‘These are capable people’
How Yachad matches its participants with jobs, and everybody wins
To sit in Jus by Julie with Raquel Selevan, the director of Yachad New Jersey, is to understand how deeply Yachad is woven into the community.
The kosher-certified café in Teaneck, which specializes in healthy salads and juices, is on a corner, and it has big windows on both sides. Everyone can see everything, whether you’re inside or outside, and that means that everyone sees Rocky -— as everyone calls her — and at a rough estimate, three out of every four people who come into the café say hello to her and smile broadly at her. Some of them see her from the outside and come in just to say hello.
That says a lot about Ms. Selevan, and it also says a lot about Yachad, the Orthodox Union organization that works with people with developmental disabilities.
Yachad provides teenagers with after-school programming, offers day programming to people 21 and older, and, among its other initiatives, helps those clients for whom it is appropriate to learn not only life skills but employment skills as well.
Two Yachad clients work at Jus by Julie. As Ms. Selevan and the café’s manager, Sharon Herenstein, explain, and if three out of four people know Rocky, it seems that somehow five out of four know Sharon. Yachad participants Meir and Tova don’t do make-work, and they’re not tolerated by their fellow workers. Just like any other employee, they carry out tasks necessary to the business, and they’re seen as people whose work, like any other good employee’s, contributes to the business. So they’re not tolerated — they’re valued.
Yachad New Jersey is going to honor Ms. Herenstein, along with four other people whose work and dedication help advance its goals, at its annual dinner on January 4. (See below.)
Ms. Selevan and Ms. Herenstein explained how Yachad’s JUF — the Jewish Union Foundation — works in general, and specifically how it works with Jus by Julie.
“Sharon and I met at Camp Lavi, in 2008,” Ms. Selevan said. That’s a popular modern Orthodox camp in the Poconos that partners with Yachad and welcomes its participants and staff. “I was the program director for Yachad there, and Sharon was the girls’ head counselor. Sharon was incredibly warm and welcoming, and she always was trying to think of ways to integrate Yachad into the camp.” Ms. Selevan was at camp for five summers; Ms. Herenstein was there for all of them.
After camp, life got in the way and they drifted out of touch, but each knew the other lived in Teaneck. Then, “I walked into Jus by Julie one day” — the café is part of a small, regional, family-owned chain, and it’s been in Teaneck for about three years — “and I saw Sharon. She sees the abilities and strengths and potential in everyone, and we were looking for more vocational opportunities. So I approached her — at the same time as the parent of one of our participants did — and that’s how we ended up having two participants who work here two days a week.”
Ms. Herenstein’s decision to hire workers from Yachad is a logical culmination of her life experiences.
“I had an uncle with special needs,” she said. “He grew up in Monsey, and he lived in a state-run facility. It was an amazing place. Usually people like my uncle were drugged and ignored, but the people who ran the place treated him really well. He was lucky.”
But still.
“His parents were European-born, and we just didn’t talk about it. I didn’t see him. My father and his brother, my other uncle, would go see him. They used to bring my grandmother, until she died, 15 years or so ago; after that, my father would still go.
“But I had no relationship with my uncle.
“Imagine if my uncle had Yachad. Imagine what it would have been like if Yachad had been around then. And imagine what my bubbe’s life would have been like if my uncle had Yachad.”
She and her sister, Lisa Gutkin, who lives in Metro-
West, both were drawn to working with people with developmental disabilities because of their uncle. Ms. Gutkin is an active supporter of the Friendship Circle in Livingston, her sister said.
Ms. Herenstein has had a varied career, but when she talks about it, a pattern comes clear. “I went to college, majored in history, got married, stayed home with my kids, and then I was like, ‘I have to do something.’ And then a toy store opened on Cedar Lane, and I became its manager, and I loved it.
“I also worked at Camp Lavi for nine years.” She was able to be at camp during the summer — she brought her three kids with her — and to manage the toy store during the year.
“Then the toy store closed,” she said. “I cried when it closed. I always went to the toy fair. I brought Bananagrams to New Jersey! I had the time of my life.”
She also learned a lot — about educational toys and about managing a small business.
Next, she got a job as a shadow to a student, Eli Motechin, at the Moriah School in Englewood; she learned how to shadow at the Kahane Center, which also is in Englewood.
That job was profoundly important for her, Ms. Herenstein said. “As much as my uncle got me interested, Eli is the one who changed me,” she said. “He’s the one who showed me that if you just give someone a chance, he will do it.
“I shadowed him for three years. He has the most unbelievable parents. He’s 22 years old now, and he is incredible.” She’s still close to him and his family.”
Ms. Herenstein worked at Moriah for 12 years, and after Eli left the school, she became an assistant teacher, “and then I got my degree and moved to special ed,” she said.
But eventually she burned out, at least temporarily. “I just needed a break,” she said. “So I did something completely opposite. I stumbled on Jus by Julie, two months after it opened, and that was that.” She’s managed the store since then.
But her passion for working with young people with developmental disabilities never left her.
“The mom of one of the two Yachad students who works here now was having lunch with her friend,” Ms. Herenstein said. “I have a friend who has a son with autism, and I know that when they leave school is when it gets hard.” The state of New Jersey supports people with special needs until they turn 21. “So it’s hard.”
They can go to organizations like Yachad — but there aren’t that many. It’s the lucky ones who find their way there.
“So I asked one of these women” — like so many parents in Teaneck, and like so many of Ms. Herenstein’s customers, she and Ms. Herenstein are friends — “what her son Meir was up to. She said that he is getting vocational training at Yachad.”
Meir’s mother, Sara Olshin, who since, tragically, has died, was “the advocate of advocates for her son, and for the population at large. She saw everything as a potential opportunity for him.
“And I looked at her, and I said, ‘Do you think he wants to work here?’”
The answer was yes.
“So I told Rocky, and she sent me Meir and Tova.”
The two, who both are in their mid-20s, started as interns. After a year, state regulations mandated that if they were to stay, they’d have to become employees; internships can last no longer than a year. That was a no-brainer for Ms. Herenstein. “I called my bosses, and I said, ‘I don’t know if this is what you want, but we can’t have them if they’re not on the payroll.”” She made it clear that she wanted them. “And they said, ‘Put them on the payroll!’”
Like any other two employees chosen at random would be, Meir and Tova are very different from each other. “Meir sits with the iPad. Tova is ‘Hi! Hi! How are you? You look beautiful!’
“She is so happy to be in a social environment.”
Both the Yachad participants work with Uber drivers; some of the drivers at first were uncomfortable with them. But Ms. Herenstein was fierce in her determination to overcome that reluctance, and it worked.
“These are capable people,” she said.
“There is one Uber driver, Pablo, who loves Meir,” she continued. “He fist-bumps him. One time, Pablo saw Meir when he was driving by, and he honked and waved, and Meir started smiling and waving.”
Ms. Herenstein knows everyone in town, Ms. Selevan said. “Jus by Julie is a staple in the community,” she said. “Tova sees people she knows all over the community.”
So does she, Ms. Herenstein added. “When I see someone in town, I say hi. And my husband asks, ‘Who is that?’ and I say, ‘Cold brew and half and half.’ He says, ‘You don’t know her name?’ And I say, ‘I don’t have to!’
“Tova also knows them all.”
One of the reasons that Ms. Herenstein is so successful is that she is both granular and realistic in her approach to the Yachad employees, Ms. Selevan said. She breaks down their tasks, in detail, on a spreadsheet. “She provides them with clear instructions and patient support.” She also assigns them the work that suits their personalities and interests.
“We have to be good matchmakers,” Ms. Selevan said. “It has to be successful. It won’t work if it’s too hard. And you don’t know what will work until the participant comes in.”
“There are certainly some businesses where it wouldn’t work as well,” Ms. Herenstein said. The only reason she’s agreeing to be honored is because she hopes that other local merchants will follow her lead by hiring Yachad participants. She acknowledges that it won’t be right for all businesses, she said.
“It might not work in a shop that sells high-end, delicate items. If one of the kids drops a salad, it’s a salad. If someone drops an expensive vase, it’s a big deal.”
“That would be an anxiety-ridden, terrible match,” Ms. Selevan agreed. “It would also be terrible for the Yachad participant. It would be bad on bad.
“We want to make sure that people are set up for success.”
Sarah Leah Kahn-Erlichman of Teaneck is the director of JUF NJ.
“We provide what are called dayhab or daytime services for adults, 21 and older,” she said. “We have two focuses — daily life skills, and the skills that one would need to attain employment. And then once one has attained employment, we offer support through job coaching.”
It’s important to make clear that JUF is not an employment agency, she said. “We do assist people in getting jobs, but we don’t have a job bank.
“Each person has their own strengths and weaknesses, and we work together with them to guide them toward positions that would maximize their skills.
“For example, Meir has a natural affinity for technology — specifically the iPad — and his position at Jus by Julie is ideal for him because he enjoys working with the technology to facilitate order fulfilment.
“He is good at what he does.
“He and Tova complement each other amazingly. Tova is forward-thinking, and she excels at customer service. She excels at ‘Hi! How are you? Where are you from? Or do I know you?’
“She greets the Uber drivers, and she gets them their orders.
“We have a variety of modalities available,” Ms. Kahn-Erlichman continued. “There is instruction on budgeting and understanding your paycheck. We also have a mock supermarket, and we recently added a fully working cash register and scanner, with a bar coder and checkout showing up on a new screen, not an old-fashioned one.
“We also have a mock office area, with computers available, where participants can work with different programs and practice their math and typing skills.
“We were able to get a large mailing out for Yachad; our participants experience stuffing envelopes, placing the return address labels, and putting on stamps.
“We also try to engage participants with meaningful volunteer activities in the community at large,” she continued. Those activities are wide-ranging, and appeal to a range of participants.
“Throughout the spring and summer, we go to Flat Rock Brook in Englewood and help clear the trails of debris and do basic gardening,” Ms. Kahn-Erlichman said. “We have volunteered at different schools in their lost and founds, maintaining those systems. In the past, we have worked with various day cares to get some hands-on experience in the child-care sphere.
“We’ve partnered with TVAC, the Teaneck volunteer ambulance corps, to help in their center. Somebody has to refill the forks and knives, and we are happy to offer that service. It is a meaningful interaction and engagement with part of the community.
“We will work with various synagogues, packing bags for various reasons; we partnered with Rinat” — a Teaneck shul — “to help pack their Simchat Torah bags.
“Engaging with the community is our number one priority. If there is a way to attend an event, we will find a way to attend it. We walk down the street to get Slurpees. If it is a nice day, we are in the park. If it’s a nice day, there’s no reason to sit inside staring at each other.”
The program includes about 30 participants, Ms. Kahn-Erlichman said. “We have one from West Orange and one from Highland Park; right now, most are from Teaneck and Passaic — that’s where you find the highest concentration of Jews.” But participants are welcome from across North Jersey and MetroWest, she said.
“We’re a faith-based program,” she added. Although it is not only for Jews, “we adhere to the Jewish schedule and programs, and our values are guided by Yachad, and by the Orthodox Union.”
About seven of those 30 participants have jobs, she said. And that’s fine. Participants are encouraged to try to get jobs, and aided in that search, once they are ready for it. If they’re not, they’re not, and that too is fine. The program is personalized. There is no one size — or one job, or one state of readiness — that fits all.
Her work is “heartwarming,” Ms. Kahn-Erlichman said. “We have a participant in the program who goes away to summer camp in the summer. He’s done that for years, and for years he’s taken leave from his job. When he came back, the store put out a big sign in the front, saying ‘Welcome Back! We Missed You!’ and using his name.
“We have a participant whose job coach comes to the place he works every week to help facilitate his work. She had to switch the day of the week one week, and the company where he works was disappointed. The day she normally would have been there was his birthday. They bought a birthday cake for him, and they wanted the job coach to be there when he saw it.
Ms. Kahn-Erlichman, Ms. Herenstein, and Ms. Selevan all want to make a point entirely clear. Yachad participants might be hired out of a charitable impulse, but that’s not why they’re retained. They are kept in their jobs because they’re good at what they do.
“I want to highlight that this is not chesed,” Ms. Kahn-Erlichman said. It’s not charity. “Our participants are valuable members of their place of employment, both for their skills and for their interactions.
“Sometimes they might have started that way, but from these stories, you can see that our participants are valued members of the staff where they work.”
Participants work or have worked not only in Jus by Julie but also in a hotel in Paramus, in Grand and Essex in Teaneck, Trader Joe’s and Home Depot in Paramus, and Capalbo’s Gift Baskets in Passaic. They’ve stocked shelves, worked in housekeeping, and put together online orders.
“I’m accepting this honor because I want more people to know about hiring people from Yachad,” Ms. Herenstein said. “It’s all about spreading the word.”
“I thought Sharon would be amazing because her message is about employment opportunities, which is a need for the participants but also changes the community,” Ms. Selevan said. “Tova and Meir feel happy and productive.” They also help the business, in both tangible and more metaphysical ways.
Ms. Herenstein feels so strongly about it that she offers to help anyone who wants to do what she’s doing. “If you have a business, work with Yachad participants; and call me if you need help setting up,” Ms. Herenstein said.
“I have two grandchildren, and another one is on the way. I don’t know what will be with my grandchildren. We never can know. I want opportunities for these kids, now.
“Give them a chance. We know what they can’t do. I don’t put them on the cash register — that’s hard even for me. But they run all our Uber deliveries. When they’re here, I don’t even need to look at it. They run everything.”
To learn more about Yachad, and about JUF NJ, go to www.yachad.org/newjersey.
Who: Yachad NJ
What: Holds its annual gala dinner
When: On January 4, motzei Shabbes, at 8 p.m.
Where: At the Marriott Glenpointe in Teaneck
Why: To raise funds for programming, and to award five honors
To learn more: Go to Yachad.org/newjersey/gala
Who is being honored: Dr. Aliza Frohlich with the Women’s Leadership award; the Adler family with the Young Leadership/Alumni award; Dov and Gayle Katz with the Keter Shem Tov award; the Kooijmans family with the Yachad Family award, and Sharon Herenstein and Jus by Julie with the Lev business award. Each one of the honorees deserves a separate story; each has one.
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