Chabad Jewish Center Gaining Strength

MOUNT OLIVE TWP, NJ – With interest growing and a core group returning, the Chabad Jewish Center in Flanders is establishing a strong foundation for its future.

More people in Mount Olive and nearby communities have been participating in the Jewish holiday services and Hebrew school run by the local Chabad Center.

“They keep coming back,” said Rabbi Yaacov Shusterman, director of the Chabad Jewish Center in Flanders. “That’s very important. For every organization you need a core that will act like the foundation. It’s a strong foundation that builds a community.”

In its third year, the Jewish center attracted its largest crowd of about 80 people in September during the High Holiday services of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur held at the Flanders Crossing Recreation Center. The largest crowd in previous years was 40 participants, said Shusterman.

The Chabad’s Hebrew school has more than tripled in size this year. What started out as two students attending in 2004, has now grown to 17 students with even more planning to enroll, said Shusterman.

Instead of one class, the school now offers three classes for the different age groups. Children 6-11 years old from Flanders, Succasunna, Long Valley and Hackettstown attend at the Flanders Valley Country Day School in Flanders.

Strong Foundation

In previous years, people would just come and go, but that has changed, the rabbi said.

“With people coming and going you don’t build a lasting foundation,” he said. “With people continuously coming back, you’re able to have an impact on their Jewish life.”

It was tough in the beginning to continue the Hebrew school program with little interest from the local Jewish community, but Shusterman said he decided to keep trying to attract more people through advertising and word of mouth.

“Everything starts with one or two kids,” he said. “Nothing’s going to start big. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

He said it was important to not turn away a child who wants to learn.

“If a child wants a Jewish education, you have to give it to them,” he said.

Shusterman, and his wife, Fraida, who also teaches at the Hebrew school, keep the children’s interest through hands-on-activities that bring traditional Judaism to life that make it more meaningful to the children, rather than just lecturing about it.

“It’s a living day to day experience, “ said Shusterman.

Rather than just teaching history or theory, “we try to make it more practical to encourage them to do extra mitzvas (commandments of the Torah) here and there.”

To keep them interested at the holiday services, Shusterman provided prayer books that can be read in Hebrew or English so everyone could understand the prayers. He also filled the gaps with stories.

“I like to interject with different stories and I explain what the prayers mean and who created them,” he said. “I give the inside to holidays to give it more meaning to them.”

Mrs. Shusterman will be holding a “Back to Hebrew School” class for women from 8 to 9 p.m., Wednesdays. Women will learn Hebrew reading, the Jewish calendar and Jewish life cycle. There is no cost to participate.

For Hanukkah, The Chabad Jewish Center will host its second annual “Hanukkah on Ice” at the Chill Out Sports Arena in Hackettstown. Participants will be invited to skate around an ice-menorah from 3 to 5 p.m., on Sunday, Dec. 9. Last year 80 people showed. Shusterman said he hopes even more may attend this year.

“It’s inch by inch,” he said. “It’s day by day. It’s a long journey. Slowly, slowly they become more interested; that’s our goal. We’re slowly creating a core foundation to learn together.”

“Now a day, especially in America, the assimilation rate is so high,” he said. “All we need is just a little mitzva, a little connection. It’s so important that Jews don’t forget who we are and the responsibilities we have to fulfill. One mitzva leads to another mitzva.”

The Chabad Jewish Center is a non-profit organization aimed at building a strong united Jewish presence in Mount Olive and Washington townships as well as Warren County. Chabad is an international Jewish Outreach program of the Lubavitch religious sect, based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY.