Tell us about your nominee. Why should he or she be recognized as a Jewish Community Hero?
Rabbi Moishe Engel works tirelessly to further many different aspects of Jewish Education in the Long Beach/Orange County area. Whether it be teaching first grade for the past 40 years, giving adult education courses, establishing what is now the largest Jewish Children's camp in Southern California, and now heading it's campership program, working on college campus for many years, or hospital visitations, Moishe Engel is committed to connecting Jews to their heritage, and helping them develop a love for everything Jewish.
What problem did your nominee identify in the community that needed to be solved? How has your nominee's efforts made a difference for others?
When Rabbi Moishe Engel established Silver Gan Israel Day Camp in 1972, no one was denied a camp experience due to lack of funds. 13 years ago, when the scholarship program was threatened to close because of a great financial loss the previous year, Moishe was told by the camp board that he should no longer continue to give out any more camp scholarships. At that point, Moishe personally committed himself to raise the funds for every needy child to be able to attend a Jewish camp. This summer alone out of the 800 campers who attend the camp, there are 110 children from 70 different families who are benefiting from Moishe's resolve to let every Jewish child be able to experience a fun filled Jewish Summer. He does this because as an orphaned child someone paid for him to go to camp. This was the best experience he ever had, and changed his life forever. Moishe's teaching methods and fun and friendly way of introducing small children to reading, writing and love for Judaism, have earned him the Educator of the Year award from the Bureau of Jewish Education in 1996. In the forty years that Moishe has been teaching first grade, he has maintained a regular connection and closeness with many of his former students, sharing in their Simchas and comforting them through their tragedies. Just this past week, he has attended a wedding of one of his former students, and has been there to comfort two students observing the Shiva of a parent who has passed on. As Jewish Holidays approach, Moishe makes sure that Jewish Seniors are not left out. Be it distributing honey cake and arranging Shofar blowing on Rosh Hashana, to distributing Matzos on Pesach, Moishe is always there. Most recently Moishe has taken an interest in 10-15 Jewish residents in a retirement home of over 100 people, and in the last two weeks, he has arranged a Shabbat dinner for them sponsoring the food. He has also arranged to show a film entitled "The Case for Israel." He has spent many hours counseling residents who have signed up to meet the Rabbi, and has arranged a phenomenal program of song and dance which was led by the camp counselors and attended by over 40 people. He often gets called by Memorial Hospital, a local Medical Center, to visit and counsel Jewish patients. With nothing in the community at that time to serve the Jewish handicap, 25 years Moishe initiated and still runs a yearly Chanukah party for the handicapped, including those who are blind, wheelchair bound Jews, as well as various other disabilities. This heartwarming program is often covered by the local media. In 2003, Moishe established the Center for Jewish Life (a center without walls) whose aim is to connect Jews to their heritage in any and every imaginable way. His weekly Koffee Klatch, his Mezuzah campaign, his tapes for people wanting to learn to say the Kaddish, are but a few examples of the many ways he utilizes the center to accomplish its goal.
