For most people, Mother’s Day is the annual holiday set aside to honor the women who raised them.
But, for Ariella Noveck-Hillelsohn of Teaneck the Israel Day on 5th parade is something of a “national holiday” because her late mother, Elana Sasto, was on the committee that organized the parade up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, which this year drew 50,000 marchers.
“In my heart my Mother’s Day is the day we celebrate us as a people, as a nation,” said Noveck-Hillelsohn. “But most of all for me it is a day for keeping my mother’s legacy alive.”
Noveck-Hillelsohn grew up in a Zionist household in East Brunswick and attended Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison, where her mother served as PTA president and on the dinner committee and was the coordinator of the school’s presence at the parade. She later attended the former Moshe Aaron Yeshiva High School in South River.
Her cardiologist father, Dr. Howard Noveck, still lives there, but unfortunately her mother died about two years ago, leaving a void in Noveck-Hillelsohn’s life that she helps to fill with staunch advocacy for Israel.
“My mother said we’re going to march in the front of the parade, not in the back with the garbage trucks,” said Noveck-Hillelsohn, who this year rode on the float of the UJA-Federation of New York.
She is co-founder and media strategist for Bottom Line Media, which equips media professionals with real-time, factual and balanced reporting tools. It is there that she has continued her mother’s lifelong advocacy for Israel. She has taken delegations of journalists to Israel and ensured they have accurate information, including overseeing an AI bot that only provides accurate and fair information about Israel and the Jewish community.
Noveck-Hillelsohn’s family came to their unwavering Zionism through life experience. Her mother grew up in South Africa, which she said, “was wonderful until it wasn’t.”
Fearing another Holocaust, her grandparents, Dr. Ralph and Shirely Sasto, fled to the U.S. leaving all their valuables behind. Her grandfather had to retake his medical boards at age 56 in order to practice. They instilled a love of Israel and Judaism in their children, passed down through generations. Both are still alive and living in Great Neck, her grandmother at 89 and her grandfather a remarkable 103 years old.
Noveck-Hillelsohn recalled that as she grew up, her mother made sure her daughter understood the importance of Israel to the Jewish people, insisting she learn Hebrew. Those lessons have guided Noveck-Hillelsohn and taught her the necessity of passing them down.
“My mother showed me the importance of strength and being unified dor v’ dor, from generation to generation,” she said. “My mother taught me the importance of standing up for myself.”
That is a lesson she and her husband, Joel Hillelsohn, are passing on to their three children.
“My mother taught me the importance of being part of a people and investing in our future,” said Noveck-Hillelsohn. “I only wish she could have stood beside me when walking yesterday. I want to encourage all to come next year, but don’t just wait until next year. It’s not about being the loudest, but being the proudest.”
Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.
