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Name: Richard Bennet

Occupation: Attorney for The Community Health Law Project

Address: Westfield

Family: Married 37 years to Susan, a procurement assistant at Kerry Ingredients and Flavors in Clark. They have two sons. Jed works for Scholastic and is married to Sarah, a reading specialist in the Scotch Plains school district. They live with their daughters: Daisy, 2 and Eden, 1, in South Orange. Lee works for Neiman Marcus and lives in Edison. Brother Carter, a retired newspaper editor, and Marlene Bennet live in Claymont, Del. They have two sons: Lawrence, an engineer, and Jonathan, a doctor.

Community activities: Board member for six years and past president of Jewish Family Services of Central New Jersey for two years. Board member of Union County ARC and still active. A board member of Temple Israel before merger with Temple Beth El of Plainfield to become Congregation Beth Israel, Scotch Plains. Former trustee of Union County Bar Association. Former president of Union County Human Services Advisory Council, an advisory group that reviewed the performances of various social services organizations to provide advice to people who funded those organizations.

Hobbies: "Writing, playing with my granddaughter, and learning. Last fall I completed a three-year adult education course given by the Temple Emanuel of New York."

Self-portrait: "After 64 years, I'm still learning about life."

Motto:"Keep on keeping on."

Greatest achievement: : "Every Friday I have the chance to babysit my granddaughter and stay with her until Friday night when her mom comes to pick her up."

Bad habits: "I tend to procrastinate. I'm working on it this year."

Favorite TV: "Sports and the political stuff but I never listen to the Fox Network!"

Favorite food: "I enjoy cooking and always cook my all time favorite macaroni and cheese using fontina, gorgonzola, and parmesan cheeses. When I make it I have to make three platters - one for Susan and I, for daughter Sarah and granddaughter Daisy, and one for my son, Lee."

Best childhood memory: "Falling through the ice in Newark's Weequahic Park when I was about 10 or 11. I was with an older kid who said 'I bet that ice would support you.' I answered I bet it would too but it turned out it wouldn't. It wasn't deep. I just fell through and was able to pull myself out. When I came out my friend thought I should try to dry out in the sun before I went home, but it was a cold, raw day. I went home. My mother saw me and put me in hot bath immediately."

People don't know that I… "I really like to cook and bake. At this time of year I make double crust apple pie and apple cobblers. And I will bake a sponge cake at Passover."

Last book I read: "Indignation," by Philip Roth. "I love Roth. I think he is a terrific writer."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish communities: "In our community it is Temple Beth Israel's Rabbi Nudel of Scotch Plains, who is sensitive and insightful."

The biggest problem in the local Jewish communities: "Within the community we have member organizations like Temple Beth Israel and the JCCs where the members pay their dues to keep the synagogue or JCC functioning. But there are organizations within the Jewish world that don't have that capacity. Jewish Family Services or Jewish Federation for example don't have the capacity to draw on members for dues. It has to find its funding in another way. All those organizations within the community need to be examined and looked at in a new way if we are going to have and remain in community with all aspects of the Jewish world. So it's critical we in the organized Jewish understand the importance for support for JFS and the programs it provides for elderly and shut-ins, and why it should be important to them. We also need to find out and communicate with the Jews out there that call themselves unaffiliated."

If I had more time, I would… "try to get back to the novel I've been writing and doing another draft for it."