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NJSpotlightpt271_2023-07-01-09-18-28

We are putting the spotlight on the National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County section celebrating their 1/100 anniversary. Joining me, Joan Ornstein, co president elect and Ruth Seidelman past co president, Ruth, you were talking about falling tears in our last segment as we wound it up near the end. What kind of people are you looking for to join the organization? So I think women who are looking to join the organization are those that are recently retired who have um done well in business and are looking for their next um challenge. Uh When I retired, I didn't retire from the organization I worked for, which is a major uh international bank. I retired to something I retired to my volunteer work. To me, it was very important to give back. It's something that was instilled in me with my family. Um My mother was a, a national Council woman when she retired to Atlanta. Um My sister and my sister in law were both council members in their different areas. So you're keeping it in the family. I love it. Definitely keeping it in the family. And um, so what when you look for a volunteer. You, you want someone who is willing to work um for free, for free, for free. But the benefits you get the payment that you get, the payment you get is in the smiles of the Children that you work with in the ecstatic child that um when you give a birthday cake, there's one program that we have where there's a resident for Children who are not permitted to stay home for whatever reason and, and we get a list of their birthdays and we provide birthday cakes to these, these Children. Is it a big deal? Never had a birthday celebration in their lives? Right? Is it a big deal? It's for me, it, it's it, it's, it may not be a big deal for everybody. Uh because we, we have Children, we buy them a birthday cake, we make them the birthday party. But for these Children, when you see them, when you, when you give them their cake, when they ask for a certain design on, on their cake and you fulfill that. It, it makes, it makes you feel good, feel good and makes frankly, it makes me cry. Well, it's, it's, it's not only re rewarding for the, the people, we work with our agencies. I find it very rewarding for us because you're just out there doing things that make you feel good that you're helping. You're not just sitting home saying, oh, they should do this, somebody should do this. You we're actually doing it all. And I think that's important. I joined for a different reason. My husband died and I met a friend of mine and she said, what are you doing? And I said, I hope I just get up in the morning and she introduced me to the organization. And I thought, oh, my mother was organized with um BRANDEIS. She was big with BRANDEIS University. So I thought, right, I'll try it. And then here I am. Here. She is president. Here I am. I love talking with both of them. Next, we will discuss the council's values and its history.

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NJSpotlight371_2023-07-01-12-25-45

We are joined by members of the National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County section celebrating their 1/100 anniversary. And congratulations on that. Joan Ornstein is co president elect Ruth Seidelman is past co president. Ladies. You want to talk about the values of your organization and what you want people to appreciate about them. Well, I'll talk, I'll speak about, you know, our organizations comprised, it's Burden County. We have about 900 members and I just wanna make you do not have to be Jewish to be a member, but we do uphold Jewish values, which are we really universal human values. It's about Children, family and women and helping them have a better life and we need to understand the history of where this will fill you in on the. So um at the Chicago World's Fair back in the early uh 19 hundreds, um Hannah G Solomon was asked to attend with several of her friends um and she thought she was going to have a intricate, integral part of the uh event. It turned out that they wanted her to serve coffee, excuse me, they wanted her and her friends to serve coffee. So um Hannah G, being the strong person that she is, um picked up herself and her friends and left the, the and left the room. They went and they decided to sit down together and, and said that there was more need than making coffee. So they put together the essence of an organization and it turned out to be the National Council of Jewish Women. Um I honestly do not remember the exact date, but it goes back about 100 and 20 years, the Bergen County section started and in 1923 and we were an outgrowth of the national organization. Um How did I, I think they're about 60 sections throughout the country. Yes. Uh You know, in the entire country. So it's a huge organization and we, we all have bylaws, we have here through national, but we all do our own things within the community and that's what's important. And I think that's what's different than other organizations. We're really community based. We really get in, get our hands dirty and work with the community and you get involved in a lot current issues that you are tackling based on the mission that was initially the whole start for the group, right? So we have, uh we support agencies like uh the Center for Hope and Safety, which is um for victims of domestic violence and they were featured on our show as well. Yes. Um We look, we have a, another agency that we work with is um I know the acronym is BDM I, and it's basically a, a medical group that um takes care of women who cannot pay for medical attention. So we, we are, we work closely with them and actually we have volunteers that do all the data entry for them so that they can get their appointments and get their follow ups and get their, their lab work done. And tomorrow at 6 a.m. we'll talk about the agencies that the council gets actively involved with.

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NJSpotlight72pt4_2023-07-02-07-28-51

We are talking with members of the National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County section celebrating their 1/100 anniversary. Joan Ornstein is co president elect Ruman is past co president. We left off talking about the Jewish home at Rockley. We're just, we were talking about some of the agencies that we're involved in. Like I said, we don't just say that, you know, collect money from people. We're actually in the community getting our hands dirty. And one of we talked about the Children that we work with and we also work with seniors at the senior home in Rockley. We'll go and we read to them. We actually go, they have a new art um project they're doing. So we'll go and help them with that. We do over there as well. So we put in a, so there's a lot of different areas that if someone wanted to be involved, you know, some people just join. Like when I first joined, it was just to meet people because, you know, my husband passed away. But there's a lot of, I'm sorry to hear about. That's thanks. But there's a lot of people that you could join socially or you can join to get involved. And we, we really make a difference in the community and especially with kids and helping to feed the Children. So with the uh with the Center for Food Action, they found a need. Uh on weekends Children were going home. Um and some Children just didn't have food at home for the weekend. So they put together a snack pack program where they bundle up in a, in a plastic bag. A um what kids will need for the weekend for food and then at school that's put into their backpack before they leave. They are there. They are. Oh, that's, well, that's, that's, but we actually we actually pack the bags. We do like a line. You do. Yes. And we go through the line, everybody so much fun. Sometimes we have music. Uh, sometimes we, we, it's just half of the women do the packing wrong. So we have to repack but it's a, it's a, um, some women bring their kids, which I think is really great because I think Children need to know um what life is all about and, and it's a um, easy way in which to instruct the Children about why are we doing this? Some Children don't have food. So they put the, the packages together and there is a sense of accomplishment. At the end, we have a target number that we pack for the, for the time. Um, and this year I think uh our number was 1000 packages. Um and you could see as people, as the, as the bins got fuller and fuller and that the kids that were there were like trying to count. It was just AAA with a solemn issue. It was a joyful event one in which it's not just our members that come, but if I wanted to call you and say Della come on over, we're packing snack pack today. You could come in and have the same benefit of feeling of feeling, an accomplishment like that as well. So it's open to the community and, and we hope that, that, that people understand what we do and how we do it. In our next segment, Joan and Ruth discuss why members feel good about getting involved with the council.

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NJSpotlight5_2023-07-02-09-25-54

We've been talking about the many activities of the National Council of Jewish Women, Bergen County section and of course, they are celebrating their 1/100 anniversary. Joan Ornstein is co president elect Ruth Seidelman is past co president. You want people to feel good when they join this organization and take part in the various activities. Yes, because I think what they say is people who volunteer are the nicest people. And it's true. I mean, like I said, I, I joined a while ago and I have made friends with people. I never in my life thought that I would be making friends with and they're so nice and dedicated and passionate about what they're doing. There's such passion in this organization about the people we help and the, or the agencies that were um involved with that. It's, it's really remarkable and a lot of some of these women are well into their eighties and nineties and they're still out there hitting the dirt going into these things, being involved. It's amazing. So giving back knows no age limit, no age limit. So the um I think the most senior person in our organ in our, in our group is Estelle Green. Uh, she's 100 and three. Wow, go girl. And up until I think last year she was still in charge of the volunteers at our thrift shop. And I believe it's only two years that she stopped driving her car. You know, that was hard for her too. I know she got a companion and she said to me, I got a companion. She doesn't drive, so I'm driving to the doctor. OK, I like that is she also passionate about the many activities and causes that you owe. She is one of the, I mean, she was one of the original members. Yes. And then we have another one who you spoke about, who does all our history. She's 97. I love, she was one of the women of the century. This is what you call defying age. I'm staying in this organization. Well, we won't let her out first of all because some of the, some of the ideas, I if not all the ideas that Joan brings us uh are um different, you know, Joan's background is very different from mine. I, I came from banking, Joan came from entertainment. So when you, when you look at the differences between us and we're very, very good friends, um we just, we just play off each other in some of the things that we develop as far as uh programs for uh for, for our members and for other people to to participate in and for fund raising and for fundraising. Like you got a lot of programs too that you have coming up and we have a lot of programs, these agencies that we have to fund to help fund and, you know, like every everybody else, money is tight. It's, we need money, we need people and money. Other than that, we're fine. They are so much fun to talk to and we will chat more about those upcoming activities for the N CJ WB CS coming up at noon.

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spotlight6bd_2023-07-02-13-06-14

The National Council of Jewish Women, Bergen County section, of course, celebrating their 1/100 anniversary. That's what we've been talking about all weekend, Joan and Ruth are here to talk about several upcoming events that you have. Yes, like we said, we are trying to fund our agencies. So we're doing a car wash sometime in the middle of October and we're gonna do a speakeasy um because 100 years ago in the 19 twenties, so we have some plans for that and it's gonna be, and it's gonna be open to the community. It's not just for us. We're gonna be sponsoring these events. So, so with the speakeasy, I'm, I'm taking Joan's idea here uh where you're not gonna know where it is, you're gonna, you're gonna uh register and pay, you will not know exact, you'll know the date, but you won't know where it is until we text it to you and give you with a password. So in order to get in, not only do you need the, the location, but you need the password. When we did the fifties dance, we found um people actually dressed for the fifties and it was a great rock and roll. Uh, evening, we had an Elvis person. Uh, we had a DJ. That was wonderful and that's how we kicked off our, our 100th year. Uh, so now to close it down for this time and work towards the next 100 years, we're gonna do this. The speak easy. Sounds like a party. Yes. Well, we will look for your invitation. Sounds like a lot of fun. I'd love to come to that. So, what are your future plans and your mission as you continue and look forward to the next 100 years, I think. Well, I think part of it is getting younger members in to help us move forward and to keep doing what we're doing to be really keep being involved, not only in our agencies but with the election coming up, we're very involved with voter voting rights. We're involved with women's reproductive health, we're involved with human trafficking. So we are involved with a lot of advocacy issues besides the community of um agencies that we work with. So there's a lot for anybody who comes in, they could choose a lot of different areas they could work in and, and be involved. Has that been a struggle trying to get young people to join and become members and get involved. So I would venture to say that um there are a lot of not for profit agencies that have had difficulty with younger members, with new members uh it could be a holdover from COVID. You know, people are kind of comfortable at home and not wanting to go out. Um There's an over abundance of um of communication. People asking for things and asking for money, asking for your vol, you know, to volunteer, asking for this. So you pull back, people pull back and say, well, wait a minute, I've got so many things to think about. I'm not sure where I, where I want to spend my time. What would you say to pull them in? I, I think, well, I think, well, thank you to our pr agency RNJ. I think that a lot we were the best kept secret in Bergen County. I don't think a lot of people knew we were there or who we were and that's why we're trying to push our name out and brand ourselves. So people realize we are a viable, very strong organization that really gets a lot of stuff done. You can see all of my segments with N CJ WB CS on news 12 dot com and my Facebook page.

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The National Council of Jewish Women Bergen County joined News 12’s Della Crews to celebrate its 100th anniversary and talk about what they have planned for the occasion. 

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