Home

Name: Rabbi George Nudell

Occupation: Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, Scotch Plains, for 27 years

Address: Scotch Plains

Family: Married to Liba for 28 years. Three children: sons Elizar and Yoav, and daughter Talia. Parents Irving and Charlotte Nudell of Minneapolis. Brother Ric Nudell is a computer teacher in a vocational high school in Montpelier, Vt., and a father of three.

Community activities: Former president of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Ministerium -- the clergy of all faiths located in Scotch Plains-Fanwood, whose purpose is to bring groups together who wouldn't ordinarily cross paths. The group promotes the annual Crop Walk for Hunger, holds a community Thanksgiving service and other programs focusing on community concerns.

Hobbies: "Vegetarian cooking and baking. I started cooking in college when I became a vegetarian and you have to learn what food is about and how to prepare it, otherwise it gets very boring."

Self-portrait: "The whole rabbi thing is about teaching and that is what I am and what I do. Whether I'm on the bimah -- a lot of my sermons will have teaching in them -- or when I'm in the religious school or with my own children, I'm teaching values and traditions. I think that's who I am and what I was born to do. I started teaching in our community religious school when I was still in USY in high school, when the USY leader Arnold Goodman challenged us to step up to the plate and teach when our group complained about the teachers we had. I took his challenge and continued teaching until I went to the Jewish Theological Seminary."

Motto: "Victory is not found at the top of the summit but in the journey itself."

Greatest accomplishments: "My children. They're turning into good Jews and are still works in progress."

Bad habits: "Eating when I shouldn't. It's one of the down sides of cooking."

Favorite TV: "'The West Wing'. Since it's over, I don't watch any shows, just CNN."

Favorite food: "Roasted vegetables."

Best childhood memory: "Seders with the entire family in Minnesota. First at my uncle Harry's then our home. My father had eight siblings and my mother is one of four. So there were 21 cousins (along with the uncles and aunts). All the cousins went to the same religious school, so we knew the melodies and we sung the whole Haggadah, especially the last part."

People don't know that I... "I have a very eclectic musical taste. I like the works of Carlos Santana, Sam Cooke, and classical music."

Last book I read: "'Absurdistan,' by Gary Shteyngart. It's a satire on what happens when one of the former Russian republics falls apart and a Jew who is mostly a [member of the] Jewish mafia gets caught up in it. It's a disturbing read because there are no redeeming characters in this story."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish community: "The volunteers. The people who step up to the plate, whether it's running Super Sunday or working behind the scenes to make something a success. They do it out of love for the Jewish community."

The biggest problem in the Jewish community: "The decline in observance and knowledge of Judaism. Those who do learn are committed are doing wonderful work, but I'm not sure this next generation is getting enough. The people who join the temple are more knowledgeable than before, but the other two-thirds that aren't affiliated -- their knowledge and observance level is practically nil."

If I had more time I would: "Work on out-of-the-box educational experiences. Things that you don't have to sign up for a class to sign up. Like last year, we had a nature walk around the temple. We could be having programs like that to show people another way to engage in learning Torah."