The Highland Park/Edison Jewish community is preparing to bid farewell later this summer to well-regarded Jewish educator and youth leader Rabbi Shmulie Greene, his wife, Esther (a teacher at Yeshiva Shaarei Tzion in Edison and Piscataway) and their family, as they move to Israel where Rabbi Greene will take the role of director of strategic partnerships for the Hiburim/Beit Shean and Valley Association.

Greene worked most recently as the director of student outreach for the Tikvah Fund, based in New York City. Previously he worked as director of public school programming for NCSY in New Jersey, and as the director of teen initiatives for the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life in Whippany. In his new position in Israel, Greene will create and cultivate partnership opportunities between American Jews and the projects that Hiburim runs.

The Hiburim/Beit Shean and Valley Association is based in Northern Israel and was established in 2007. It encompasses two Hesder yeshivot (which combine intense preparation for army service with serious in-depth Torah study), one in Beit Shean and the other in Afula; a Marriage and Family Treatment and Guidance Center; an Identity Seminary that conducts Jewish educational programs in the area; an agricultural program that offers education and activities to work the land; and a youth club for troubled teens. For more information on Hiburim/Beit Shean and Valley Association, please see: https://hiburimbs.org/about-hiburim-eng/

Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County Editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected] and he welcomes feedback.