Resident Feature
Lee and Jack’s Story WITH THE LOVE OF COMMUNITY By Catherine Bialkowski
T
I Photos by Benoit Cortet
hroughout Lee Rosenfield’s time here in Hopewell Valley, he’s learned of the incredible power that support from friends and neighbors can have. The significance of community is something that is often overlooked; yet when things go wrong, it is often what holds everything together. Lee and his two children, Ethan, 11, and Eliana, 8, have been a part of the Hopewell community since 2008, when they were warmly welcomed here, a place Lee calls “majestic” in its beauty. As a family, they are deeply involved with what the community has to offer. From practicing for piano lessons to dancing at The Pennington Studio for Dance and Creative Arts to getting active at the Schafer Sports Center in Ewing, Ethan and Eliana have busy-yet-fulfilling schedules. Lee, too, is busy with community involvement; his consulting business, Rosenfield Consulting, is successful not only in its professional intention but as a channel through which Lee and his team can give back, too. A nonprofit management company that works with nonprofit organizations all over the world, Rosenfield Consulting helps these diverse organizations develop the set of core skills and abilities needed to function. Lee also serves on the Board of Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBT organization, and recently spoke at the Hopewell Valley Regional School District Board of Education meeting during a discussion on transgender protections. There is a fourth member of Lee’s immediate family, someone whose vibrance and love is present with Lee and his children wherever they go. Jack Fastag, husband to Lee and father to Ethan and Eliana, passed away in July after fighting glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, for two years. Jack, a devoted father and husband, left behind an incredible legacy. Jack and Lee met in January of 1996. Both had recently moved to the Philadelphia area, and happened to be present at the same synagogue. The next night, both happened to be at the same bar with an LGBT business networking group, too. “I saw him there at this bar and approached him, saying, ‘I saw you last night at our synagogue.’ We ended up going out to dinner that night,” says Lee. Five years later, the couple bought their first home in Lambertville. “We wanted to be in New Jersey, where we knew and appreciated that the laws were more inclusive of the LGBT community,” says Lee. In 2004, when the Domestic Partnership Act was passed in the state, Lee and Jack registered. That same year, on September 5, they had their Jewish wedding, a beautiful ceremony in their backyard, surrounded by family and friends. In 2007, when civil unions were legalized in New Jersey, Jack and Lee entered into one; and in 2013, when New Jersey passed full marriage equality, they were civilly married at home with a rabbi. Ethan and Eliana entered their fathers’ lives in 2007 and 2010, via surrogacy. They share a biological egg donor, Auntie Talia, and Jack is Ethan’s biological father while Lee is Eliana’s. Both Lee and Jack did second parent adoption for both of their children. The family shares a close bond with Auntie Talia as well as with Auntie Becky and Auntie Colleen, the women who carried the children through surrogacy. “It truly takes a village,” says Lee. Jack left behind a legacy that will keep his memory alive forever. “He really was an intellectual giant,” says Lee. Jack, who was originally from Mexico City, was a food scientist. He had an illustrious professional career at David Michael & Co., a food flavor house where he worked for 25 years, eventually as Senior Flavor Chemist. “Intensely curious about everything,” as Lee says, Jack was an accomplished Hopewell Valley Neighbors
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