Area woman will be feted by Chabad

A local wife, mother and volunteer who has successfully met the challenge of creating a traditional Jewish home in suburbia and a Jewish African-American woman who leads an observant life in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, will be the focus of the 20th annual Jewish Women's Day on Feb. 25.

The event, which is sponsored by Chabad of Western Monmouth County, will take place at 11 a.m. at the headquarters of the Morganville Volunteer Fire Company, 78 Tennent Road, Marlboro.

Although Caryn Schweitzer, the recipient of the Eishet Chayil (Woman of Valor) award, and Akedah Fulcher, the keynote speaker, have faced different obstacles, both will address the theme "Growing Through Our Challenges."

"Everybody has challenges of different kinds," said Schweitzer. "It's one thing to get through a challenge, it's another to gain from it."

Schweitzer can't remember a time when she wasn't involved in Jewish life. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Merrick, Long Island, she recalls growing up in a kosher, traditional home where holidays were observed and the family was active in the synagogue, as well as in the general Jewish community. When she and her husband, Sam, who met when both were students at SUNY Albany, were married 27 years ago, they decided that was the kind of home they wanted to create as well.

"It was important for me as an individual and as a couple. It was how we wanted to raise our children," she said.

The couple have two daughters. Sara, 22, graduated from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., with a degree in speech and hearing, and is pursuing a master's degree in speech pathology. Arielle, 17, will soon graduate from the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union Counties and spend the next three months traveling and learning in Eastern Europe and Israel through her school's Neshama program. She will begin college in the fall and plans to study nursing.

"You can't just preach, you have to practice," Schweitzer said of the example she has set for her daughters. "You have to live it so that it becomes a very important part of their roots."

Since moving to Marlboro in 1981, Schweitzer, who worked as an accountant before starting her family, has been involved in local synagogues, Jewish organizations and her children's schools. The family belonged to a conservative synagogue, where she assisted in organizing the monthly Shabbat dinners. For the past two years, she has organized a team for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk.

The Schweitzer family had been supportive of Chabad and participated in many of its activities, but it wasn't until there was a loss in the family six years ago and Sam, who is first vice president of a financial services firm in Manhattan, began to participate in the minyan, that the entire family became more involved.

"It was a warm environment that just did it for us," Schweitzer recalled. "We liked the rabbi and Tova, and the people we met. Everyone is always welcome there."

Fulcher's professional life and her community life in Crown Heights are worlds apart. After serving four years as a New York Police Department school safety officer, she currently works as a corrections officer in one of the toughest precincts in New York, Riker's Island.

Fulcher's educational background includes a master's degree in forensic psychology, and training and certification in CASAC management, substance abuse counseling, dispute resolution and anger management.

As acting director of Transitions Inc., Fulcher has organized a team of mental health professionals, social workers, educators, substance abuse counselors and rabbis to holistically address the concerns of Jewish youth at risk and their families. Youth service coordinators and counselors provide workshops, programs, community service activities and group counseling sessions to promote growth, awareness and social responsibility.

Fulcher has lectured throughout the United States and conducted diversity training seminars for many agencies, universities, colleges and yeshivoth, as well as workshops and seminars for youth service coordinators, counselors and education specialists.

In addition to a hot and cold buffet brunch, the Women's Day program will include an auction of themed gift baskets created and donated by the women of Chabad. Rebbetzins Tova Chazanow, Zisi Bernstein and Sara Schapiro are coordinators of the event.

The cost of the program is $30 with a prepaid reservation. Admission at the door will be $36. Contributions, which include one ticket, can be made in the categories of Golden Patron ($126), Patron ($100), Sponsor ($72) and Donor ($54). For information or reservations call (732) 972-3687.