Your March 14 issue featured an excellent, in-depth article about Rabbi Benjamin and Shevi Yudin (“Rabbi Benjamin and Shevi Yudin Celebrate 50 Years in Fair Lawn,” March 13, 2019), an extraordinary couple who have made a major impact on the Fair Lawn Jewish community. The author explained that the Yudins were invited in 1969 “by the 17-family Jewish community” to spend a Shabbat in Fair Lawn. This statement makes it seem that there were then only 17 Jewish families in Fair Lawn, which is far from the truth.

I grew up in Fair Lawn in the 1950s and 1960s. I attended Yavneh Academy, which was then located in Paterson (class of 1963) and then went to Fair Lawn High School (class of 1967). During this period, Fair Lawn had a vibrant Jewish community, of which my family and I were active members. There were three Conservative synagogues and one Reform temple, and it was this Jewish community that laid the groundwork for the birth and growth of the Orthodox Jewish community in Fair Lawn.

In sum, the group of 17 families who looked for a weekend rabbi in 1969 comprised a very small part of the Fair Lawn Jewish community.