Steve Rogers 1961-2025

Steve Rogers 1961-2025

Remembering a consummate Jewish leader

If you were driving on Piermont Road in Closter last Friday, you’d wonder what was going on.

You’d see police cars’ flashing lights, clotted traffic, a crowd of soberly dressed people walking in a place not known for its pedestrians. You’d see side streets lined with parked cars. It looked like the High Holy Days, but it was a January morning.

It was Steve Rogers’ funeral.

Mr. Rogers, the CEO of the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, had died two days earlier; his funeral, at his shul, Temple Emanu-El of Closter, filled the sanctuary and the ballroom where the overflow crowd sat.

It was an outpouring of both shock and love; Mr. Rogers was one of those rare people whose eulogies were not only effusive but also true.

His survivors include his wife, Robin; their children, Jason, Alec, and Jamie; his brother, Michael; his sister, Ricki; Alec’s wife, Shani; and Jamie’s partner, Andrew Biagorria.

Mr. Rogers — yes, Captain America — was an unusual JCC CEO.

One Purim, Mr. Rogers let his inner Steve Rogers out. (All photos courtesy Kaplen JCC on the Palisades)

We wrote two feature stories about him; one was published on June 23, 2021, and the other just months later, on February 16, 2022.

As we reported, Mr. Rogers “I was born in Monsey.” That’s the Rockland County town that’s home to a huge and ever-growing number of chasidic Jews. “I was born on the other side of the tracks, though,” he continued. The non-chasidic side. His parents, Anne and Ed Rogers, were among the founders of the Pomona Jewish Center, which since has closed, “to my deep sadness,” he said. Mr. Rogers died days after his 64th birthday. That means that he grew up in the ’60s; his mother was what she called a “cultural Jew,” but back then, cultural Jews not only joined but ran synagogues. Pomona was a Conservative shul; “my mother was an early proponent of egalitarianism,” he said. Anne Rogers also was a born leader; she headed the youth group committee, the sisterhood, holiday celebration committees, the cookbook team — everything that was available for her to do, she did. And she taught her son how to lead; maybe more importantly, she made the act of assuming leadership natural for him.

Mr. Rogers remembered a scene from his childhood. “Originally, the shul was a house; in 1969, we were building a building. We had laid out the cement foundation, and it was Simchat Torah. There was glorious weather. So we had a Simchat Torah service on the newly laid foundation, on what was going to be our sanctuary.

“I was 8 years old, and seeing everybody dancing with the Torahs, watching my mother’s joy, left an indelible impression on me.”

Years later, he became president of his own shul, Temple Emanu-El of Closter. “When I was president of Emanu-El, the single greatest thing ever was sitting on the bimah on Shabbat morning, next to the rabbi, and watching as usually two sets of parents watched their kids become bar or bat mitzvah,” he said. “It reminded me, every time, of the look in both my mother’s and my father’s eyes, of the joy I saw. I am looking to give people that same feeling.”

Mr. Rogers, who lived in Tenafly — “a 90-second drive to the JCC,” he said — “had a meaningful and successful career as a lawyer,” he said. He’d been a general counsel, so “I know a little bit about a lot of things. I would say that I am a corporate lawyer, problem-solver, and a crisis manager.” The first of those three skills is specific, but the other two can be applied widely.

So when his law firm merged with another one, the idea that he could do something else began to intrigue him. He’d been deeply involved in the Jewish community as a volunteer.

Mr. Rogers blows a shofar outside the Kaplen JCC’s front door.

“The simple fact is that for the past 25 years or so I have been deeply involved in Jewish causes and Israeli causes,” he said in 2022. “At any given time, I was serving on six, seven, maybe eight boards of directors. Christie” — that’s former Governor Chris, a Republican — “appointed me to the New Jersey-Israel Commission, and I continued there under Murphy” — Governor Phil, a Democrat. He’s been on the boards of the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Foundation, the JCC Association, and the New Jersey branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and he’s a former president of his synagogue, Temple Emanu-El of Closter.

“Other than my family, I don’t have other hobbies,” he said. “I don’t golf. I do Jewish and I do Israel.”

He’d become president of the board of trustees at the JCC in 2021. The institution, like the rest of the world, had been hit hard by the covid pandemic, and it was struggling. Most of what the JCC does is in person; it adjusted, but that adjustment wasn’t easy.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers was going through his own personal adjustment. He realized that he wasn’t ready to stop working, but he hadn’t thought about becoming a Jewish communal professional. At least not consciously.

Just months later, the Kaplen JCC’s CEO, Jordan Shenker, left abruptly.

What to do?

As the board chair, he started a search.

Wrapped in an Israeli flag, Mr. Rogers holds a baby and beams.

And then, as his good friend and successor as board chair, Michael Kallender of Closter, tells the story, Mr. Rogers suggested himself as the new CEO.

Mr. Kallender was surprised, and not in a particularly good way. “I don’t see any chance of that happening,” he said. But when his friend insisted that he’d like to be considered, Mr. Kallender and the rest of the search committee had him take all the tests and assessments and interviews that any other candidate would face. To the committee’s surprise, Mr. Rogers turned out to be a very strong candidate; so strong, in fact, that he was offered the job. “That offer was the best decision I ever made,” Mr. Kallender said. “He flourished, and the JCC flourished. He took the center to new levels.

“And I see it with the people he affected — members, staff, board members, donors, the community at large. I think that what Steve has proved is that people who have had very successful professional careers can take on another role — professional or civic or philanthropic — and do good with balance of their career, like Steve did. I think that was the most rewarding part of his career.”

Why did Mr. Rogers want the job? It’s hard to say for sure, Mr. Kallender said, but he could venture a guess. “I think that he wanted to complete his career with some kind of Jewish giving. And he knew this JCC intimately. He knew our challenges, and he had a vision about how to take it to the next level.

“And he did. He totally did. He put us in such a different position than we’d been in when he took over. He turned staff morale around. Our membership is flourishing. Our programming is flourishing. He had a vision for the future.”

That vision including seeing the JCC as “Bergen County’s Jewish town square, Bergen County’s 92nd Street Y, with quality programs and quality speakers, and its being the center of Jewish activity across the area,” Mr. Kallender said; that included being the place where a range of nonprofit organizations working on the same problem could collaborate.”

When you walk into the JCC, you feel life, he said. “The pool is filled. The gym is full of kids wearing yarmulkes, playing basketball. The chorus was tuning up for a concert.”

Mr. Rogers talks with a released hostage, Moran Stella Yanai; as his tape shows, it was 333 days after the hostages were taken.

Much of that life, that revitalization after the pandemic, was the result of Mr. Rogers’ passion. “Steve was larger than life,” his friend said.

Friendship was another leitmotif in Mr. Rogers’ life. Just about everyone who talked about him, both at the funeral and in interviews, said that once he met you, you were friends. For-real friends.

His rabbi, David-Seth Kirshner of Temple Emanu-El of Closter, was one of his closest friends, and had the decades-too-early job of officiating at his funeral.

The day that Rabbi Kirshner began his new job at Temple Emanu-El, 18 years ago, also was Mr. Rogers’ first day as president. Their friendship began then, too.

“Steve would listen before he spoke,” Rabbi Kirshner said. “He had an economy of words. Sometimes he looked almost standoffish, because he didn’t add to the conversation unless he had something to add. But he was always listening and absorbing what was going on.”

He often was asked for advice, and when he gave it,  “everyone listened, because they knew that the advice was in either your best interest or the organization’s. He had a great blend of humor and focus.

“You know how some people can only be funny and some people can only be serious? He was both, and he knew where and when to do it.”

Mr. Rogers joins staff and small children at the Early Childhood Center.

Something that Mr. Rogers did not know how to do was say no, Rabbi Kirshner continued. “Not when the Jewish community asked something of him. So whether it was the federation, or the Schechter school, or the synagogue, or the JCC, or something related to Israel, he always made himself — his expertise, all his gifts — available, and he made all those places better.”

Rabbi Kirshner talked about Mr. Rogers as a friend. “When you became part of Steve’s circle, whether on an organizational level or as a personal friendship, you were there forever. You were cemented. He would always make himself available, whether it was for a birthday, a guys’ night out, you were being honored by an organization, or whatever it was. He would always be there.

“And he was curious. He wasn’t afraid to ask questions about things that he didn’t know.

“When he got active in the temple, around 2003 or so, he hadn’t been a devout Jew. He was Jewish, but not very engaged. But he was very curious, and he would never be afraid to ask a question, or thought that question was beneath him, even if it was something that he thought he should have known. I always thought that it was a beautiful attribute, that he was always eager to learn.

“For the last 18 years, we’ve had a men’s study group at Temple Emanu-El. It meets on Thursday mornings at 6:30. Steve has been one of our regulars — and he’s the first member of that group who we have lost. For the last three or so years, he’s hosted the group at the JCC.”

That led Rabbi Kirshner to think about the way Mr. Rogers added not only new friends but also new institutions to his life, without dropping the old ones. “Steve had three children,” Rabbi Kirshner said. “You always could ask him which child he loved the most, but he’d never tell you, and in fact he didn’t love one more than the others. So Steve definitely loved the JCC, but he also had a deep and unwavering love for Temple Emanu-El. It’s not as if he did a stint of volunteer work in one place and then moved on to the next.

“He set a new bar here when he became president. He showed that when you finish your presidency, you still can stay engaged. And that became the new standard here, because of Steve. In many places, you finish your term, you do a victory lap, and then it’s adios. But the overwhelming majority of our presidents since Steve have stayed involved, and it was Steve who set that standard.”

Steve looks on as his daughter, Jamie, joins in the Ride for the Living.

He remembers Mr. Rogers’ quick wit and self-deprecating humor. “It was the year that Lehman Brothers went into bankruptcy,” he said. “Steve had worked there, and obviously he lost his job. I gave a High Holiday sermon about how the most precious gift we can give to our family is an ethical will. Steve was on the bimah; he was president then. And at the end, he got up and said, ‘You know, I was so upset that my entire life savings had evaporated with my pension fund, but I’m so relieved that I can just leave my kids a letter.’

“And then he kind of just looked at me.

“The most important thing to know about Steve is that you could always count on him. I could call him seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with a challenge, a concern, a scare, a strategy. He’d always give me sound advice, and he’d never judge me for it. If I deserved to be judged for it, he’d judge me on that moment, not on that character.

“You could always, always count on Steve. In 18 years, we have faced our share of peaks and valleys, and he’s always been steadfast.”

There’s one thing to remember, though, Rabbi Kirshner said. “We talk a lot about Steve as the institutional man, the friend, the organizational guy, the president. All those things are true, but in front of them, he was a son, a brother, a husband, and a father, and he was damn good at those things too.

“The JCC eventually will hire a new CEO, and the synagogue will figure out how to continue without his sagaciousness, wisdom, and thoughtfulness. His family will feel the biggest burden. That’s where I think the Jewish community has to rise to the moment by demonstrating what it is that we stand for and believe it by helping them through this process, for as long as it takes.”

Alyssa Schiffman is the JCC’s chief mission officer.

Mr. Rogers speaks at an Empty Table Shabbat, advocating for the hostages’ release.

“When the board first chose Steve to be the next CEO, some people saw it as a crazy decision. He was a lawyer! And he was a great dad, and everyone knew that too, but what does a lawyer and a great dad know about running a JCC? They’re not the same job.

“But in the past few days, to a person, our board members have said that it was the best decision they’ve ever made.

“Steve was such a great leader. We’re in a strong position now, and it’s because of his vision. When people would come to him with crazy ideas, he’d ask three questions: Is it good for the Jews? Is it good for Israel? And is it good for the community? And if the answer to any of those questions was yes, then we’d figure out a way to do it.

“We had a monthly staff meeting, and every couple of months we had an open forum called Rogers’ Roundup. We envisioned that people would ask questions about the budget, and our financial position. Things like that. But people just liked him so much that the questions ended up being personal, like, what’s your favorite movie?

“At the last meeting we had” — he died about a week later — “someone asked him if he could do any other job at the JCC, which one would it be. And he said, ‘My favorite job, my dream job, would be to sit at the front desk and say hello to people.

“And I thought that people would never get past the front desk. They’d miss their classes, their workouts, just talking to him.

“And he did do that sometimes. He would sit at the front desk and tease people as they came in. He probably knew half the people who walked into the JCC by name.”

To celebrate Walt Frazier’s appearance at the JCC’s sports night last fall, some men dressed in patterned jackets like his. From left: Daniel Zausner, Dan Cohn, Walt Frazier, Michael Kollender, Karl-Anthony Towns, Scott Tesser, JoJo Rubach, and Steve Rogers, who accessorized his with the sticker showing 405 days since the hostages were taken.

Children loved him too, Ms. Schiffman said. “Every year, surrounding his birthday, every early childhood class would make him a card, and they’d parade into the office to give it to him. We’d ask, ‘Where are you going?’ and they’d say, ‘We’re going to see Steve.’

“The joke always was that he was Captain America, but he really was a superhero.”

His understanding of the JCC ranged from the micro to the macro. “Steve had a big vision for this place, from the second he started as CEO, Ms. Schiffman said. “He said that we focus on the 2% of things that we still need to fix, but 98% of what we do is fantastic, and we have to celebrate that 98% even as we continue to work on the other 2%. And I think that we’ve probably gotten it down to .5% by now.

“Steve had a strong vision of what it means to be a Jewish community center post October 7. We’ve built strong connections between the JCC and newly arrived Israeli families; we hear now that people who are looking to move here from Israel now are looking in this area because of the JCC.

“Steve was positioning us for the next 25 years with his really big vision, and now everyone is saying that we are going to do it, because Steve wanted us to do it.”

What is the vision?

“It’s to maintain excellence in everything we do. To keep on having world-class facilities. To keep us in the strong financial position that we’re in now; when we have budget surpluses, we’re able to reinvest them back into the mission. To be the convener that brings the agencies in the New Jersey area to this gorgeous space.

Mr. Rogers sits outside the Kaplen JCC with early childhood teachers Denise Bernard, left, and Fazida Walcott.

“No, we’re not in competition with other JCCs,” she clarified. “It’s to be a convener of organizations outside the JCC.

“He wanted us to remember not just the Holocaust and October 7, but all the things that the Jewish people have been through and overcome.

“He wanted us to keep our camp world-class, and keep our theater programs world-class, and keep our early childhood programs full of happy children.

“He’d say that in a couple of years, the parents who are coming in now will be grandparents, and their grandchildren will be coming here, or their own parents will be here for senior services. So we gotta do good. We have to be good.”

Sue Gelsey of Haworth is the JCC’s chief engagement officer; now she’s also interim CEO.

“I’ve never seen anyone who was as beloved as Steve,” she said. “You think that no one could be the whole package, but he was. Business acumen, people skills, the ability to work with everyone — members, board, staff, donors — when I say everyone, I mean everyone. Everyone everyone everyone.”

Soon after he died, the staff got together to tell stories about him, and Ms. Gelsey said that she was struck not only by the number of stories — everyone had one — but also their specificity. People said general things about his kindness, his breadth of knowledge, his approachability — but they also had stories specific to each one of them. “Everyone thought they had a unique relationship with Steve — and they were right.”

Steven and Robin Rogers

That’s because Mr. Rogers knew people well, Ms. Gelsey said. “He was always watching. He was always observing, figuring out what was most important to each person.

“He always made you want to be better — to be better for him, to be better around him. It is such a gift.

“I’ve been in the field for so long that I’ve seen other lay people become executives,” she continued; before she returned to the Kaplen JCC, she’d worked at the JCC Association. She was at the JCCA when Mr. Rogers became CEO, and returned soon afterward, so she’d seen his adventure unfold. “They think, ‘Oh, that would be such a fun job.’ But you never know the job until you’re in it.

“From the minute Steve took the job, there was nothing that ever was beneath him. He would never say ‘I don’t do that.’ And there was nothing that ever was too big for him, too big a challenge or an opportunity. There was never a person or a situation that he would shy away from.

“He participated in a new executive program when he took the job at the JCC, although he’d been a professional for 40 years. He not only signed up for it, he fully participated in it. We offered a course about building racial stamina. It was six sessions, 90 minutes each, plus a chavruta, and not only did he sign up for it, he fully participated in it.”

He taught by example. After a four-day seminar at Brandeis on countering Jew hatred that she and Mr. Rogers took together this summer, Mr. Rogers took to heart the lesson that there are small things that everyone can do and that can make a difference. “So he came back wearing a tape.” The tape, on his shirt, bore the number of days the hostages Hamas took have been held in Gaza. He updated it every day. “For the first days that he wore it, maybe even the first few weeks, people would stop and ask him about it, and each time there’d be a five-minute conversation about it. There was nothing too big or too small for him. The conversation was welcome, but he didn’t force it. He was proud of being a source of education and inspiration.”

Mr. Rogers also valued treating people with dignity and decency, Ms. Gelsey said.

Mr. Rogers lights candles for the victims of October 7 at their first yarzheit, on October 7, 2024.

“Several people who we initiated a separation with” — to be clear, she’s talking about employees who Mr. Rogers had fired — “not only came to the funeral, but wrote incredibly complimentary things on social media. That’s because he treated them with respect, made sure they were cared for, and did the right thing by them.

“Steve’s lessons were so simple. Do the right thing and be nice to everyone. It’s not that complicated.”

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