__________________ Nassau _________________
HERALD All the news of the Five Towns
$1.00
DECEMBER 28, 2023 - JANUARY 3, 2024
What’s What’s
INSIDE INSIDE
Vol. 101 No. 1
HERALD PERSON oF THE YEAR BarBara HarriSon
She revitalized programs for kids at the Gural JCC By Hernesto Galdamez
Protesting for a new lease at the 5TCC. Page 6
It has always been about the kids for Barbara Harrison, the longtime co-director of the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC. But when the Five Towns began seeing an expansion in its Jewish population — specifically Orthodox Jews — in the early 2000s, the JCC, in Cedarhurst, offered only one class for Orthodox children per age level, so many Orthodox families instead enrolled their children in yeshivas with early childhood programs. Harrison helped to remedy the situation, turning the Gural JCC early childhood program into a rousing success. In honor of her dedication to the community’s young people, the Herald is proud to name Harrison its 2023 Person of the Year. Before coming to what was then he was called the Jewish Community Center a fierce of the Greater Five Towns in 1992, Harrison, 78, was an educator in New advocate York City, having earned a master’s in special education at Trenton State Col- for children lege in her native New Jersey. who needed The Gural JCC’s current associate services, and director for early childhood, Melissa the new Barbara Wienerkur, who opened the early childhood center in 1988, met HarHarrison rison when she was the acting direcSensory Gym tor of the early childhood program at Temple Beth El, in Cedarhurst, which is a meaningful wasn’t doing well, according to Wietribute. nerkur. The JCC acquired the program, brought Harrison along, and the two Stacey Feldman would eventually become co-directors Executive director, Marion of the Gural program. & Aaron Gural JCC “We worked out a deal with Temple Beth El and took over the nursery school,” Weinerkur recalled. “As soon as I met Barbara, I knew right away that I wanted to keep her.” The JCC had started with 25 children, which eventually grew to 50 at Temple Hillel in Lawrence, its first location. And as the mix of population changed, Harrison responded. “We hired different staff to accommodate the needs of the changing demographics of the community,” she said. “As it became more Orthodox, the education became comparable to the Yeshiva programs in early childhood, for sure.” She also saw an increase in the number of families in which both parents worked. “When I saw the needs of the community changing, with more working parents, I recommended early drop-off programs,” she said.
S
Hewlett High School students battle it out. Page 8
Standing in solidarity for Israel at Bagel Boss. Page 18
For BrEAKING NEWS go to liherald.com
The drop-off program began as early as 7 a.m., giving parents the flexibility to get to their jobs while ensuring that their children were safe at school. And Harrison and other staff members waited if parents had to pick their child up late. Within a year after Harrison joined, the JCC had 150 children at Temple Beth El. Today, the program now has over 350 children, from roughly 175 families, at the JCC’s Harrison-Kerr Family Campus, on Central Avenue in Lawrence, which it acquired from Temple Israel in 2017. The coronavirus brought the school’s operation to a standstill in 2020, and as the JCC was preparing to reopen its doors later that year, the school hosted a parent orientation in August of that year, usually done in person, but this time via Zoom. Wienerkur described Harrison feeling nervous about working in a medium she wasn’t used to, but, Weinerkur said, Harrison handled it “beautifully.” Then, however, everything changed. “Afterwards, we were on the phone and we were talking about how well it went and how excited parents were,” Wienerkur recounted, “and she hung up and suffered a stroke at that moment.” The JCC was an integral part of Harrison’s life, she said, and
Continued on page 2
Courtesy Marion & Aaron Gural JCC
Barbara Harrison joined the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC in 1992, working at its second location, at Temple Beth El, in Cedarhurst, when the JCC acquired the temple’s early childhood center, and has helped it grow.