Bergenfield—Five men who never wore tefillin now own pairs to use. A woman’s house has become kosher. Men have performed the mitzvah of Arba Minim for the first time. People have moved into frum communities and started sending their children to day schools. Countless others have learned the basics of kiddush and brachos, Shabbos and kashrus.
Jewish outreach, known in religious circles as kiruv, is not only about transferring expert knowledge, but also about presenting a friendly, welcoming face and an open hand to grasp, said Rabbi David Pietruszka, director of Bergen County’s Jewish Learning Experience (JLE).
“Kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh: Every Jew is responsible for every other Jew (Sanhedrin 27b and Shavuos 39a),” he said. “This is not optional. It is a mitzvah discussed in the Talmud,” Pietruszka explained.
To that end, Rabbi Pietruszka takes seriously his personal responsibility to make sure each person he knows has a Seder or Shabbos table to go to, Chanukah candles and all the basic trappings of yiddishkeit. “We have an obligation to educate klal yisroel however we can,” he said.
The JLE provides explanatory Yom Tov services, Shabbatons and other events such as Pesach sedarim and other festive yom tov meals for unaffiliated Jews in the region. In a round-robin fashion, at area shuls in Teaneck and Bergenfield, JLE runs events throughout the year, hosting approximately 250 people for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, 40 people for Sukkos and close to 60 for communal Pesach Seders. Sixty people attended JLE’s recent Purim megillah reading and 40 attended a festive Purim seudah.
As part of its general programming, the JLE also runs classes in basic Hebrew and customs and Jewish history, and special lectures and events related to Jewish holidays like Lag b’Omer, Chanukah and Purim. They also host special class series, such as “Body and Soul in Jewish Law.”
Rabbi Pietruszka operates JLE with a very small staff, primarily augmented by a board of volunteers, many of whom have been active since its founding in 1985. The JLE operates under a small grant from the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, with much-needed additional funding for operating costs raised by their annual dinner held each January.
Rabbi Pietruszka grew up in Monsey and attended yeshiva day school there. He attended TABC for high school and spent two years at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh in Israel before beginning studies at Yeshiva University. He received semicha from RIETS in 2003, along with a master’s in special education, which he puts to good use today in his “other day job” as a teacher in Sinai Schools. Pietruszka and his wife Leah have five children and live in Bergenfield.
Rabbi Pietruszka was approached to become the director of JLE in 2008 when his family was living in the Westgate Apartments in Teaneck, very near what is now Kehilas Zichron Mordechai, the shul headed by Pietruszka’s high school rebbe, Rabbi Michael Taubes. Taubes had been the first JLE director in 1985, when it was established, and was followed by Rabbi Steven Prebor and Rabbi Baruch Price, who subsequently retired when Pietruszka agreed to take on the post.
“It was an additional job, starting out as just evenings and weekends, but you know how things go. Sometimes it’s very, very busy,” said Pietruszka.
“When we began the JLE almost 30 years ago, our goal was to offer learning opportunities for people interested in expanding their level of Jewish knowledge and commitment. We are very proud that there is hardly a shul in our area without people who came there through the JLE. The same is true of our area day schools,” said Rabbi Taubes, who in addition to serving as the rabbi at Zichron Mordechai, is also Rosh Yeshiva at MTA, Yeshiva University’s boys’ high school.
“David Pietruszka was a devoted high school student of mine in the early days of the JLE and has remained a student and good friend of mine, attending many of my shiurim over the last number of years,” said Taubes. “I am thrilled to see him at the helm of the JLE today as the JLE continues the same noble mission. I know first-hand how much he cares about each and every Jew and how much he enjoys teaching the Torah that he loves so much himself,” Taubes said.
“In our community, we are in charge of kiruv for the 25 to 100 age group. Debby Rapps handles the Jewish Youth Encounter Program, and Rabbi Ely Allen has the college kids (through Hillel of Northern New Jersey),” said Pietruszka. Vibrant Chabad organizations active in Teaneck, Tenafly and Fair Lawn are also involved in kiruv for all ages in Bergen County.
Rabbi Pietruszka stressed that he would like others to join him in reaching out to others, and that being involved in kiruv does not require a rabbinic degree or special experience. “Fellow Jews are fellow Jews: Just because you haven’t been trained doesn’t mean you don’t have an obligation to get out there and help people, however you can, to learn more,” he said. “Just as there are many ways to learn, there are many ways to be teachers—how to grow as a Jew, how to be a Jew, how to have a welcoming home, or even how to smile and give a kind word. These are all things that are needed in our community as part of the kiruv landscape,” Pietruszka said.
“We need new people to help us by joining the board, or to volunteer their expertise with our website. In many ways, that is kiruv too,” Pietruszka said.
While some may not be able to make such a public commitment, kiruv also exists in quieter ways. “Sometimes, just offering someone your phone number to someone you meet, in case they have questions, can be powerful kiruv,” he said.
“Rabbi Yossie Stern, z”l (the founder of Project Ezrah), understood this very well. He knew the tremendous value of helping one person learn basic things like the Aleph Beis; he would sit with people and teach it to them,” Pietruszka said.
Today, kiruv comes naturally to Pietruszka and his wife, who considers herself quite at home as a “kiruv rebbetzin,” having grown up in a household focused similarly on kiruv. Rebbetzin Pietruszka is a daughter of Rabbi Chaim Hollander, the longtime mara d’asra of the Young Israel of San Diego. She grew up there, but went away for high school to a Bais Yaakov in Denver and then to seminary in Brooklyn. She taught preschool for six years at Prospect Park Yeshiva before her marriage.
In addition to cooking meals for dozens, hosting JLE members in their home, and generally helping make events happen, Rebbetzin Pietruszka now has added “kallah teacher” (pre-marital counselor for brides), to her list of responsibilities. This need, as well as many others having to do with JLE, has grown organically out of positive relationships built within JLE, with Jews who have grown up with little or no Jewish education. After taking coursework in Israel to learn how to teach kallah classes, Pietruszka consulted with Rebbetzin Peshi Neuburger on how to fine-tune her lessons toward the specific needs of her students.
Relationships and experiences with the people involved in JLE have helped the Pietruszkas grow and deepen their own understanding of observance.
“We invited a single mother and her son for Shabbos; we asked her to come before candle lighting. She said she hadn’t lit candles before, but would like the opportunity. She was crying as she said the blessing in English. You can’t know what it did for me to see someone else do this,” said Leah Pietruszka.
The Pietruszkas also met several Bergen County families who didn’t live in communities with significant Jewish populations. Through their constant Shabbos invites, the families have decided to relocate and move closer, so they would be living in Orthodox communities. Eventually, their observances grew. “They are still growing,” Pietruszka said.
Sometimes opportunities come up that are too good to pass up. “Someone offered us a low price for five unused pairs of tefillin. We had them checked, and they were all good, so JLE bought them. We resold them for a low price to five men in our program who have learned how to put on tefillin. They now own them and use them,” he said.
Rabbi Pietruszka also deals with an array of questions; from people who might need brisim, Jews who want to “sit shiva” for a non-Jewish parent, and general questions about conversion.
“I think people should know how spiritually needy our participants can be. They have been brought up with so little. They just need someone to explain what is kiddush, what is hamotzei; they don’t want to be living their lives in the dark,” he said.
The Pietruszkas feel strongly that what they are doing when they reach out and invite people into their home is what everyone should be doing, that everyone has the obligation to reach out to their fellow Jew, and that kiruv is certainly not something to fear, though they have on occasion experienced anxious reactions from the frum community.
“What we’re showing our children, I don’t think there could be better chinuch (education),” said Rebbetzin Pietruszka. “So many times we hear from people, ‘I’m afraid for my children, if we invite them for a meal, maybe they will see people talking on their cell phones on Shabbos. But if you do this without fear, and instead with joy, b’simcha, you have the knowledge that you can reach out and teach these mitzvahs to others that our families so often take for granted,” she said.
“‘But maybe they will ask questions we don’t know the answer to,’ say others, as a reason for not doing kiruv,” Pietruszka said. “Great, so you should learn together. This is not something to run away from, it’s something to embrace,” he said. “There are so many organizations that do so much good in this community: Project Ezrah, Tomchei Shabbos, Sinai and many others. They are all wonderful, but kiruv has to be on the agenda also,” said Pietruszka.
Pietruszka added that the frum community can have a large role in helping JLE grow. “If people have relatives who aren’t Orthodox, who would benefit from the JLE classes or events, please direct them to us. We want you to be our feelers out there; you probably know people who would like to know more about their Judaism. Everyone has co-workers, neighbors or family members who are not observant. If they’re not coming to your Pesach Seder this year, why not send them to us?” he asked.
To that end, the Pietruszkas explained, as Pesach approaches, they note that they have never turned anyone away from their communal Pesach Seder, or in fact any event. It costs $70 per person, though each participant only pays a nominal fee to participate. While the JLE annual dinner often raises the operating costs for all the yearly events, the Pesach Seder is the most expensive, and other events are cut back to pay for it.
The JLE spends thousands of dollars on their two Pesach Seders. A donation of $70 to JLE would allow one person to have a complete Pesach Seder this year, Pietruszka said. Donations and sponsorships can be made via the website, http://www.jle.org, or by mailing checks payable to JLE to 178 New Bridge Road, Bergenfield, NJ, 07621. Anyone interested in learning more, or attending events, is invited to email Rabbi Pietruszka at [email protected] or call him directly at (201)966-4498.
By Elizabeth Kratz
