In the Spring of 2014, while traveling overseas, Ofer Rind missed an HJC Men’s Club meeting and, as per tradition, thereby became the club president. He learned of this via video email, but returned to the States nonetheless, and ended up serving in that position for the next eight years. During that time he helped spearhead popular alliterative Men’s Club programs such as “Steak and Scotch in the Sukkah” and “Root Against The Rabbi” at Citi Field; worked to strengthen the club ties with the FJMC; and sliced over 150 tomatoes (very thin) for Sunday breakfast meetings. It was a rewarding experience, even the tomatoes part.
Ofer became a member of HJC in 2003 around the time his beautiful daughter (and former HJC Youth Honoree), Alexa, was born. At that time, Rabbi Kurshan’s intellectual and thoughtful approach to text study reawakened Ofer’s interest in Judaism, and the warmth of the HJC community made it clear that he had found his Jewish home. Over the past 20+ years, aside from his Men’s Club activities, Ofer has been an active shul (and kiddush!) attendee, served multiple stints on the Board of Trustees and numerous synagogue committees, served as synagogue liaison to the CHAI program at DHJC, and worked on several HJC Musical stage crews while somehow keeping his limbs intact. For the past eight years, he has run the High Holiday Honors, where people know him as “that guy with the clipboard.” He is currently entering his third year as a Vice-President of HJC, where he has enjoyed working closely with Rabbi Rosin on his Pulpit Committee.
A child of Holocaust survivors, Ofer was born in Israel, moved to Boston with his family at the age of 1, and spent most of his childhood in Miami, FL. After deciding early on that he would be a physicist, he picked up a couple of degrees at Cornell and at the University of Michigan in Elementary Particle Physics (Go Blue!), then came to Long Island to work on an experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he has been employed ever since. When he’s not wrestling with the computing infrastructure being used to investigate the fundamental nature of matter and energy in the universe, he can often be found cycling, playing Ultimate Frisbee, enjoying a vast range of live music, or pulling out his last remaining hairs while rooting for some hapless sports team, usually the Miami Dolphins.
Ofer is thrilled to see the HJC Men’s Club thriving today under the sure-handed young leadership of Alex Steinberg, and is exceedingly grateful for this honor, which is made even more meaningful to him by the fact that he gets to share it with an amazing and talented Youth Honoree like Jordana. Mazel Tov to her and to all of this year’s honorees!
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Jordana Boxer is an 11th grade honor student at Huntington High School. Her parents are Tracy Kaplowitz and Jonathan Boxer and her siblings are Jacob and Nina.
She has been a regular at Huntington Jewish Center (HJC) services since the day of her baby naming. Going to Shabbat services with her family and Sunday minyan with her mother. Jordana has also become a common face to see on the bima since her Bat Mitzvah. She reads Torah regularly and leads that Musaf service most Shabbats.
Through B’nai Brith Youth Organization (BBYO), Jordana has been able to grow her involvement in the Jewish community outside of the HJC. BBYO has allowed her to connect with Jewish teens across Long Island. Since joining she has been able to get many of the teens within the HJC to participate in BBYO, and she has made it into the board of her chapter.
For the past four summers, Jordana has been going to Camp Ramah in the Rockies, a Jewish sleep away camp situated in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Here Jordana has flourished into a young adult. She has literally reached new highs while hiking. She has also had the opportunity to work with younger campers and inspire them to connect more with their Jewish identity. This summer, Jordana will be continuing her adventures with Ramah by spending six weeks in Israel while on Ramah Seminar.
Jewish education is extremely important to Jordana. Since leaving Jewish day school at the end of fifth grade, Jordana has been taking online classes through Lookstein Virtual Jewish Academy. She meets with her teacher Deena who lives in Israel once a week. Through this program she has studied Jewish history through courses about the establishment of the State of Israel, and courses about Jewish life in America. She has also been able to study a multitude of Jewish texts in depth like the book of Amos and the books of Kings.
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