Englewood – “I walked the walk but I didn’t understand what it really meant to be a Jew. Rabbi Buchwald told stories tonight, I got it, it really clicked.” Andrea Ceasar, a member of the Englewood modern orthodox community enthusiastically explained. “Growing up I used to be bullied because I didn’t speak Hebrew well or because I didn’t know many religious customs or how to properly pray. I ignored it for years but now I am learning through outreach and I feel more empowered, I am happier.”
“A Crash Course In Basic Judaism” a riveting three part series is an enjoyable and informative class taught by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, the founder and director of NJOP (formerly National Jewish Outreach Program) and is being hosted by Englewood’s East Hill Synagogue at 7pm every Tuesday evening in June.
“The more I learn the more I realize what I don’t know. And the more I learn the more I realize how much I want to learn, my journey is truly ongoing.” Leah B. a Northern Bergen County resident reflected at the conclusion of part one of this deeply inspiring three part series.
“Torah has proven overtime to be the most successful source of ethical and moral values.” Says Rabbi Buchwald. Founded in 1987, NJOP has touched more than 1.3 million Jews in North America. He defines the complicated with dramatic flourish, humor, simplicity, literary and cultural references. A passionate storyteller, you become caught up, hanging on his every word and just when you forget why you are there, Buchwald brings it back to Torah, this is the way Buchwald, a proud Bronx native has reached a staggering 10% of North American Jews.
“People don’t like outreach so we changed are name to NJOP, we are engaging each other, learning from one another.”
Ordained at Yeshiva University, where he was a student under Rabbi Dr. J. B. Soloveitchik, Buchwald spent many years as the Director of Education at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, which, during his tenure, became one of the largest and most successful centers for adult Jewish education programs in America.
He continues: “The name outreach is unsettling to people, like a pejorative, ‘who are you to teach me?’ Now the new crop of rabbi’s coming out, (of yeshiva) have to realize the landscape of American Jewry has changed, they have to be on the cutting edge of technology trends and marketing and if they’re not they are going to miss the boat.”
NJOP practices what it preaches with an extensive presence on the web. “Today things are more difficult, the challenges are greater. Young Jews are not attracted to a typical type of outreach so the way to contact them is through social media and they are responding. We pioneered the use of social media (for this purpose). Maintaining open communication is playing a key role, what social media enables us to do is amazing, we are reaching 50K people daily.” Says Buchwald. NJOP’s “JewishTweets” was the first Jewish presence on Twitter, and has become Twitter’s most highly followed Jewish newswire, generating more than 450,000 impressions daily. “Jewish Treats,” NJOP’s enormously popular email, offers “Juicy bits of Judaism, daily,” on diverse Jewish topics.
Since 1975, Rabbi Buchwald has led the now-renowned “Beginners Service,” a special Shabbat service for people with little or no synagogue experience. But what about his own spiritual enrichment? “Every week is a new experience for me. It’s interactive, they try to trip me up,” Buchwald laughs, “But I’m just a beginner’s Rabbi. Each year it is more exciting than the previous year. It is like a dream job. There’s no such thing as burnout. They light my fire.”
NJOP sponsors the acclaimed Shabbat Across America/Canada which attracts an impressive 30 -40,000 thousand each year to its annual Friday night Shabbat event Additionally, NJOP sponsors Read Hebrew America/Canada campaigns, they have established Beginners Services and also offer the Turn Friday Night Into Shabbat, Passover Across America and Sukkot Across America programs, as well as free “Crash Courses” in Hebrew Reading, Basic Judaism and Jewish History. These programs are now hosted by more than 4,750 locations across North America, and in 39 countries worldwide.
Lincoln Square Synagogue for decades has been a center of faith for Jews on the Upper West Side, now like the neighborhood it has evolved and transformed physically with a beautiful new building next door from the original site. “Yes, it (LSS) played a pivotal role for Jews in the 60’s with Rabbi Riskin, then in the 7o’s, 80’s and 90’s it was more about community, families and singles. New venues, Kosher food, the place was just hopping, every day there was a new development. I said to Rabbi Riskin, the tragedy with Lincoln Square Synagogue is there is only one Lincoln Square Synagogue. If we can take the programs and outreach and replicate them throughout the country wouldn’t that be great? Instead of one community we could do dozens. He said that’s a great idea but I’m moving to Israel. So I left LSS and started NJOP in ’87 and what can I say, it’s been a magical trip!” Buchwald chuckles.
Ten percent of the North American community has been through our programs and some of our programs are the most popular in the world, like Shabbat Across America. Over a quarter of a million Jews have learned to read Hebrew with us. We are proud of these accomplishments. Not just the quantity of people, but the quality of the people. We are being hosted by East Hill Synagogue, and the President here has been through our program, just as the Presidents of Lincoln Square and Brandeis University have been. These are extraordinary people and we have the pleasure of knowing and learning with them.
The upcoming classes hosted by East Hill Synagogue in conjunction with JLE and RCBC will be held Tuesday 6/17 the discussion will be on the Sabbath and Jewish Ritual Observance and the final class given on Tuesday 6/24 is dedicated to Dating/Marriage and Intimacy. To register, go to njop.org/ccbj or call 646-871-4444.
By Elyse Hansford
