A beloved Bergen County kiruv legend passed away on March 18 at his home after battling a three-month illness. Sam Kaplan of Teaneck launched the Jewish outreach movement in Bergen County in the mid-1980s at a time when there was a divide between the lesser and newly religious Jews and those who were born and raised in Torah-observant homes.

“Certainly we needed a bridge and it had to be done in a friendly way,” explained Zvi Weissler, a former volunteer of the Jewish Learning Experience of Bergen County (JLE) who has since made aliyah.

“There was a rift developing between the Orthodox and not-yet-Orthodox members of the community, particularly from the Orthodox side. This was a huge concern of Sam’s. He felt putting people in a non-threatening setting would open them up to each other,” said Aaron Mandelbaum, one of the co-founders of the JLE.

“Sam would have Orthodox people come to the programs for those (who were) not Orthodox. We had cookies, cake, soda, chips, just to have people mingle,” Mandelbaum added. “And they would mingle. Slowly, but surely, people invited the non-Orthodox to their homes on Shabbos. Sam’s concept was to bring people together. That’s how we developed.”

Jeff Glazer, another JLE co-founder, further explained the spark that ignited Kaplan’s passion for reaching out to lesser-observant Jews when Glazer and Kaplan attended a drasha on the importance of making aliyah.

“I was sitting on his left. He gave me a big elbow jab into my ribs. I told him it hurt. He told me, ‘We have to do something. If people make aliyah – all the teachers and rebbes and the people who know stuff – who’s going to teach people? We’ve gotta do something.’ He meant we needed to set up a program for people with limited backgrounds. Glazer said. “We all followed Sam. He was the force behind the whole movement. We gave him support as volunteers. The whole point was to offer classes and encourage people to come visit for Shabbos and enjoy a Shabbos meal, recruit the observant families to host the non-observant.”

Chana Weissler, also a former JLE volunteer along with her husband, explained the occasional challenge in asking Orthodox families to host non-religious Jews for Shabbat meals. “They would ask what will I talk about with them?” She reassured them they could speak about anything they would normally talk about. Some hosts were worried they may not know the answer to questions their guests might ask.

Ellen and Richard Gertler too spent years as volunteers with the JLE before making aliyah. They arranged Shabbat meals with local religious families, as well as hosted meals and had guests stay in their home overnight. Ellen said, “We really loved having all kinds of people. For the most part, these were really wonderful people.”

Kaplan developed a relationship with renowned kiruv authority Rabbi Noach Weinberg from Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. When Rabbi Weinberg flew into the area, Kaplan drove him to and from engagements. According to Glazer, Rabbi Weinberg told Kaplan, “You can bring in more people with a chicken than classes.” This further illustrated that merely opening up an Orthodox home to less observant strangers for a meal is an essential part of bringing them closer to Judaism and God.

Rabbi Michael Taubes of Congregation Zichron Mordechai in Teaneck, as well as at YU and MTA, was the first rabbinic director of the JLE when it became an official organization in 1986. “Sam came to observant Judaism as a young adult himself, not through any particular organization or group. I think he found it so beautiful, compelling and meaningful that he spent the rest of his life trying to share it with others. He was single-minded about this.”

“When he started at Montclair State College, as it was known at the time, he was connected with the rabbi on campus and he became inspired. I don’t know if he was looking for something or it fell into his lap,” said Ely Kaplan, one of Sam Kaplan’s five children. “He was invited for meals. After a while he began going to local Springfield families for meals. Our grandmother told our mother he started gaining weight suddenly as he enjoyed meals in other people’s homes. He was very into hakaros hatov (gratitude). He felt so grateful and thankful for people who brought him in and he couldn’t help but dedicate himself to do that for others.”

Rabbi Taubes added, “He sought every opportunity to mekarev others (help others become more observant). He looked for people in shul who looked like they didn’t fit in to welcome them. He radiated genuine warmth and concern and that spoke to people.”

“Sam said you have to have your radar on, you have to be able to talk to people, look for people wearing a shiny tallis or carrying their purse in shul. You have to go to them and ask if they need help and ask why they’re here. Your radar has to be on all the time,” Glazer recalled.

Rabbi David Pietruszka, rabbinic director of the JLE for nine years until 2016, relayed, “Many years ago I met with Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald of NJOP and I told him about the JLE and what I was doing there. He said, ‘In life when you want to accomplish something and you want to move forward with a project, you need someone who is meshuga’ la-davar (crazy passionate about a particular concept). That’s when you can have success and see the fruits of your labor.’”’

“Sam was crazy about figuring out ways for Jews to perform mitzvahs. He probably never went to sleep at night without thinking, What can I do for my fellow Jew? “I can’t imagine a single day where he didn’t think about what he could do for his fellow Jew,” added Rabbi Pietruszka. “Sam lived and breathed ahavas Yisrael (to love every Jew).”

“His passion was to bring people close to Hashem in a warm, loving, safe way,” said Garron Macklin, a current JLE board member. “Sam had a profound love for every Jewish person.”

Joy Sperber, another current JLE board member, recalled, “He’d always have a little story and he’d say, ‘Do you know how many people we’ve mekareved? We’ve mekareved over 10,000 people.’” He told Sperber the JLE once had as many as 150 people at a Shabbat meal and even had a trip to Israel.. “To Sam, Yiddishkeit was happiness, not to make it drudgery.”

Kaplan did not only rely on volunteers in the community to help in his mission. He had volunteers under his own roof.

“Marcia [Kaplan’s wife of 46 years] gets equal billing in the success of JLE. Devorah [Kaplan’s daughter] would mekarev friends from school, every one of the four boys were involved,” said Glazer. “Marcia was his biggest supporter; she was his equal partner.”

“Marcia was from the Bronx. Her parents were Orthodox. She grew up religious. She was very friendly, very warm,” said Zvi Weissler.

Ellen Gertler added, “Marcia came from a religious family, but she was very understanding of those less religious.”

“He couldn’t have done this without Marcia,” said Chana Weissler.

“My mom made things look so effortless,” Devorah Merriam, the Kaplan’s daughter, recalled about her mother’s overnight cooking sprees. “That’s when she did the best cooking. Between JLE or just having friends or families or my friends and siblings’ friends, I don’t really remember many Shabbos tables being just the seven of us.”

Merriam added, “My father did bring home people sometimes, one or two people who didn’t have a place to go. At Chabad, my father would seek out the people who needed a place. We had regulars who slept over because they didn’t live close. It didn’t feel burdensome, my mom didn’t make this feel stressful. This was just something that people do; you have guests.”

Ely Kaplan said, “She had a sweet disposition even if she didn’t sleep much.”

“Both of my parents were high energy,” explained Merriam.

Marcia Kaplan predeceased her husband by nine months when she passed away last June 2024. The Kaplans married in 1977 and moved into the apartments in Teaneck. They walked to Congregation Beth Aaron every Shabbat, along with many other members of the apartment community, maintaining their membership after they bought their home in 1980. Sam worked as an accountant and later as a chief financial officer. Marcia was a computer programmer.

Merriam said, “She was literally a genius. She had a high IQ.”

As technology advanced in the late 1990s, the JLE looked for ways to follow. “I needed a place for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I went on the Aish website and the JLE came up,” said Todd Mahoney, an active JLE participant since he came to Teaneck for college. “Ever since then with Sam Kaplan and everything, we were a fixture in Zvi and Chana’s home for years.” Mahoney, along with his brother David, both have gratitude for the JLE. “We were helped through the most difficult time of our life when we lost our mother [in 2023]. It’s been a huge, huge, huge blessing for my brother David and me. Sam and Marcia affected so many people.”

Pietruszka recalled a favorite story Kaplan told him about Cookie Gilchrist, a professional football player in the United States and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s. “Sam told me if you look on the back of his football cards where it lists his stats,it literally says none. Sam related to that so much because he had no background, no formal Jewish education, yet look at what he did with his life, look at what he accomplished.”

Hyam Singer and his wife were JLE participants in the 1980s who began attending daily prayer services at Beth Aaron where the Kaplans were members. “I remember he used to get up and learn before Shacharis (morning prayers) during the week. Sam was learning at 5 a.m. How could anybody do that?” It wasn’t until years later that Singer understood why someone was that motivated, “Then I started waking up early and learning with my son-in-law.”

One of Kaplan’s four sons, Yoel, recounted at his father’s funeral, “He never missed a chavrusa (study session) unless it was an extenuating circumstance, as his chavrusa Rav Meir [Hirsch] told us. For 35 years they learned together every morning from 5 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. They started the day with learning Torah. He was very proud that he was the one opening up the shul (synagogue) and turning on the lights. Just to be more specific, my father had a tremendous passion for learning halacha (Jewish law). So much so that he and Rav Hirsch engaged on a journey to try to finish all the sections of the Shulchan Aruch and I believe they’ve been working on it the entire time.”

Taubes said, “He was always looking to grow. He accomplished a tremendous amount with Meir Hirsch.”

“I wish I had the opportunity to know him for much longer and to learn from him,” said current JLE director Rabbi Jesse Shore. “It’s very clear he had an entrepreneurial mind. He had a way to advance and sustain an organization that I wish I had more time to be mentored in.”

“He was really about teaching people to get close to Hashem. Getting people to follow the teachings of Reb Noach Weinberg and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Those were his two rebbes. He always mentioned Reb Noach and the Rebbe,” said Macklin.

“He was never looking for honor or recognition. He did it L’shem Shamayim (for the sake of heaven with no ulterior motive or ego involved),” added Taubes.

Hirsch said, “In Pirkei Avos (Ethics of the Fathers) (it says):You can tell a person by how he drinks or his anger or how he spends his money. The point is your anger is taking over and you’re not thinking rationally. What you do (in that situation) is very telling about who you are and what’s your natural tendency. When Sam was in the hospital losing his capabilities, he was still inviting people over for meals; nurses, people he came across day-to-day in the hospital. That says a lot about his natural tendencies.”

Merriam added, “The staff didn’t even know what Shabbat was. He was so generous— even when he was in rehab, he asked how much cash we had on us so he could hand it out.”

Kaplan’s eldest son, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, who also works in outreach in Los Angeles, summarized his father’s impact at the funeral, “He was just extraordinarily obsessed with the mitzvot to the point where he became the defining character for that mitzvah of kavod Shabbos (honoring Shabbat).”

“You exuded so much positivity, Dad, that it’s hard to think about you and not be happy. Dad, your legacy is awesome. The blessing that you left in this world will forever be impactful. You are a gadol (great person) to me,” said Yoel Kaplan.

Although the source of fire of the JLE has passed on, the JLE is still a vibrant organization following the path Kaplan laid out himself. The four remaining board members, including Kaplan’s daughter, each share that same passion for their fellow Jew that he possessed, along with their energetic rabbinic director. They know exactly what Sam Kaplan would want the JLE to do to continue his mission.