A new era in education at Long Beach's Temple Emanu-El

Beryl Jackowitz was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, by an observant Conservative Jewish family. Being Jewish was a very big part of her life as she grew up.

She went to Jewish Day School, and participated in United Synagogue Youth, a group for Conservative Jewish teens across the country. After she earned a degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania, she maintained a close connection with Israel throughout her 20s and 30s. Before she got married, she took her fiancé, Michael Jackowitz, to Israel with her.

“I was just really trying to forge my own connection and path,” Jackowitz said. “Because as we get older, we change our connection to religion, of course, but once I became a parent, it was critical for me to re-establish a formal connection.”

Jackowitz, her husband and their two children, Abe and Jonah, were living in Brooklyn Heights when the pandemic hit. They moved to Tampa to live with her father for a few months, but they missed New York and wanted to move back. But they wanted to find somewhere new to live, and they chose Long Beach. It reminded them of Fire Island, where Beryl and Michael had met.

In Brooklyn, their children had attended a synagogue preschool. When they arrived in Long Beach in September 2020, one of their to-dos was to find a new synagogue where they could really “plant our flag,” Jackowitz said, and participate fully, one where they liked the clergy and felt comfortable. The problem was, nothing was open and active, with Covid still a major concern.

Lucky for them, they got some suggestions.

“My husband was Reform and I was raised Conservative,” Jackowitz explained, “so we looked around and asked people. When we moved, there was no active community life that you could really look at, so we took everyone’s word for it. When things started to open up, I enrolled my two boys in religious school at Temple Emanu-El, and we joined the congregation.”

After a year in Long Beach, Jackowitz wanted to get more involved in the temple, and heard that it was looking for a new teacher. When she wasn’t busy with her career in branding and marketing, she and Michael worked at a camp for underprivileged children, which sparked her interest in working with kids. So she told temple officials that she was interested in the position.

She got the job, and was a teacher at the temple for three years, up until this year.

“I loved it, and it was awesome,” Jackowitz said. “I felt like I was making an impact on the kids’ and families’ lives.”

This summer, Sandy Schumer, the temple’s longtime education director — and the mother of comedian Amy Schumer — retired, creating an opening for a new director. Hers were big shoes to fill, because, as Jackowitz said, Schumer “reinvigorated the program.”

Jackowitz was offered the position, and she took it.

Classes at the temple begin on Sept. 9, which will be her first day as the program’s director.

“We have a real opportunity, as a Jewish community, to help children understand what it means to be Jewish,” Jackowitz said. “There are many different ways to be Jewish, and we want to embrace that. Yes, we want these children to know prayers and Hebrew, but we also want them to have a pride in being Jewish, and I think that’s the foundation that has been built here that I am super-excited to continue to explore and expand upon.”

The synagogue is a supplemental school, meaning that students go to Long Beach public schools during the day, and then come to the temple afterward, much like an after-school program. The temple offers Hebrew school on Mondays from 4:30 to 6 p.m., with additional instruction and electives on Wednesdays until 5:30. There are also holiday programs and social events for students.

“The entire temple community is excited for this new chapter in our religious school with Beryl,” Rabbi Jack Zanerhaft said. “She brings a lot of energy, new ideas, fresh perspective. We’re just so humbled to have this place in the community to really stand for the principles that we believe in, and Beryl’s just the right person, at the right time, to be a lightning rod to our community. We’re very much looking forward to the growth of our school and her leadership.”

Those who are interested in enrolling their children in the Temple Emanu-El education program can call the temple office at (516) 431-4060.