July 2025

2025 Back 2 School Store – An Unforgettable Day

It was almost time ...

A year’s worth of planning complete. A week’s worth of set-up done. The eager faces of a few children peering excitedly through windows in the wooden doors, wondering what awaited them inside.

First, a few words from 2025 Back 2 School Store Co-Chairs, Sherri Fendelman and Paula Green. They addressed volunteers gathered by the check-in tables at Temple Beth Shalom, our wonderful and welcoming host for this year’s Store.

“One of the tenets of the Jewish faith is that we welcome strangers into our homes, show kindness and hospitality, and show compassion for those who may be different and to create community. It is a mitzvah, and by being part of the Back 2 School Store today, everyone is doing a mitzvah.”

With those words of inspiration, the doors swung open, and the 2025 Store had officially begun!

Time to Shop!

Every child who visited the store met their volunteer personal shopper and together they walked the floor. The child chose pants, shirts, socks, a week’s worth of underwear, matching gloves and a hat, and a hygiene kit packed with a toothbrush, soap, deodorant and more — all in the colors and styles they liked best.

Coats and sneakers brought so much joy, as volunteer “fitters” channeled their best retail experiences to ensure perfect selections for the children.

It was easy to see on their faces: a child would slip on a coat, zip it up, turn toward the mirror, and with a slow shake of the head from side-to-side say, “This one isn’t for me.” The next choice would go around their shoulders, hood framing an enormous smile, and everyone knew this was the one!

At the sneaker station, little feet tried on the red ones or the blue ones or the turquoise neon pair, wiggled their toes, tested them out by walking around, then were on their way with a new lightness in their step and a wide grin on their face.

A team of teachers and educators advised the children as they chose two books to add to their libraries, and backpacks full of school supplies in a color of their choice completed a child’s haul.

Packed with Love
Mobile Shopping Goes Big

To meet the needs of as many children as possible, “mobile shopping” became a much bigger part of our efforts this year.

The Agency Relations team worked closely with our partners to get “wish lists” from children, letting us know what sizes, colors and styles they liked, and our personal shoppers kept busy packing large laundry bags with love… and the same awesome package of essential items as the children who attended in person received. More than 500 children can look forward to these special deliveries from the Back 2 School Store!

Resources for Families

As the children shopped, the families, friends and caregivers visited the Gaelen Family Resource Center (GFRC) where exhibitors shared information on vital topics including how to navigate the SNAP process, how to lower energy costs and how to register to vote for the upcoming election. Providers offered vision, blood pressure and diabetes screenings, alongside important information about other health care services. Each family who attended also received menstrual products and a gift card to help with groceries.

A Family Affair

Over the years, the Back 2 School Store has become a family affair. It’s a joy to see familiar faces as volunteers reconnect around the clothing racks, or at the registration and check-out desks, or moving traffic smoothly through the parking lot. The Store often brings families together for a few hours every summer – whether it is kids of NCJW/Essex members home from college helping to unpack boxes, committee members’ spouses measuring for new sneakers, or the whole clan signing up for a shift as personal shoppers and spending time giving back.

Thank You

The Back 2 School Store is an amazing, fulfilling and unforgettable experience that is possible because of the commitment, dedication and full embrace of so many people.

Thank you to the entire Steering Committee, led by co-chairs Sherri Fendelman and Paula Green, and the more than 225 volunteers who enthusiastically showed up and did whatever was asked – they are the heartbeat of our success.

Thank you to our amazing sponsors, a wide range of in-kind donations and an honor roll of individual donors who give their financial support to the Store and to the children year after year. They are the backbone of this project, investing in NCJW/Essex and giving us the ability to do this work. The National Retail Federation estimates that it costs more than $900 to get a child ready for school – and as those costs continue to rise, the Back 2 School Store makes a real difference for these families.

We are grateful to our agency partners, many of whom face untold challenges, yet show up and do the work every day. NCJW/Essex is honored to work alongside them to make an impact for more than 1,000 children through the Back 2 School Store

It is a Mitzvah

Even as the racks are broken down and the boxes sent to storage, thoughts of the Back 2 School Store linger. It is never far away.

We relive the excitement a new book brings to a child and feel the warmth of a child wrapped in a new winter coat as the first snow of the season falls. We reflect in a quiet moment how our volunteer hours played a small part in creating a more just and compassionate world.

And, we can always say of the Back 2 School Store … it is a Mitzvah.

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Congratulations to the 2025 Eskow Volunteer Award Recipients

Eskow Volunteer Award Winners Demonstrate Commitment to Community and Youth Leadership

For almost 25 years, the NCJW/Essex Nancy and Robert Eskow Volunteer Awards have recognized graduating high school seniors in Essex County for their advocacy and community service. The 2025 program attracted dozens of stellar applicants from almost 20 schools. Our award recipients demonstrated a deep commitment to their communities across issues including voting rights, food insecurity and leadership among Jewish teens. Each Eskow Award recipient received a $1,000 cash prize.

Thank you to Eskow Award Committee Co-Chairs Jill Sorkin Johnson and Jeanne Gordon, as well as the entire committee – Carol Borker, Sarah Brooks, Elisa Madorsky, Lisa Santola and Alison Slone – who read, evaluated and chose these outstanding recipients. Read more about the Awards here, and about our 2025 recipients below.

Nathaniel Esubonteng, Science Park High School

Democracy is not an event one merely watches from afar – it is one we need to participate in directly. Nathaniel Esubonteng put that into practice following an open forum for school board candidates in Newark. He realized that he, as a student directly impacted by what they were proposing, had no vote in the matter. He sought out the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and added his voice and commitment to the Vote 16 Newark project, which led to an historic law that allows 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections. Nathaniel testified before the Newark City Council, advocating for the rights of his fellow students so they had a voice on policies that directly affect their lives as students and citizens. The impact has been significant beyond securing the opportunity to vote. Students across the city are more engaged in school board matters and young people now see politics as something not just for adults, but something in which they have a stake and a voice.

Riley O'Sullivan, Glen Ridge High School

Riley O’Sullivan’s work with Toni’s Kitchen began as a mitzvah project for her Bat Mitzvah but grew into so much more. She began by making lasagna and focaccia for donations, then helped with the dinner service in the soup kitchen while meeting people from backgrounds different from hers. Over the years she volunteered with the Choice Panty Grocery program sorting, organizing and distributing donations and eventually running the Sunday pantry session. Working at Toni’s Kitchen raised Riley’s awareness of other issues in the community. Many guests asked for period products, but those items were not always readily available. Inspired, she created the Period Movement Club at Glen Ridge High School, working to destigmatize menstruation and collecting more than 5,000 products for members of the community. Riley’s time at Toni’s Kitchen reframed her concept of community, saying the people she sees each week and with whom she has grown close made the biggest impact. She learned that even though people have different life experiences, our differences do not seem to matter when sharing a meal and supporting each other.

Ophir Filhart, Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School

Ophir Filhart is deeply committed to the idea that change comes from the ground up, driven by leaders who care deeply and act boldly. He believes when young people are empowered to lead, lives are changed. He served as International President for USY (United Synagogue Youth), leading thousands of Jewish teens in service, learning and advocacy. His responsibilities involved working with peers across North America to make the community more inclusive, socially conscious and driven to action. Ophir convened several multi-regional conferences, a conference for all USY teen leaders and mentored new leaders, all aimed at building a more just and compassionate Jewish teen movement. He began with USY as a first-year high school student, organizing food drives and other local service events. A series of other projects included year-long campaigns to bring awareness to issues affecting teens, allocating funds raised across the country and empowering young people to be agents of change. Ophir also volunteers with synagogue youth programs, local food banks and school clubs. Projects have included collecting thousands of books for underserved children in New Jersey, organizing toy drives and facilitating conversations about identity and inclusion.