Lake Hopatcong Jewish Community Center

The Lake Hopatcong Jewish Community Center (LHJCC) has long served the broad Lake Hopatcong Community. Situated on the shores of Lake Hopatcong, the shul was founded in 1949 to serve the then thriving summer community, which included numerous kosher hotels and surrounding bungalow colonies. Originally housed in a small hotel, the founders envisioned the ultimate change from a Catskills style summ

er community to one for year-round residents. A beautiful modern Jewish Community Center was built in the mid-1970s on property adjacent to the original structure, complete with dramatic stained glass windows in the Sanctuary, facing East onto the Lake. The shul today still looks forward each Spring to the annual influx of summer residents and maintains weekly Shabbat services from May until November. The shul provides a complete array of services for the High Holidays, free to the general community -- including members, friends, family and the unaffiliated. Approximately 200 people took advantage of this program during the High Holidays 5775 (2014). During the winter, services are held on a more limited schedule every three to four weeks, with all major holidays observed. Hebrew School is held weekly throughout the winter and spring. The shul is led by two strong Rabbis: Rabbi Asher Krief, who served as rabbi of the Pine Brook Jewish Center for more than 30 years, and Rabbi Richard Kirsch, a graduate of Yeshiva University (RIETS), where he received both Semicha and an MSW in Social Work, and who has previously served as rabbi in Rutherford, NJ. Rabbi Krief is a long-standing rabbinic leader in Northern New Jersey, with vast experience and sensitivity to the delicate issues involved in balancing tradition and our modern times. Rabbi Krief is in residence from May until November. Rabbi Kirsch is a guidance counselor at the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, where he is also director of athletics and teaches Talmud, Chumash and Sociology. Rabbi Kirsch is in residence from November until May. OUR RITUAL. The LHJCC is not affiliated with any stream or movement. The synagogue follows the ritual precepts of its Rabbis during their respective periods of residence. During the summer months (June to October), when Rabbi Krief is in residence, the practice is Traditional/Conservative with the majority of the service in Hebrew, following traditional liturgy and full Torah reading, but with egalitarian practice. Trained as an Orthodox Rabbi, and serving more than three decades in a Conservative synagogue, Rabbi Krief is particularly sensitive and responsive to both the traditional and non-traditional congregant. During the winter months, when Rabbi Kirsch is in residence (November to May), the practice is Traditional/Orthodox with normative Orthodox practice. Rabbi Kirsch, an Orthodox rabbi and trained counselor, has focused much of his career on teaching and outreach in a wide variety of Jewish settings from Reform to Orthodox. Like Rabbi Krief, Rabbi Kirsch is particularly sensitive and responsive to both the traditional and non-traditional congregant.