Induction remarks by Jay L. Kooper at the
170^th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CONGREGATION
JANUARY 24, 2023

At the beginning of Temple B’nai Abraham’s 170^th year, the Congregation has now elected me as only the 30^th president of our temple’s long and storied history. There are no words that can adequately convey how honored and humbled I am for the trust you are placing in me, and for this opportunity to serve you and our temple. 

In recent years, as both a trustee and parent, I have had opportunities to sit on the Ross Sanctuary’s bimah at our Shabbat services. One specific part of this service has always left an impression with me. It is the part where our bar or bat mitzvah, right before reading from the Torah, asks those who have come before him or her to stand by them at that specific moment. Today, I am thinking of those who have come before me as temple president, and I am thinking in particular of my three immediate predecessors who were the temple presidents I served under as a member of the board of trustees.

Bruce Greene, of blessed memory, served as Temple B’nai Abraham president during a time of great change and challenge at our temple. Bruce’s presidency saw him presiding over the retirement of our longtime senior rabbi, our dear friend Rabbi Emeritus Cliff Kulwin, and the search for his successor that resulted in the truly amazing senior rabbi we are now so lucky to have in Senior Rabbi David Vaisberg. Bruce’s presidency also coincided with the tragedies at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, events that spurred a somber and unprecedented bolstering of the safety and security of the Temple that continues to present day.

Jeffrey Klein unexpectedly stepped into the presidency of Temple B’nai Abraham under the most heartbreaking circumstances imaginable with the tragic loss of Bruce in the opening weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the first full year of the pandemic that left the Temple’s doors closed and its congregation frightened and isolated at home. As temple president, Jeff worked tirelessly to hold the congregation together and to get the temple reopened as swiftly and safely as possible through the COVID-19 Reopening Task Force. Under Jeff’s watch, the temple began its long road back from the depths of the pandemic and Jeff fulfilled his often stated goal of completing the work Bruce began.

And Julie Silbermann. At a time when the temple needed her the most. At a time when she had already given everything of herself to the Temple, Julie answered the call one more time to become just the second two-time president in Temple B’nai Abraham’s history. In her second tenure as president, Julie led our temple literally through pestilence and floods with the second full year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of two “once in a hundred-years” storms that left our temple building flooded. Under Julie’s steady hand, the temple was finally able to fully and safely reopen its doors with its buildings and grounds far more resilient today to address the challenges of climate change. For her incredible service above and beyond the call of duty through two tenures as temple president, we all owe Julie a debt of gratitude that we can never truly repay.

Bruce, Jeff and Julie, like their predecessors before them, led our temple through challenging times. I am under no illusions. I, like my predecessors, will also lead our Temple during challenging times. I know going in that I can only succeed my predecessors, not replace them. All I can do at this moment in front of this bimah is to ask humbly all who have come before me as temple president to stand with me now at this moment and throughout my tenure as Temple B’nai Abraham’s president.

As my presidency begins a short time from now, let me offer my baseline assessment of our Temple; and it is this – Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution.

Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because of our clergy. Rabbi David Vaisberg, Cantor Jessica Epstein and Rabbi Max Edwards, you are our teachers, spiritual leaders, and so much more than that to us. You continue to keep us connected to one another and to Judaism through your programs, your counsel, your caring for us in good times and in bad, and your genuine love for us. What a truly special clergy team you are. Thank you for all I know you will continue to do for us all.

Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because of our educators. Debbie Aronson Ziering in our Early School and Melissa Weiner in our Jewish Learning Program provide our most precious resource, our children, with love, with caring, and a fun and meaningful educational experience. You and your staffs have over so many years now taken such wonderful care of our children, including my own, and we thank you for all you have done and will continue to do.

Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because of our administrative department, led by our Executive Director Mara Suskauer. Mara, you and the entire administrative staff have been absolutely masterful in keeping the temple operating smoothly as the institution its congregation and those who wish to join our congregation need for it to be. To accomplish this under ordinary times is incredible enough. To have accomplished this in the challenging times we have faced is extraordinary. Thank you for all you have done and will continue to do.

Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because of our maintenance team. Tracey Bent, you have taken such good care of our building and grounds for as long as I can remember and then some. You and your team have ensured that we can worship and celebrate together in a place of safety, beauty, security and warmth. Thank you and your entire team for all you have done and will continue to do.

Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because of our lay leadership. To my fellow officers and trustees, returning and new, the work we will continue to do together is difficult and yet it is truly sacred and important work. Even at times where we as a board may and will inevitably disagree, I know you all keep the temple’s best interests at heart, and that is more important than anything. To our committee chairs and members, club chairs and members and our volunteers, thank you for all of the love and devotion you give to our temple in making it the special place that it is.

Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because of its congregation. You are a truly wonderful group of caring human beings. This has been true since Jessica and I first set foot in this temple at a Friday night Shabbat service nearly 20 years ago now, as newlyweds, newly moved to Livingston and engaging in that time-honored tradition of “shul shopping.” Whether you have been a member of this congregation for your entire life, or are newly arrived like I was 20 years ago, you are all so very important to this temple. In the past few weeks since it was announced that I would stand for nomination as temple president you have approached me, you have shared with me your hopes and ideas for, concerns with and needs from our temple. My message to you is that I see you, I hear you, and most importantly I need you and our temple needs you.

We need your energy, we need your commitment, we need your engagement, we need your participation, and, most significantly we need your support. Whether through volunteering, participating on a committee or in a club, attending a Shabbat Service, serving as an usher, attending a temple event or program, checking in on your fellow congregants, supporting our community outreach programs, and, yes, where you are in a position to be able to do so, to provide financial support when and where you can and when and where possible in order to ensure that our Temple will continue to endure.

In return, my compact with you, the Congregation, is that I will listen to you. I will take your concerns and ideas into careful consideration. And when the circumstance calls for it, I will act decisively guided by the temple’s best interests and your wise counsel. I will lead by example and I will work tirelessly to build and maintain the temple you want and need so that as you are there for Temple B’nai Abraham, so too will Temple B’nai Abraham always be here for you.

Finally, Temple B’nai Abraham is a strong institution because its new president has the most incredibly supportive family to allow me to do this. Jessica, Jordan and Ethan, I love you all very much. Understand that the three of you are performing an incredible service to the temple in your own right through your support of my taking on this new role. On behalf of a grateful temple community, thank you for all you have done and all you will continue to do.

My fellow congregants, we live in challenging times. We know demographics tell us that, at least on a percentage basis, there are fewer Jewish households in this local area than in generations past. We know our economy is still feeling the global aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain challenges, and inflation. We know that we live in a dangerous environment where resentment, hatred, and anti-Semitism have now found homes not in the shadows or the fringes but in the mainstreams of our institutions, our political parties, our popular culture, and our national discourse.

And these challenges extend even to Israel, where some elements of the new right-wing governing coalition have the audacity to take it upon themselves to not consider us to be truly Jewish based on who we welcome into our congregation, the way we have chosen to practice our religion, and the values we have chosen to live by.

Living in and through challenging times is not, in and of itself, a new theme for our people or this temple. Just over a month ago, we celebrated, as you all know, Chanukah, a holiday centered on the theme of light, and with it our people, emerging from the darkness. I have just outlined for you how, over the past few years, through our collective efforts and support of this congregation and its leaders, including my predecessors, this temple endured and weathered the darkest of nights.

The question before us now, and likely the central question of my tenure as president, is what does this temple now want to be? Temple B’nai Abraham has everything it needs to be a strong institution. The challenge now is to answer this central question to ensure that Temple B’nai Abraham is not only a strong institution today, but also an enduring institution for now and for generations to come. The good news is how we answer this central question and our ability to answer this question are not completely dependent on outside forces beyond our control. These are actions that I submit to you are 100 percent entirely up to us.

In the meantime, all I can report to you as I begin my tenure as the 30^th president of Temple B’nai Abraham is what I believe and what one congregant’s vision is for this congregation going forward. And my vision is, at least in my opinion, very simple. As long as this congregation, all of the congregation, is wholeheartedly supportive of one another and the temple and its well-being as the temple and those entrusted to lead it are wholeheartedly supportive of all of its congregants and their well-being. As long as this congregation, all of the congregation, is committed to upholding the temple’s core values of love and inclusion of all who seek to join us, worship with us, celebrate with us and engage with us, after a season of darkness I promise you the dawn is coming.

Thank you all so very much.

** headshot by TBA member Jan Press**

Bio:

Jay L. Kooper is the 30^th President of Temple B’nai Abraham. A member of the Temple’s Board of Trustees since 2016, Jay previously served as a Vice President and a Co-Chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee prior to his election as President.

Jay is the Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Middlesex Water Company, one of New Jersey’s 13 investor-owned utility companies, and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Water Companies and the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Public Utility Law Section, where he previously served as Chair. A native of New York City, Jay received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from Emory University and his Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School.

A longtime public utilities attorney, Jay has represented clients across every public utilities sector – water, wastewater, electric, gas, telephone and cable – across the entire span of his career. In 2019, Jay was honored as General Counsel of the Year by NJBIZ, and in 2020 was honored with the New Jersey Law Journal’s Professional Excellence Award. Previously, Jay was recognized as a finalist in 2016 for the New York Stock Exchange’s Distinguished General Counsel Award.

In addition to his work with Temple B’Nai Abraham, Jay serves on the Board of Directors of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation’s New Jersey Chapter, a board his wife Jessica also served on from 2018 to 2022. In 2022, Jay, Jessica and their two sons, Jordan and Ethan, were the recipients of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation’s Community Impact Award for their longtime work with the Foundation.

The Koopers moved to Livingston, where they still reside, in 2003 and joined Temple B’Nai Abraham that same year. Jordan and Ethan Kooper are both alumni of TBA’s Summer Day Camp, Early School and Jewish Learning Program and celebrated their B’nai Mitzvah at TBA.