Sunday, April 27, 2025
Hewlett High School senior Isaac Samuelson, who cleaned his way to Eagle Scout, will be honored with scouting’s highest honor at a ceremony on Sunday at Young Israel of Hewlett, at 2 p.m.
Samuelson, 18, began his scouting journey in 2015, with Cub Scout Pack 20 in the Five Towns, led by Eugene Corless.
“It was a great thing to do every week, going to hang out, meeting new people and doing all different types of activities,” Samuelson recalled.
After advancing to Arrow of Light — the highest rank in Cub Scouts — in 2018, he moved up to Boy Scout Troop 613, in West Hempstead, the only shomer Shabbat, or Shabbat observant, troop on Long Island.
“I really like it here, because it’s filled with other kids who went to Jewish day schools, kept kosher and were very similar to me,” Samuelson said. “It went from a weekday activity to twice a month on Sundays.”
Just as he began to get more involved in scouting, the pandemic struck, and it prevented him from attending scout camp and earning merit badges.
In October 2020, Isaac’s father, Lon Samuelson, became the troop’s scoutmaster, and the following summer, Isaac was finally able to go to scout camp, in New Jersey, for the first time.
“I was worried I wasn’t going to know anybody, and the first person I met was someone I knew,” he said, “but it was a very big change for me, because I never went to sleep-away camp before. I didn’t know much, and I learned a lot about Eagle Scout, and decided at 14½ I wanted to earn it.”
For his Eagle Scout project, Samuelson got the idea to help clean up Congregation Sons of Israel, in Woodmere, from his grandfather Ted Kahn, a prominent member of the synagogue. Kahn reached out to the shul’s president, Mark Kavarsky, about his grandson, who wanted to do something to benefit the congregation.
Samuelson started going to services with Kahn every Saturday, and the synagogue suggested a much-needed project: organizing the contents of closets that held 20 years of religious text and materials, but were in disarray.
On Easter Sunday last year, Samuelson — with the help of some 40 people, including family members, friends and Troop 613 colleagues — cleaned out and organized the closets. They spent four hours removing piles of paperwork, logging it, cleaning and reorganizing.
“This hadn’t been done in 20 years, and the synagogue was really happy and grateful this was done,” Kahn said. “I have been on this Boy Scout adventure with Isaac since he was a Cub Scout, and I’ve seen him grow, take responsibility and manage people. His growth has been phenomenal — he’s quite a capable individual.”
In Judaism, any text containing God’s name (called sheimos) must be buried in a special ceremony, to show respect and prevent desecration of sacred writings. Troop 613’s assistant scoutmaster, Rabbi Aaron Marsh, of East Meadow Beth El Jewish Center, coordinated a burial ceremony for all the religious texts the crew found that were no longer needed.
Samuelson submitted all of his Eagle Scout paperwork last August and officially attained scouting’s top rank on Sept. 12.
“It felt surreal to me, because I never expected it, and it was something that just kind of happened,” he said. “My biggest takeaway is the skills that I learned, and how to properly use them.”
As scoutmaster, Lon Samuelsson oversees the activities of 15 boys and girls. “I do programming, making sure I’m covering the different advancements for each rank and trying to make sure I provide opportunities for different merit badges,” he explained. “I do everything in that capacity, and I make myself available for all scouts.”
He said he was extremely proud of what Isaac has accomplished, and never thought this day would come. “To watch him grow and see him take leadership is incredible,” Lon said. “I couldn’t be prouder of what he was a part of. I see him as a leader to these younger scouts and I see that these kids look up to him, and I couldn’t be prouder. I truly believe that scouting is something people carry through the rest of their lives.”
