Essex County Celebrates Jewish Heritage: Community Leaders Earn Awards – Patch.com

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Five community leaders recently earned awards as part of two annual Jewish Heritage Month events in Essex County.

The Essex County Board of County Commissioners held its annual Jewish Heritage Month event on May 19. The event is held yearly to “celebrate the accomplishments of Jewish men and women everywhere and honor outstanding Essex County citizens for their unique contributions both to our county and society as a whole.”

This year, the board recognized three people:

• Rabbi Max Edwards of Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston
• Caren Freyer, regional public affairs manager at PSE&G
• Jill Hirsch, district director for U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill

“We look forward to this event every year, as it gives us an opportunity to recognize one of the many communities that contribute to our county’s greatest strength – the diversity of our people,” Commissioner President Wayne Richardson said.

“Last year, due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions, our Jewish Heritage event was held virtually,” Richardson said, adding that the county has now been able to resume holding the celebrations in person.

The board provided the following backgrounds about each honoree:

Jill Hirsch, presented by Commissioner Tyshammie L. Cooper, is the District Director for the office of Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey’s 11th District. She oversees the operations of the District Office and supervises constituent and political outreach. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with honors and earning a joint degree in Law and Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, she started her career in the child welfare field focusing on adoption law, domestic adoptions, step-parent adoptions, and foster care adoption matters. During her time as a Staff Attorney for the Legal Aid Society, she represented children in abuse, neglect, custody and guardianship cases, and worked on the Education Advocacy Project (EAP), a grant-funded project which provided early intervention and special education advocacy for foster children with developmental delays.

Rabbi Max Edwards, presented by Commissioner Patricia Sebold, is the Assistant Rabbi at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston. Prior to his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Newton, Massachusetts, he received a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In his role at B’nai Abraham, he is involved in a number of initiatives. Aside from service leading, regular teaching, and providing pastoral care, he has worked with his clergy colleagues to increase the community’s role in social justice causes. He is currently working with Refugee Assistance Partners New Jersey (RAP-NJ) to explore options for refugee resettlement in the Livingston area.

Caren L. Freyer, presented by Commissioner President Wayne L. Richardson, is a Regional Public Affairs Manager with PSE&G. She provides strategic communications, problem solving, public policy support, and regular testimony at Commissioner and Town Council hearings. Additionally, she manages local relationships with public officials and stakeholders to support the PSE&G Regional Public Affairs team. During her career in the energy sector, she has held a variety of leadership roles including: Vice President of Governmental Relations with Parsons Brinckerhoff; Manager of State Governmental Relations with EBASCO services; Commissioner and Vice Chairwoman of the Essex County Utilities Authority; and Energy Analyst with the New Jersey State Department of Energy. She is also a member of several civic and community-based organizations including: The Morris Essex Mental Health Association; the World Trade Center Scholarship Fund; the Newark Workforce Investment Board; the Morris Chamber of Commerce Businesswoman’s Committee; and the New Jersey Business Alliance.

STAR OF ESSEX AWARDS

On Tuesday, two high-achieving community leaders earned awards as part of the annual Essex County Annual Jewish Heritage Celebration.

The event recognizes the “influence and positive impact that Jewish people have had, and continue to have, on the economy and culture of Essex County.” It is part of a yearlong series of programs that recognize and celebrate the diversity of Essex County; other cultural celebrations celebrate African American Heritage, Irish Heritage, Italian Heritage, Jewish Heritage, Latino Heritage and Portuguese Heritage.

This year’s Star of Essex Award winners are Maya Lordo, Essex County Health Officer, and John Schreiber, president and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

“Maya Lordo and John Schreiber have both been influential members of our community having had great personal success in their respective careers,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.

“Their commitment to serving the Jewish community and improving the lives of Essex County residents, their leadership, and dedication to public service is to be praised,” he added.

County officials offered the following background about this year’s honorees.

MAYA LORDO

Maya Lordo, born Maya Rabinovich, immigrated to the United States in 1991 from the former Soviet Union with her family. Her family originated from the Ukraine and later moved to Uzbekistan during WWII to escape the persecution of Jews. In 1991, Maya arrived in Brooklyn, NY, and was brought up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where she not only learned about Italian American culture, but about her Jewish religion as this was not an allowed practice in her former country. Maya later moved to New Jersey, where she attended William Paterson University where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health and New Jersey City University where she earned her master’s degree in Health Administration. She has her state license as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist and is a nationally recognized Master Certified Health Educator. In 2017, she earned her NJ Health Officers license that allows her to lead a Public Health Agency in the State of New Jersey.

Those who know Maya know her passion for Yoga. She became a certified yoga teacher in 2016 and continues to live by the mantra, “You cannot always control what goes on the outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.” This particularly allowed her to take on the challenge as Essex County Public Health Officer in 2019. Four months after she began her career in Essex County, the world as we know it had changed. Covid-19 became her first, middle and her last names. Working through the pandemic, Maya still managed to create a health department that promotes emotional and physical resilience in the community. The department aims to prevent, detect, and educate about diseases while developing new policies to advance the well-being of Essex County residents. Maya moved the department to become the state recognized LINCS agency/and emergency response coordinator with the New Jersey Department of Health.

“When I came to the United States in 1991 at the age of 7 with my mother, I didn’t know what being Jewish was because we were not allowed to practice our religion in Russia,” Lordo said. “We should be compassionate for those who are not the same as us,” she noted.

JOHN SCHREIBER

John Schreiber grew up in Queens and lived at the last stop on the subway. Starting at the age of 9, his parents gave him $5 and let him take the subway into the city so he could buy a seat in the balcony at a Broadway show. From those experiences, John fell in love with the theater and thought, “I don’t know how, but I want to be part of that.” He became the second President and CEO of New Jersey Performing Arts Center on July 1, 2011. In a typical season, the Arts Center presents more than 650 events, serving over 575,000 patrons. Its acclaimed arts learning programs reach over 100,000 children and families annually.

Termed “a visionary producer” and America’s “impresario of brand names” by The New York Times, Schreiber’s career has encompassed award-winning theater, television, concerts, festivals, documentary film, branded entertainment, and a host of other cultural and cause-related events. His producer credits include the nationwide KOOL and JVC Jazz Festivals, the Newport Jazz Festival, the weekly television concert series Hard Rock Live, the Benson & Hedges Blues Festivals, the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (PBS), the New Yorker Literary and Arts Festival, the American Express Gold Card Grammy Festival, and, with the trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, the Harman: How to Listen music education program. He received Emmy and Tony Awards as producer of the Broadway and HBO hit Elaine Stritch at Liberty. He was the lead producer of George C. Wolfe’s Harlem Song, the only musical ever to play a six-month engagement at the legendary Apollo Theater.

Prior to joining NJPAC, he served as Executive Vice President at Participant Media, the Los Angeles-based global entertainment company specializing in socially relevant documentary and feature films, television, publishing and digital media, where he was responsible for managing the creation, development and execution of unique social action and advocacy campaigns for each of the company’s movies. Participant’s award-winning films include An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night and Good Luck, The Help, Waiting for Superman, Food Inc., Lincoln, The Kite Runner, and Syriana.

Schreiber is a board member of the Newark Alliance and is an Advisory Board member of First Book and Rutgers University-Newark. He served as Programs Chair for the year-long 350th celebration of Newark’s founding. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Montclair State University.

“I am surprised, honored and thrilled to be recognized by the County Executive, who is always thinking about what can be done for Essex County,” Schreiber said. “From my mother Irene, I observed the importance of serving the community. She was always trying to be of some service to the community and that’s what I thought about when I came to NJPAC,” he added.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.