Rob and Sue are so honored and humbled to be chosen to be part of this year’s Temple Community Celebration as honorees. Here are some fun facts you might not be aware of: Rob and Sue lived around the corner from each other in Queens, and Rob’s band played at Sue’s Sweet 16 party. They were married in 1976 and will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this November! Rob and Sue enjoy traveling, biking and cooking together.

Rob and Sue have been part of the Temple Beth El community for 38 years. Their three children, Evan, Mat and Erica, all became B’nai Mitzvah at TBE. Erica and Aaron had their East coast wedding with Rabbi Jeff here and also had Kira’s baby naming. Mat and Daniella had Jordan and Luca’s baby naming with Rabbi Jeff. They are blessed to share their lives with seven “grand treasures” who live in New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.

Rob has enjoyed playing piano since the age of eight and played in his first musical, Oklahoma, at Flushing High School. Rob’s dad and uncle owned a coffee shop/candy store in Forest Hills, where he learned to make a mean egg-cream. He attended Queens College for two years and then transferred to the University of Miami, where he graduated. Rob obtained a Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling and worked for several years at the Helen Keller National Center, where he learned sign language. He then got his Ph.D. in Psychology from Hofstra in 1985 and worked at the Western Suffolk B.O.C.E.S. program for students that were hearing impaired and as well as others with a wide range of emotional or behavioral challenges. He also maintained his private practice, which has continued to this day. Rob loves to tend to his garden and yard, where you may find him planting vegetables or flower beds.

Sue has always been an advocate for those with quieter voices and has learned over the years how to create meaningful connections to support people with different passions. As a special education teacher for the Smithtown School district for over 32 years, she was able to create programs to include all children and to create professional development classes to teach teachers the importance of empowering children who learn differently. Her passion is to create a space for everyone to thrive and to be part of something that is impactful. In Smithtown, she created the “Leadership Club” for 4th and 5th graders to learn about community service projects. She also created the Inclusion model for the elementary schools so that all children could learn side by side with support. That program is still thriving today!

Rob and Sue have been part of many Social Action programs along with other projects that support the temple. At Temple Beth El, Sue started as a member of the Board of Trustees as Recording Secretary, quickly moving on to Religious School Chair and Hebrew High School Co-Chair. Along with Sue Kaufman, Sue gave away B’nai Mitzvah dates for over 20 years. She moved on to Vice President of Education and then President of Temple Beth El, one of the proudest moments of her life! Spending one-on-one time with Rabbi Jeff and having her “out of the box” thinking heard and supported was especially powerful. Sue and Carol Werblin responded to a community need by creating our Sunday Soup Kitchen, in partnership with St. Hugh’s. Together, they created a large volunteer team at the Moose Lodge, alongside many families that embraced this program and helped create Temple Beth El Project H.O.P.E. Once COVID shut that down, they continued to cook once a month with amazing and dedicated “chefs.” We now deliver the food to 140 people identified as food insecure in our Huntington Community. At the same time, we started the Hospice House Baking program, brought to us by Lori Street Ames, where volunteers bake delicious treats and snacks that are delivered to the Visiting Nurse Hospice House in East Northport every week. The next opportunity was with Elisa McDonagh and the creation of the Birthday-In-A-Duffle program five years ago, in partnership with Birthday Wishes. They create beautiful, individualized birthday bags for children in eight school districts that are identified as “homeless.”

In 1997, Rob became involved with a musical revue spearheaded by Cantor Sandy Sherry (z”l). This then led to the formation of the Chutzpah Repertory Theatre, staging its first musical, Fiddler on the Roof, in 1998. After such a gratifying experience, he was thrilled to lend his talents to all the productions at TBE up to 1776, staged in 2024. He also enjoys playing at T.G.I.S. (Thank God It’s Shabbat) services, the Klezmer band on Simchat Torah,

and offers his love for gardening to the Temple Beautification Committee. Rob is proud to have chaired the committee to organize the TBE kitchen renovation from 2018 to its completion in 2021.

For the past two years, Rob and Steve Jarmon have been co-presidents of the Huntington Food Pantry, along with Nancy Seiden. Twice a week, bags of groceries are distributed at the LIRR train station. Other temple members are also helping to serve the food insecure in our community.

There is much work to be done to bring smiles to those in need, and Sue and Rob continue to look and support those initiatives. We are so grateful to all the friends we’ve made and to all the people who support our projects and volunteer their time to make a difference in our community. We wouldn’t be able to create these initiatives without the enthusiasm and positivity we’ve received along with the message “sure, I’m happy to help!” That is what Temple Beth El represents to us, our family and to our community. Thank you for honoring us this year!