City jail’s Jewish Cons Host Rabbinical Students

NEWARK, NJ — For the first time since his bar mitzva, Charlie Smith, an inmate at Northern State Prison in Newark, put on tefillin on July 1.

“It was very special,” he told NJJN in an interview afterward. “I felt something I haven’t felt in years — a deeper connection to my faith and my heritage I haven’t felt in a long time.”

Rabbinical student Chaim Gurary, 21, from Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood guided him through wrapping the straps, reciting the blessing, and concluding with the Sh’ma.

“Every Jew is very precious, no matter what situation he’s in,” said Gurary, prior to his meeting with Smith. “I feel it is even more important for a person in prison because he needs extra courage. Because he’s in a situation that’s not so comfortable, he needs more than the regular person on the street. He needs to know someone cares for him, someone is looking after him.”

Northern State Prison was just one stop on a summer tour of prisons for Gurary and fellow rabbinical student Chaim Kohn, 20. The two young men have teamed up to visit 22 Jewish inmates in eight New Jersey prisons over five days. They are part of an army of 424 yeshiva students visiting 3,700 Jewish inmates in 350-400 prisons across the country this summer, dispatched by the Aleph Institute, a branch of Chabad Lubavitch.

The hasidic outreach movement has conducted the summer visits for at least eight years in Florida, where Aleph is headquartered, and three years on a national basis.

The project has several goals, according to coordinator Rabbi Yossi Stern, who works out of Aleph’s Miami office.

“We send rabbinical students to go and inspire them, to speak with the inmates, and see what they need. Some facilities give them a hard time with kosher food or tefillin. The students touch base and see how they’re being treated,” he said. “Some prison chaplains are nice, some prison chaplains are not so nice; at some prisons it’s easy to be Jewish; at some prisons it’s not so easy.”

For the inmates at Northern State Prison, the July 1 meeting was a rare visit from someone representing the Jewish faith.

On this particular day, four inmates dressed in prison-issue brown shirts, brown pants, and work boots were waiting for the black-hatted rabbinical students in a room of gray cement block walls, gray linoleum, and gray plastic chairs, known as the chapel.

Three of the inmates wore kipot, either white or black, the satin kind one might find in a synagogue or funeral home lobby. One, Morey Marcus, originally from Irvington, sported tattoos on his arms and wore a silver star of David medallion around his neck.

There are seven Jewish inmates at Northern State prison, out of a population of 2,784, according to Matt Schuman, public information officer for the New Jersey Department of Corrections.

Inside the chapel, the students quietly asked inmates if they had all that they needed. The inmates replied that they hadn’t had a visit from a rabbi in over a year, and that without a rabbi it was difficult to conduct religious services the prison has scheduled for them on Tuesdays. Holidays “come and go as if they don’t exist,” said Marcus.

Asked if they had access to prayer shawls, grape juice, or hallah for Shabbat, they answered no. At least two of the inmates are in regular contact with Aleph and have many of their reading materials in their cell blocks.

A rabbi had been on volunteer duty at the prison, but did not make timely visits. “A replacement is actively being sought,” according to Schuman. In the meantime, he said, “Jewish inmates will continue to meet under prison staff supervision.”

Marcus, who spent more than 20 years in a facility in Trenton before being moved to Northern State, said he enjoyed the regular visits and text study provided by a variety of rabbis there.

Cecille Asekoff, director of the Joint Chaplaincy Committee of MetroWest, confirmed that no local Jewish chaplain is assigned to the prison, nor has any ever been requested to come in. She pointed out that nationally, there are Jewish chaplains appointed to serve prisons.

“We would be happy to supply certified professionally trained chaplains in a collaborative effort to provide the most professional chaplains available,” she said. Prison chaplains are certified and have completed over 1,600 hours of training.

The rabbinical students sent by Aleph receive a brief orientation of half an hour to an hour, according to Rabbi Stern. They acknowledged that sometimes the visits can be difficult.

“It puts the beliefs we learn about in books to the test. It’s easy to read about how a neshama (soul) remains unchanged no matter its past. But when you have to meet someone you know is guilty of certain things, but you still have to cater to that neshama, it’s an exercise and helps for the future,” said Kohn. “Once you come in contact with them and witness their thirst for change, you realize their neshama is there and not harmed.”

Despite some awkward moments during the visit, the inmates said focusing on Judaism and using the Aleph materials helps them get through their time behind bars.

Marcus celebrated an adult bar mitzva during his time in Trenton and enjoyed studying Torah passages there.

“It helps me get through the day,” he said, referring to his faith. “My temper was real bad. This helps me calm myself down and put my focus somewhere else to get through this place.”