The Jewish Week

Tim Boxer: At NJOP What's Better Than A Speach?
February 9, 2010
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Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, right, honors Joseph Scharf and wife Lisa Cabrera at NJOP dinner at the Hilton. Photo by Tim Boxer

Hotel operator Sam Domb has been one of the stalwarts of the National Jewish Outreach Program. Last year he raised $200,000 for the organization, long admired for its highly effective Shabbat Across America campaign.

At the group's annual dinner at the New York Hilton, the founding director, Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, called upon Domb to take a bow.

"I did not bring a speech," Domb said, "but I did bring a check for another $100,000."

"This is an expensive dinner for you," Buchwald said.

Buchwald said that today's generation of Jews never attended Hebrew school or became a

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bar or bat mitzvah. To reach them NJOP has embraced the mix of social media. It launched Jewish Treats and Jewish Tweets. Its Tweebrew School is now the No. 2 Jewish newswire on Twitter.

A younger generation was reflected in the audience, which also included a judge, a granddaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II, a co-president of Morgan Stanley (the highest ranking observant Jew in American business), the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Steve Reich, the Emmy Award-winning producer Allan Leicht, and the newly converted Ivanka Trump who attended the beginner's service at Kehilat Jeshurun which NJOP helped establish.

Buchwald presented awards to several individuals, including Lisa Cabrera, a news reporter for Fox5. Her father's from Colombia. Lisa converted two years ago in Jerusalem and married New York real estate developer Joseph Scharf.