Shifra and Larry Shafier are the honorees at this year’s Congregation Beth Aaron Annual Dinner, and Yacha and Mo-b Singer are the Shelly Leffel Service Awardees. The dinner will be held on Sunday evening, March 6, at 5, at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck.
Shifra and Larry Shafier joined Beth Aaron 26 years ago when they moved to Teaneck. Larry grew up in Kew Gardens Hills and Shifra in Philadelphia, and they started their married life in Forest Hills, Queens, before choosing Teaneck as the community in which to settle and raise their family. The Shafiers felt that Teaneck had a strong Modern Orthodox community, with many choices of shuls and schools.
Larry, an insurance, retirement and financial planner, has found time to give to Congregation Beth Aaron and the community in many ways. He has served as membership chair, vice president, and president of Beth Aaron. He has worked tirelessly to enrich the tefillah in the shul and was instrumental in getting the Yamim Noraim vatikin minyan off the ground. Larry arranges the “playlists” for hakafot, filling the shul with ruach on Simchat Torah. Larry always has a listening ear, sound advice (only when asked for), and a warm, welcoming smile for all. In his unassuming way, he is a role model for dedication to kavod beit haknesset, limud Torah, harbatzat Torah, and support and love for Israel.
Shifra, a beloved teacher at SAR Academy in Riverdale, helped revive the Beth Aaron Sisterhood (along with Faige Leidner and Aggie Siletski). Shifra loves learning, provides hachnasat orchim to guests, and always supports Larry in his efforts on behalf of the kehilla. Shifra has been involved in many communal charitable causes. She has run in the Miami Marathon to raise funds for Chai Lifeline, has served on the TABC education committee, has mentored new teachers at SAR and has taught yoga at Beth Aaron. She stands alongside her husband in support of Beth Aaron and the Jewish community at large, both here and in Israel.
Both Larry and Shifra have been involved with other local organizations, such as Emunah, Sinai, Lamdeinu and TABC. They love the warmth and easygoing nature of the heterogeneous Beth Aaron community, as well as the values, priorities and strong commitment to religion that permeates the shul. Their children have learned much from their remarkable parents and their accepting and respectful natures. The Shafier children have given their parents much to be proud of: Shalom Tzvi, his wife, Esther, and their son Nechemiah Shiloh live in Alon Shvut; Mordechai is in the YU smicha program; Netanel and Nissana live in Teaneck; Dovi is graduating YU this year; and Ahuva is studying at Migdal Oz in Israel.
Yacha and Mo-b Singer both are fun, dedicated, and hardworking individuals who give of their time and talents to the shul and to the community at large on a daily basis. When something goes wrong or there is a problem to solve, the answer is “Ask Mo-b!” Apart from Yacha’s own efforts on behalf of our kehilla, she deserves hakarat hatov for the amount of time she allows Mo-b to be away from the family and busy with the shul.
Moishe B. (fondly referred to as Mo-b) Singer grew up in Philadelphia, Edison and Passaic. Yacha grew up in Elizabeth and Passaic. They met working at a day camp in Clifton and were both involved in NCSY—Yacha as a regional and chapter advisor, and Mo-b as a chapter advisor, as well as administrator for Junior NCSY. In 2001, they married and moved to the apartments in Teaneck. They moved to their current home on Edgemont Place in 2006, where they live with their daughter Kayla-Rachel Michal and son Eliyahu Levi (Eli-L). Both children attend Yeshivat Noam.
Mo-b, an avid hockey fan (let’s go, Flyers!) and lover of fine Madison, Wisconsin, fresh-roasted coffee, is a healthcare administrator who is double-boarded as a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Administrators and as a certified medical practice executive by the Medical Group Management Association. Mo-b works for Hackensack University Medical Center, but that is only what he does for a living! What else does Mo-b do? Really, what doesn’t Mo-b do? He is a certified EMT as well as a life member and former board member of the Central Park Medical Unit in New York City. He serves on the board of the Rinat Chaim Gemach which supplies medical equipment to those in need. He is a past president of Congregation Ahavat Shalom in Teaneck and is very active in Anshei Edgemont.
Mo-b is great with computers (that is why everyone calls him for their personal tech problems!). He puts his skills and creativity to use as a volunteer webmaster for more than a dozen non-profit organizations and has done much pro-bono consulting to help nonprofits understand how to use technology toward their mission without breaking the bank. Mo-b must get extra hours in his day to do all that he does to help others!
Baruch Hashem, the shul has been the lucky recipient of Mo-b’s skills and chesed. He served on the board from 2007 to 2011, has been the shul’s webmaster since 2006, headed the young members committee from 2007 to 2011, served as teen youth chair from 2008 to 2015, has served on the dinner committee since 2008, has assisted with the Yamim Noraim seats and Purim mishloach manot since 2008, has served on the men’s club board since 2009, and has served as its president since 2010. Mo-b has been a member of the seudah shlishit committee since 2009 and has served as the shul’s board secretary since 2012. Mo-b co-founded the Yamim Noraim vatikin minyan and has been its gabbai since its inception in 2012.
Yacha started her relationship with Beth Aaron as the shul’s Junior NCSY Advisor from 2002 to 2006—including the great year of 2003 when she led an extremely capable group of pre-teens to win the coveted Chapter of the Year Award! She has served on the mishloach manot committee since 2008, and was sisterhood co-president in 2011 and president in 2012. Yacha is very quiet about what she does and is often behind the scenes setting up for events, preparing for Mo-b’s events and holding down the fort at home so that her husband can be out helping everyone else. Yacha is always busy with the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim, inviting new families to their home and welcoming them to the shul. Though Yacha also sells Tupperware, her full-time job is as an early childhood educator at Yeshivat Noam. She has degrees in both early childhood education and special education, and she uses her natural nurturing skills, fun-loving personality and creative ideas to help the children learn and grow in a happy, safe and enriched environment. Yeshivat Noam is lucky to have her!
Congregation Beth Aaron is located at 950 Queen Anne Road in Teaneck.
