The SSC's New Building in Jerusalem

The home for world Sephardic Jewry. The new home of the Shehebar Sephardic Center

On a beautiful night, recently, Marjorie and IG Gindi hosted an exciting fund raising event for The Shehebar Sephardic Center (SSC) in their spacious new home in Deal, New Jersey. A few exceptional community members were honored for their inspirational dedication and in appreciation of their invaluable work.

After a gourmet dinner, the program began with emcee Ricky Cohen introducing the host, IG Gindi, who thanked his wife Marjorie for hosting and preparing the magnificent event. He then thanked the Shehebar family and the honorees for their encouragement and support of the Shehebar Sephardic Center throughout the years.

Ricky Cohen addressing the crowd

Then there was a brief video of the current and former Chief Sephardic Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Hacham Obadia Yosef, extending their blessings and praise for all that the SSC has accomplished for Sephardic World Jewry in the past 25 years.

Ricky then had the honor of introducing the current Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger, who came to Deal especially for this occasion. Rabbi Metzger began by quoting the famous sentence, “Ki mitzion tese hatorah,” (from out of Zion the Torah shall go forth), referring to The Shehebar Center. He said that wherever he goes throughout the world he comes into contact with one of their rabbis. He then gave an inspiring talk explaining that the essence of our Torah is about being sensitive and caring for other people.

Chief Rabbi Metzger and IG Gindi

After Rabbi Metzger spoke, Morris Bailey, one of the outstanding leaders of our community, was called up to make the presentations of awards. Al and Sonny Gindi were given The Sephardic Community Lifetime Achievement Award; Joe Cayre, Stanley Chera and Ted M. Serure received The Sephardic Community Lifetime Pillar Award; and Harry Adjmi and Jojo Chehebar received The Sephardic Community Lifetime Hesed Award.

Rabbi Shamoula, Chief Rabbi Metzger, Stanley Chera, Rabbi Sam Kassin, Ted M. Serure, Morris Bailey and Joe Cayre

Special mention and awards were also given to Eddie Mizrahi for his outstanding work on the new building campaign, and to Eddie Shamah for his sage advice and his fund raising expertise, helping the SSC raise hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.

Ricky Cohen then introduced someone who needed no introduction, Rabbi Sam Kassin, the Dean and co-founder of the SSC. Rabbi Kassin gave special thanks to Marjorie and IG for all they had done for this evening, then singled out each one of the seven honorees describing how important each was, in his own way, to the success of building the SSC.

Rabbi Kassin addressing the crowd

He summed up the philosophy of the The Shehebar Center by saying, “The ways of the Torah are pleasing; and each path leads to peace,” explaining that if we see something being done that is not pleasing, or something that does not lead to peace, then we should know that it is not in the spirit of the Torah.

Al and Sonny Gindi, the recipients of The Sephardic Community Lifetime Achievement Award, are truly among the pillars of our illustrious community. They are ideal examples of extraordinary men of vision and leadership. For over 50 years they have been dedicated to and offered support to Jewish educational and spiritual institutions, including social service organizations of our community, as well as other communities around the world. The SSC’s new building will be called The Al and Sonny Gindi Building. Al and Sonny recognize the essential work and achievements of the The Shehebar Center over the past 25 years.

Initially, the dream and vision of two relatively young rabbis, Rabbi Sam Kassin and Rabbi Eliyahou Shamoula, The SSC was named after Gabriel Shehebar, A”H, another pillar of our community, for his financial support. Gabriel understood Rabbi Kassin’s and Rabbi Shamoula’s vision and embraced it.

The mission of this new educational organization was to do its part in changing and improving Sephardic World Jewry by inspiring young men and teaching them our treasured heritage, the Torah. These future rabbis and spiritual leaders would dedicate their lives to the teaching and spreading of Torah by going out to live and work in communities around the globe.

To date, the Abe M. and Geri Cohen Rabbinical Program, which is the SSC’s rabbinical training and placement division, has trained and placed over 150 rabbis and spiritual leaders in Sephardic communities worldwide, including 12 in our own Brooklyn/Deal communities.

The students not only master the requirements to obtain a Semicha, but the majority of them also spend many hours a week learning skill sets that are necessary to be effective communal rabbis such as teaching skills, public speaking, counseling, leadership, how to develop the community’s growth, theodicy (why do bad things happen to good people), etc.

Other Programs of the SSC:
• The Leah Ben Dahan Spanish Program, which teaches and caters to Spanish speaking young men.
• The Mikdash Shaul Dayanut Program (named after our own Chief Rabbi of the Brooklyn/Deal Syrian communities, Rabbi Shaul Kassin), an intensive seven year program which prepares students to serve as judges on a Bet Din.
• The Stephan Isaiah Ades (A”H) Library, which houses over 3,000 titles.
• The Russian School Program, which educates more than 1,000 students in the former Soviet Union. It should also be noted that over 250 graduates of these schools have been brought to Israel by the SSC, and have been placed in religious institutions throughout the country.

Our Brooklyn/Deal communities should be very proud of being major supporters of this indispensable religious educational institution, which continues to spread Torah throughout the world. May they continue to do so for generations to come.

Please note, if you would like to dedicate a mezuzah, or leaves on The Tree of Life in the new building in honor or in memory of a loved one, please call or email Leo A. Esses at (917) 902-6400; L1esses@aol.com. Other dedications are also available.
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Leo A. Esses has been involved in Jewish education for over 25 years. He was the executive vice president of the Allegra Franco Teacher’s College.