died Sept. 2 at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, after a long illness.

He was 77 years old, just three weeks away from his 78th birthday.

A long-term resident of South Orange, he was a member of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, where his funeral was held Sept. 4, and hundreds of people came to pay their respects. A long line formed outside the synagogue; inside, by the time the service began, the sanctuary was nearly full. There were childhood friends, business associates, military personnel, and those who knew him through his charitable work for the Jewish community. Signature books had to be closed before the service due to the large number of people; when they were reopened after the service, the pages ran out before all the people who wished to offer their condolences had had a chance to sign.

Waldor’s wife, Rita, commented in her eulogy on the idea in Jewish folklore that there are, at any time, 36 righteous people on earth. “I am sure I am married to one of them,” she said.

A Newark native and graduate of Weequahic High School, Waldor received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point and a commission in the Air Force, retiring from the reserves in 1987 as a major general.

Since 1959, he was chief executive officer of what is now the Waldor Insurance Agency in Florham Park.

Community leaders described his death as an irreplaceable loss.

“To me, Jerry has always been Mr. UJA,” said Kenneth R. Heyman of Short Hills, the current president of UJC MetroWest. “I always considered him a role model, not just for his [financial] commitment to the community but for the time he committed. He was there at all the meetings and always the person we would go to get feedback from. When I was rising up in the federation, I could always say, ‘This is somebody we should all aspire to be like.’”

In addition to UJC MetroWest, Waldor was active as a board member at a host of institutions, including the Jewish Community Housing Corporation, the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, the New Jersey Y Camps, and the American Jewish Committee.

He was founding chair of the William and Betty Lester Society, whose members have helped endow the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest.

His family name adorns the Waldor Memorial Library on the Alex Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany.

Waldor was also an accomplished tennis player who won a silver medal in Israel’s Maccabiah and, well past his prime, ranked fifth place in the Eastern Tennis Association.

Heyman’s predecessors and colleagues in top leadership roles said they, too, were motivated by Waldor’s caring and commitment.

Waldor was “one of the most extraordinary individuals I’ve ever met, a renaissance man and great philanthropist and leader and motivator,” said Max Kleinman, executive vice president of UJC MetroWest. “He was the best fund-raiser I’ve ever met: He raised more money for UJA than anyone else I can think of and he was an ardent champion of our agencies and Israel. He was a problem-solver and a diplomat extraordinaire. He had an incalculable impact on our life here in MetroWest.”

Others praised his community-building skills.

Ellen Goldner of Maplewood, UJC MetroWest’s immediate past president, said Waldor “was always a leader everyone looked up to. He had a very positive outlook on life.”

In addition to his work in the Jewish community, Goldner said, Waldor took great satisfaction in his military service and his undergraduate years at the academy.

“He took a group of MetroWest leaders to West Point,” she recalled. “He brought us to the Jewish chapel and told us how proud he was of being there.”

A joyous man

Steven Klinghoffer, a Short Hills resident and another past president of MetroWest, said, “I’ve known Jerry just about all my life. I was always aware of him, and when I became involved with the community 25 years ago, I got to work with him.”

According to Klinghoffer, Waldor’s style was embodied in an all-purpose expression he learned in Israel.

“Jerry was challenged when it came to foreign languages, but he did pick up one word of Hebrew: ‘mitzuyan.’ It means ‘excellent.’ Whenever anybody asked Jerry how things were, he said ‘mitzuyan,’ and that reflected his outlook on life. Whether things were good or not so good, it was always ‘mitzuyan.’

“He was not a guy to complain. He was always very up, very up, and because of who he was he caused that kind of positive imprint in the entire community,” said Klinghoffer.

Lori Klinghoffer, current chair of the UJA Campaign, said, “Everyone is thrown for a loop” by Waldor’s death.

She said their association “dates back to when I was a little girl and he lived two doors down in West Orange. It is a long history. In my adult life he has been, not only for myself but for so many, a remarkable presence with his caring, his leadership, and his warmth. The void we have all suffered with his illness, which began last spring, has now come full circle, and it’s devastating.”

Judy May of Tewksbury, a close friend of Waldor and his wife, served as president of the United Jewish Federation of Morris and Sussex in 1983 and met him when her federation merged with others, forming what is now UJC MetroWest.

“Jerry totally and thoroughly believed in the Jewish people and the Jewish community,” she said. “He loved it, and he loved everyone. He was just a joyous man who loved what he was doing. He worked tirelessly. There was nobody like him. You couldn’t help but want to follow him. He was an amazing man. What a sad thing.

“He needed no accolades,” said May. “He did this because he loved this community. He wasn’t looking for a pat on the back. He was a modest, wonderful guy. What a loss!”

Waldor is survived by his wife, Rita; his sons and their wives, Matthew Waldor and Lori Olans, Marc Waldor and Nancy Long, and Peter Waldor and Jody Miller; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Robert Wiener can be reached at rwiener@njjewishnews.com.