On Sunday, February 23, the 76-year-old Jewish Family Service of Clifton-Passaic (JFS) held its 10th Annual Breakfast at the Hasbrouck Heights Hilton. Over 500 community members enjoyed the scrumptious fare served by Kenny Lowy’s Premier Caterers at the upscale facility. Moreover, there was much schmoozing and celebration of the Clifton-Passaic Jewish community and its premier unifying institution.

Ozer Herzog, JFS executive director, explained to The Jewish Link about the exponential growth of JFS. In 1991, when his predecessor, Esther East, took the helm of the organization, there were only five staffers (some part-time). When she retired four years ago, there were 50 staffers and a $4.5 million budget. Today, there are 60 staffers and an over $6 million budget.

Last year JFS of Clifton-Passaic provided 630 clients with therapy, 300 families with help from the food co-op, 130 domestic abuse survivors with support, 100 caregivers with support, 90 families with case management, 60 people with job placement, 50 seniors with day activities, and 25 Holocaust survivors with help.

Passaic Mayor Hector Lora, who attends the JFS breakfast every year, told The Jewish Link: “JFS provides for families in a vulnerable state and need. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have JFS, but thank God we do, to help serve our community members.” Lora, a Dominican American, is a devout Christian who feels a special connection to the Jewish community due to his Sephardic maternal grandfather.

The annual breakfast is a major fundraiser for JFS and shows the diversity of the Jewish community’s support. This is exemplified by the seating arrangements: mixed gender seating and also separate men’s and women’s seating.

The program began with the breakfast co-chair, Yaacov Brisman, giving Joan Gottlieb the Lifetime Service Recognition Award. Brisman told The Jewish Link that Gottlieb spent decades as a JFS board member, was president of the board, and was integral in guiding JFS as it underwent significant expansion and moved to its own facility, first on Allwood Road, and now on Main Avenue in Passaic. Even though she now lives further away, she has still maintained her connection to and involvement with the local Jewish community.

Assemblyman Gary and Donna Schaer were the guests of honor at the breakfast. Gary Schaer has represented New Jersey’s 36th District in the Assembly (parts of Passaic and Bergen Counties) for almost 20 years and was deputy speaker for almost a decade. Additionally, he has served on the Passaic City Council for almost three decades, currently as City Council president. As Herzog said: “Assemblyman Schaer has been an invaluable resource for JFS. He has either directly or indirectly advocated for the $2 million in annual federal, state, county and municipal grants we receive every year. Gary has helped connect us to key political leaders on all levels and his staff are always available to help our clients access government services.”

Mordechai and Rivka Golombeck received the Kesser Shem Tov Award, and Yitzy and Dassy Buchler received the Somaich Achim Award. Yitzy Buchler told
The Jewish Link that he wholeheartedly supports JFS because it is the most important institution in the kehilla due to the multiple services it offers our community.

Brisman has served on the JFS board for the past 15 years and has co-chaired the majority of the fundraising breakfasts. He told The Jewish Link that it is very rewarding to be part of an organization that provides so many essential services to people in need. Additionally, he said he admires the leadership of Ozer Herzog, who always finds unmet needs in the community that JFS can fill.

Herzog remarked that he appreciates all that his predecessor, Esther East, did to make the agency thrive. His own goals have been to elevate the clinical caliber of the agency by offering top-notch treatment that is affordable, but does not compromise on the quality of care. He has also made JFS more “charedi-friendly” (by frequent consultations with all the community’s rabbonim and yeshiva menahalim.)

Post-COVID, some JFS of Clifton-Passaic services now go beyond any specific catchment area in New Jersey. Psychiatric services and psychotherapy are now available statewide from the agency due to telehealth restrictions being removed. Additionally, Project Sarah (domestic violence and sexual abuse in the Jewish community) serves the entire Garden State.

Herzog is very proud of “the work we do helping the broader, mostly Hispanic, community in Clifton-Passaic. Thirty percent of JFS clients are not Jewish and we help them through casework, therapy and the HVDV group (Hispanic Victims of Domestic Violence.)”

Herzog concluded that his future goals are to continue to offer an ever-expanding array of mental health services while continuing to attract and retain the agency’s high-caliber clinical staff.

Jackie Akiva, who attends the JFS breakfast every year, said that she appreciates the institutional memory the organization has and how they honor someone who has been involved for decades in the past even though the Jewish communal demographics have changed.