Courtesy of Lori Cohen
Courtesy of the Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties
around town
2 3
4 Courtesy of Stockton University
Courtesy of Amy Schrager
Photo by Lizzy Friedman-Zayon
Courtesy of Hilary Levine
1 5
6 1 Staff members from the Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties and Atlantic City Police Chief James Sarkos attended a breakfast as part of National
Human Trafficking Prevention month. 2 On Jan. 26, Gratz College and the Jewish Learning Venture hosted Jewish education CEOs and heads of school at Gratz.

3 Four Perelman Jewish Day School students reached the semifinals of the Rendell Citizenship Challenge, an annual contest that asks students to write an essay
about an issue facing our democracy, with their essay on abolishing the Electoral College. 4 An American Jewish Committee Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey
delegation of more than 20 regional leaders attended the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York on Jan. 27, International
Holocaust Remembrance Day. 5 Beth Sholom Congregation and Americans for Ben-Gurion University co-sponsored a hybrid briefing on artificial intelligence
featuring Professor Kobi Gal of Ben-Gurion University’s Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering. 6 Stockton University’s Alliance Heritage
Center will use a $24,500 grant to create a public digital database of its collection documenting the history of Jewish farming in southern New Jersey.

26 FEBRUARY 16, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT



last word
JEWISH LEARNING VENTURE HONOREE
Harold Berger
SUPPORTS THE NEXT GENERATION OF JEWS
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
Courtesy of Jewish Learning Venture
I n the early 1920s, Archibald, a town of 5,000
in Northeast Pennsylvania, was home to one
Jewish family: the Bergers.

As Harold Berger, now 97 and a Center City
resident, grew up in the small town, the experi-
ence transformed him, and he relished the
unique upbringing.

However, as decades passed, Berger
became enveloped in the Jewish community in
Philadelphia. He established himself as a judge
of the Court of Common Pleas and co-founded
the law firm Berger Montague, where he now
serves as of counsel and executive share-
holder emeritus.

Through his philanthropic endeavors, Berger
— known to many in the community as Judge
Berger — wanted to ensure the continuation
and growth of vibrant Jewish communities
in a time of shrinking synagogue member-
ship, including at Germantown Jewish Centre,
where Berger has been a member for decades.

“What could we do to stop loss of member-
ship? That was the first thing,” Berger said.

“And then the thought was, What can we do to
develop programs which would attract Jewish
families?” Berger, with the help of Philadelphia-based nonprofit
Jewish Learning Venture and his late wife Renee
Berger, created the Harold & Renee Berger Synagogue
Network in 2008. The network allows JLV to help area
synagogues develop programs and changes within
their organizations to attract young families, ultimately
building synagogue membership.

Fifteen years after its founding, the Berger Network
continues to help synagogues in the area develop
programs, such as Camp Shabbat with jkidphilly at
Temple Sholom in Broomall and an MLK Day of Service
at Or Hadash. JLV will honor Berger for his continued
support and involvement in the network at the nonprof-
it’s 12th Annual Celebration on April 2.

Berger even helped Germantown Jewish Centre
create programs to engage young families; he said
that the Berger Network and JLV helped to grow the
congregation by 50 families.

“This is what JLV has been doing, not only to stop
the drop in membership, but to attempt to bring people
closer to the synagogues in the area to make Judaism
more meaningful and relevant to their families,” Berger
said. From an early age, Judaism was pivotal in Berger’s
life. Raised in an Orthodox household, the family kept
kosher and shomer Shabbos. Berger’s father, a store
owner, kept his business closed on Saturdays. Despite
no other Jews in the town, the family’s neighbors knew
to visit the store after the Sabbath. The Bergers spent
Jewish holidays at Berger’s grandmother’s house in
Olyphant, where the matriarch would cook elaborate
meals weeks in advance over a coal stove.

A few times a week, a rabbi from Olyphant would visit
the family in Archibald and tutor the four Berger sons
in Hebrew at 5 a.m. After their Hebrew lessons, the
brothers attended public school. Several times a year,
rabbis from Scranton, with a larger Jewish population,
visited Archibald to collect funds for yeshivas
in New York or Jerusalem. They would always
stop by the Bergers’ home for a home-cooked
kosher meal.

Despite being one of Archibald’s few Jews,
Berger saw his childhood as a chance to grow
his worldview.

“You get to understand how to react with all
people,” he said.

When he joined the military during World
War II, being Jewish wasn’t as easy.

“In the service, there was a feeling of antisem-
itism in certain soldiers who had never met a
Jew before,” Berger said. “They didn’t know
whether the Jews had horns or not-horns,
but there was not a feeling of, shall we say,
friendship.” Berger was proud to serve alongside his
three brothers in the war, who served as a
lieutenant commander on an aircraft carrier, a
doctor and in intelligence, respectively. Every
brother came home after the war.

Recruited three years into his engineering
degree at University of Pennsylvania, Berger
was a model soldier during basic training.

However, 12 weeks into the 16-week program,
Berger suddenly woke up ill. He was rushed
to the infirmary before falling into a coma.

When he woke up, he found out he had a case
of spinal meningococcal meningitis. His doctor told
him that while Berger was asleep, his unit was sent
overseas to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, almost all of
them dying in combat.

Berger begged to remain in the services, despite
an honorary medical discharge, and later worked with
German aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun, an
S.S. officer-turned-U.S. citizen and director of NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center.

Berger completed his engineering degree, as well as
a law degree, at Penn.

Almost a centenarian, Berger’s commitment to
causes for which he cares is still apparent: He lays
tefillin every day and continues to support JLV, hoping
that the organization will continue to support the next
generation of Jewish Philadelphians. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
27