Sarah Kravits: A Busy Life at Shomrei

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Sarah Kravits

Sarah Kravits

How lucky for Shomrei that Sarah Kravits was looking for a small, friendly synagogue to join fairly close to her new home in West Orange in 2007.

“I am a Jew by choice. I don’t think I changed to something, instead, I found my path,” she explained, noting that she grew up Episcopalian in Columbia, Maryland. “My hometown was very diverse. I had lots of Jewish friends who invited me to their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, where I realized I really liked Judaism.”

You’ve probably seen her rushing in and out of the building, picking up her children, attending an important meeting, greeting friends for Shabbat services, always with her signature sparkling smile and a friendly wave.

She’s raising a family while pursuing an interesting career: she teaches “New Student Seminar”—basically how to survive in college—every fall at Montclair State University. In conjunction with the class, she wrote a textbook for freshmen students, emphasizing how to manage time and set goals.

A 1988 graduate of the University of Virginia, Sarah was set on a career as an actress. (She earned her graduate degree, a Masters In Fine Arts in Acting, at Catholic University in 1991.) But cupid had other plans when she took part in A Midsummer Night’s Dream playing Hermia opposite Garth Kravits as Lysander in 1990.

Their future was in the stars: they were married in 1991 in Columbia in a ceremony conducted by the minister of her mother’s church.

“I started conversion classes at Manhattan’s B’nai Jeshurun a year later. I wanted to take this step before we had children. Garth’s family was always very supportive of my decision,” she said. “The hardest part was finding the mikvah! I kept asking people, `Where is it?’” (It was discreetly located on 78th Street.)

In her busy life at Shomrei, she serves on the Board of Directors, is the Co-Chair of Programming, a former Shomrei Seder chair, and often participates in events with STOM (Shomrei Teens of Montclair) and the Jewish Learning Center. She encourages her children—Josephine, 14; Louis, 12; and Delia, 8—to help out when Shomrei takes its turn in the Interfaith Hospitality Network program. “I think it’s so important that all of us realize how fortunate we are, not better than others, but more fortunate,” she said.

Sarah was very pleased with the international population and diverse character of West Orange when they moved there in 2004, but found the local synagogues just too big. Then Marianne Scheer and Geoff Sadow introduced her to Shomrei. After attending High Holiday services with us, she was ready to join our congregation.

Her husband, who grew up in a Conservative home, left the choice of a synagogue up to her. Garth travels a great deal in his roles as an actor, musician, and songwriter; he even built a recording studio in the basement of their house.

The next big date on the family’s calendar is Louis’ Bar Mitzvah in January, 2015, the second such event at Shomrei. Josephine became a Bat Mitzvah in Oct. 2012. Delia is in the 3rd grade of the JLC.

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