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Name: Leah Silver

Occupation: Retired systems analyst for Belcore, then Telcordia

Address: Highland Park

Family: Widow of Ruben Silver, executive director of Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth, who died three years ago in a car accident. Two daughters: Dr. Hilary Silver is professor of sociology at Brown University, Providence R.I.; and Dr. Rebecca Merkin is a professor of intercultural communications at Baruch College, one of the 10 senior colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY) and married to David Merkin of Torah Mesorah. They have four children.

Brother Joel Bassan, a retired as processor at Social Security Data Center for the federal government lives with wife Micki in Albuquerque, N.M. They have four children. Sister Esther Gamerman is married to Alfred Gamerman, who manages real estate in Owings Mills, Md. They have four children. Older brother Rabbi Jacob Bassan died in Silver Spring, Md. and older sister Naomi Porat died in Haifa, Israel. Parents were born in Palestine and are buried in Petach Tikvah, Israel.

Community activities: Co-president with Carolyn Metz of the Raritan Valley Chapter of Hadassah and member of the Highland Park Conservative Temple-Congregation Anshe Emeth study group and non-egalitarian minyan, Bikur Cholim and the Jewish federation.

Hobbies: "Doing puzzles, reading, listening to music, and walking."

Self-portrait: "I am ever evolving, learning, and growing."

Motto: "Bal tashchit." "An English equivalent is 'Waste not want not'."

Greatest accomplishment: "Are my two beautiful daughters who are committed to Judaism and learning."

Bad habits: "For my family it's my humming while I work."

Favorite TV program: "Jeopardy."

Favorite food: "Eggs. They can be soft-boiled, hard-boiled, an omelet, or frittata. I love them every which way."

Best childhood memory: "Sitting on my father's knee and singing with my mother while I worked with her in the kitchen peeling vegetables. I had a song for everything."

People don't know that I... "am motivated to help Jerusalem and Hadassah by memories of my grandfather's having starved to death in Jerusalem during WWI when the Turks and British laid waste the land, and of the Hadassah doctors and nurses who were murdered during the War of Independence on the road to Jerusalem while the world -- represented by British soldiers -- watched and did nothing to stop it. This is what I mean when I say 'never again'."

Last book I read: "'American Judaism,' by Jonathan Sarna. "It's a book that surveys Judaism in America from the origins of the country to the present day."

Biggest asset in the local Jewish Community: "The biggest asset are the volunteer workers in the temples, congregations, and all the Jewish organizations."

Biggest problem in the local Jewish community: "How to be able to pay to educate our children properly."

If I had more time I would... "finish organizing family letters and put them on the computer to use them in making a family history."