From President Delaney:

It is my privilege to announce Nancy and Charlie Breslin, two of our extraordinary members and volunteers, will be the Honorees at our annual event celebrating Shomrei members for their service to our community. I am also thrilled to share that Romy Rost will be our Rising Star honoree this year for her tireless efforts as a Board member and in building a thriving and dynamic community among our young families.

Save the Date! Please join us to celebrate our Honorees at Cirque du Shomrei, Saturday, February 1, 7:30pm.

Please also place an ad honoring Nancy, Charlie and Romy for all they bring to our community in our annual Shomrei Directory and Ad Journal. 

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The Breslins
When Nancy and Charlie moved to Glen Ridge 17 years ago, they wanted to join a synagogue where they could thrive as a family. They chose Shomrei and we have benefited from that choice every day since then. Nancy, Charlie and their wonderful kids, Alan, Kate and Lila, have been amongst our most committed and enthusiastic volunteers for almost two decades. When there is a need at Shomrei, the Breslins always step up to give generously of their time and creative energy. They truly are at the center of our community.

Nancy Breslin
Nancy, a trained artist and interior designer, uses her creative talents to produce the most vibrant Purim Carnival in town. Every year, her organizational skills and clever ideas for craft projects and games make the carnival a highlight for the children and teens of our community. Envisioning a joyful communal gathering, she engages the entire congregation — adults and teens — to help run booths and activities. She also makes sure the Carnival reflects the theme of the Purim Shpiel and offers her expertise to help create gorgeous backdrops and costumes for the production. 

Endlessly creative and resourceful, Nancy has offered craft and STEM enrichment classes at the preschool. Our teachers still talk about the Great Wall of China, which she created from plastic cups. Even though she is now working full-time as an art teacher at Golda Och, Nancy continues to work with Shomrei kids to create art projects to hang in the Sukkah every fall. 

When in 2018, a flood destroyed the floors and walls of the preschool, Nancy did the redesign, working with a committee to reimagine the space as well as pick new flooring and paint colors. The result was thoughtfully designed classrooms. Most recently, she assisted with the renovation of the conference room next to the office, creating a feeling of openness and calm in a room that once felt cluttered and small. 

Charlie Breslin
After joining Shomrei, Charlie immediately became a regular at Shabbat services. Charlie, a marketing and logistics consultant for luxury consumer goods, has brought his entrepreneurial vision and energy to multiple projects at Shomrei.

One of Charlie’s sayings is, “You can’t have a community unless you make a community.” Since Sukkot is his favorite holiday, he decided to make it a fun multi-family multi-generational project. He took charge of organizing our members and their children to help set up the large Sukkah at Shomrei, which was also decorated by the kids. Every year, he turns this holiday into a true community-building experience.

Once his children were in the preschool and JLC, Charlie joined the Education Committee, helping to hire a new education director and taking the lead in advocating for a new concept — a Saturday Hebrew school, so that more congregants would gather to celebrate Shabbat together. Ultimately, this idea has been instrumental in the growth of Shomrei and our JLC program.

Charlie also looked for opportunities to improve our fundraising by streamlining our Shalach Manot bags for Purim. As anyone who has interacted with Charlie within shouting distance of Purim knows, he approaches this task with enthusiasm, entrepreneurship and logistical know-how. It is no exaggeration to say that Charlie’s “gentle” persistence and leadership have transformed our Shalach Manot efforts, including by tripling the money raised.

And this is just one example of how Charlie fills every event he works on with joy and enthusiasm. Whether it’s schmoozing and flipping hamburgers at barbecues, churning out latkes at Hanukkah or polishing the Torah crowns before every high holidays, his joy and enthusiasm for Shomrei come through in everything he does.

I also want to highlight that the Breslin’s compassion and generosity extend far beyond our community. To give just one example, prior to Covid, the entire Breslin clan would volunteer with homeless families at Shomrei. They not only prepared their meals but hosted the families as their guests at the Glen Ridge town pool. They are a truly remarkable family and we are so incredibly grateful to have them as part of our community.

Romy Rost
Those who know Romy recognize her as a force of nature, juggling a seemingly impossible schedule of family, career and Shomrei with joy and endless energy. Romy and her husband Jordan moved to Montclair in 2018 when their youngest daughter Ruby was nearly two and enrolled her in Shomrei’s preschool. Later her sister, Noa joined her. By day, she is a change management professional, working with a Princeton-based pharmaceutical company, helping them to manage the “people” side of change through team effectiveness and leadership development.

Romy has always credited the loving preschool staff with making her feel welcome and grounded in Montclair. As she started making friends through the Shomrei preschool, she saw a real opportunity to build a new generation of Shomrei families and leaders. She brought this vision and energy initially to her role as co-chair of the Preschool PTA, where she focused on supporting class parents, class engagement and promoting the preschool to the Montclair community in general. Then, inspired by the success of a small group of parents who fundraised to transform our playground, she went “all in” for Shomrei – joining the Education Committee, co-chairing Programming and becoming a Board member.

Whether she is organizing families for Shabbat dinners, pulling a team together for the Art Mazel Tov auction, or hosting a wildly successful Parents’ Night Out, Romy’s mission at Shomrei is to grow our sense of community by connecting adults and their kids to other congregants while engaging them with Jewish life, values and friendship. I’m so grateful that Romy recently agreed to take on a new leadership role on the Board as VP of Membership and we are incredibly excited to see what new things her energy and leadership will bring to our community.

Join us at Cirque du Shomrei!
It is truly an honor to be able to recognize these three exceptional leaders in our community. I hope that you can join me, Rabbi Juile and the whole Shomrei Board in honoring them on the evening of Saturday, February 1st at our Cirque du Shomrei event. I also hope you can express your gratitude to them in your own words by placing an ad honoring their contributions in our Annual Directory. 

We can’t wait to see you in February to celebrate and toast these exceptional leaders!

Warmly,

Aaron Delaney
President
Shomrei Emunah