By Gloria Stravelli
RED BANK – Rabbi Sally J. Priesand is an icon in the community, usually celebrated as the first ordained female rabbi in the nation. But she insists the focus shouldn’t be on her. Rather, the focus should be on doing God’s work – specifically advocating for social justice in the community.
“I have a lot of awards for being the first female rabbi but this is for things that we’ve accomplished in our community,” Preisand said of being honored as the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Human Dignity Award by the YMCA of Greater Monmouth County in Red Bank.
“In Judaism we have something called ‘tikun olam.’ It means repairing the world and it’s one of our most important commandments,” she said.
“The way I see it is really that we should strive to be partners with God in completing the world. There’s always still work to do and so I think that’s very important,” said Priesand, who retired in 2006 after serving for 25 years as rabbi at Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls. She received the title of rabbi emerita and remains actively involved in the congregation’s events and activities.
“I retired from the congregation but not from the community,” she said.
Priesand will be honored Jan. 14 during a virtual community celebration hosted by the Y. Held annually, the event celebrates King’s life and legacy and honors a member of the community who reflects the civil rights leader’s principles and ideals in both philosophy and action, according to a press release from the organization.
The online event will take place from 8 to 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 14 and is free and open to all. To register or for more information, visit ymcanj.org/MLK.
“I am honored to receive an award named for Dr. King, especially since it comes from my local community,” said Priesand, whose groundbreaking ordination took place at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 1972. “It is a reminder that all people are part of one human family, all of us God’s children, all worthy of dignity and respect.”
Priesand explained the importance of being involved in the community as an individual and as part of a congregation. “I’m happy that’s part of the legacy I left behind when I retired,” she said.
“Rabbi Priesand has dedicated her career to helping others,” said Michael Wright, a Y board member and chairperson of the MLK Committee, in a press release. “She is a pioneer in Reform Judaism and a bona fide leader in the nonprofit community of Monmouth County. Our community is blessed to have Rabbi Priesand give of herself to so many important causes. She is part of the modern progressive movement to keep Dr. King’s dream alive and advance his philosophy of social justice.”
Keynote speaker at the MLK event will be Andrea McChristian, law and policy director at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, who oversees the institute’s three pillars of social justice: democracy and justice, economic justice and criminal justice reform.
Preisand has devoted much of her efforts during the past 25 years to a housing initiative for underserved community members. She continues to serve as the president of the board of trustees of Interfaith Neighbors, of which Monmouth Reform Temple was a founding partner.
Interfaith Neighbors provides affordable housing solutions, rental and mortgage assistance and other vital support services for families and individuals in Monmouth County.
“The original purpose was for congregations of all faith communities to come together and provide rental assistance for the working poor, to get them out of motels,” Preisand said.
The nonprofit was founded in 1988 by interfaith groups to combat homelessness in Asbury Park and other communities and has developed into a full-service resource providing a lifeline of services, she explained, “to give (people) a second chance and help them stand on their own two feet.”
“We never would have imagined 30 years ago what Interfaith Neighbors has turned into now,” Priesand said. “It has totally evolved and we still have rental assistance, but we also have the Kula Urban Farm, which is a hydroponic greenhouse.” The produce is sold to restaurants in Asbury Park and members of the neighborhood are welcome to come and pick what they need.
Priesand said the group has renovated over 40 houses in the Asbury Park and Neptune area and “helped people who never thought they would be able to be homeowners become homeowners.”
The group also has a program designed to help people start their own business.
The nonprofit is now in the process of an $18 million capital campaign which will enable it to build a new building in Asbury Park that will house their offices and a new commercial kitchen for Meals on Wheels, another one of its programs. “We have lots of volunteers who deliver the meals and it’s so important because sometimes it’s the only human contact that people get,” Priesand said.
“There’s also going to be a new day care center for children ages 6 months to 3 years,” she continued. “So we can make it more possible for people to be able to go to work and know that their children are safe.”
She said an uplifting part of the organization’s annual meeting is when neighbors tell stories about how they are back on their feet because of the help they received from Interfaith Neighbors.
Priesand noted that anybody can be affected by little things that make life much more difficult, like an unexpected car repair or an illness, explaining the necessity for the group’s recent emergency COVID fund.
The name of the group is also important to Preisand, she said. “ ‘Interfaith’ reminds (us) that people of different faith communities can work together to make their community better for everyone. And ‘neighbors,’ that’s a word that always reminds me of the Biblical command of love your neighbor as yourself.”
Preisand said she is honored to be receiving the Y’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Human Dignity Award award from Gwendolyn Love, executive director of Lunch Break, who was last year’s honoree and also serves on the board of Interfaith Neighbors. “I’ve always admired all of the work she does for our community,” she said.
Priesand prerecorded her remarks which will be shown during the ceremony. In them she said she reminds people of the relationship between the African American and Jewish communities.
“In both of our traditions we talk a lot about the exodus motif and I wanted people to understand that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of our great rabbis, marched with
Dr. King. They both were seen as modern-day prophets and both of them talked about the Exodus story as the first conference on race and religion with the two people being Pharaoh and Moses.”
She said both King and Heschel believed in human dignity and they worked together to promote it. “When Dr. King was assassinated he was preparing to attend the Passover Seder at Rabbi Heschel’s house a few days later and instead Rabbi Heschel spoke at his funeral,” she said.
“One of the things I’ve learned in my career is that there are moments in every person’s life when you can’t stand by silently. You have to be willing to speak out and sometimes that can be very difficult. But that’s sort of what I’ve done in my whole career being the first female rabbi,” Priesand said.
“I think one of the things I’m proudest of is that I opened new doors for women in the Jewish community. But as my colleagues always remind me, I didn’t just open the door, I held it open for them.”
The article originally appeared in the January 13 – 19, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
