Anyone deserving of an 'Honorable Menschen,' can contact Howard Berger via

his e-mail: Howardberger9798@aol.com or by fax: 822-3670. 300 MILE BIKE RIDE ACROSS THE NEGEV IN NOVEMBER WON'T BE EASY SAYS TERRY STEEN

"It will be especially risky for me!" proclaimed Terry Steen (Ventnor) Beth Judah member" as he described a planned 300-mile fund raising bike ride from Jerusalem to Eilat. And he added, "But I shall succeed and ride every mile. I am looking forward to the challenge and thrilled to have the opportunity to show solidarity with Israel." Considering the distance and riding through the hot Negev is a grueling challenge for all the bikers, Steen, who trains intensely for the ride, explains why it has been scheduled again since he and other localites did it before. "I am riding to raise money for two important environmental organizations in Israel, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon which means 'vision,' and its American counterpart." To learn more about Arava in Israel check its website - http//www.friendsofarava.org. The bottom line to help Steen is to raise $3,600 through contributions to help boost concern about the importance of the environment. If the money is raised, Steen says he will match it dollarby dollar. Expected to ride with him is Beth Judah Congregation President Doug Stanger, as well as other local people whom HM will identify later on. For additional information contact Steen through Beth Judah. Steen draws this conclusion, "Hazon brings people together, builds community and promotes sustainability for a vibrant Jewish life."

RABBI GABER GIVEN A UNANIMOUS SIX-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION FROM BETH JUDAH BOARD

Since he was hired eight years ago as Rabbi at Ventnor's Congregation Beth Judah, Aaron Gaber has been a perfect choice for a growing and younger membership. His qualities are extensive and he never passes up an opportunity to be friendly with a warm shalom to anybody he encounters. That's an important quality for a spiritual leader to get to know his congregants. As the unanimous choice of the synagogue's executive committee, that says a lot about his stature and the esteem he has achieved. Synagogue President Doug Stanger in his August column in the "Messenger" disclosed that the contract committee headed by Rob Lang, Esq. , presented the contract extension to the board, which overwhelmingly accepted the recommendation. Declared Stanger, "We are honored and privileged to have Rabbi Gaber as our spiritual leader and look forward to many, many more years to come." Gaber has stated, "The Synagogue is an oasis of strength and calm in our daily lives." And, properly concludes Stanger, "He makes it so." Mazel Tov Rabbi Gaber.

IMPACT OF GAMING STUDY BY STOCKTON'S HUGHES CENTER HEADED BY DR. ISRAEL POSNER

Dr. Israel Posner, Ph.D. has achieved many accomplishments as a Jewish leader in our area community and academically as Richard Stockton College's Executive Director of Management Development and Protective Services in Graduate Studies. His background which includes leadership of the Jewish Federation speaks for itself, but people of accomplishment never slow down; they seek other goals such as heading the study of casino gambling since the dice began to roll in 1978 by the Stockton Institute for Gaming. Also involved in the study is Rutgers University and the Spectrum Gaming Group of Northfield, seeking to determine the impact of the $5 billion industry. "Our study will consider the impact on tax revenue, direct and indirect employment and other factors," said Posner. He said further, "the time is right for an objective and through analysis of the industry which is confident that the study will serve as a roadmap for the future."

FORMER STOCKTON VISITING PROFESSOR OF SHOAH STUDIES PALDIEL RETIRES FROM YAD VASHEM

HM has learned from Gail Rosenthal, Executive Director of Stockton's Holocaust Resource Center, that Dr. Mordichai Paldiel, Ph.D., former Distinguished Visiting Professor of Holocaust Studies at Stockton has retired from Yad Vashem as head of the "Righteous of the World." This vital section of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem honored "Righteous German Gentiles" and those from the Nazi occupied European countries who saved Jews from the Nazis, including Oscar Schindler. Rosenthal found out about Paldiel during a recent visit to Israel where she delivered a speech at Yad Vashem. HM will tell her story in a future column. Paldiel, who was a hidden Jewish child during the Nazi occupation of Belgian in World War II was hidden by Belgium priests, passing as a young Catholic child. Paldiel didn't know until after the war that he was Jewish. He somehow made his way to Israel and earned a Bachelor's degree at Hebrew University. He received his Masters and Doctorate at Temple. He served one semester at Stockton in the late 1980s but he had to return to Yad Vashem. On a visit there in 1993 Charlotte and I visited Paldiel at Yad Vashem where he showed us the archives room where at the time there were only 7,000 files of Righteous Gentiles and he told us there were many, many more as many as 100,000 Germans and others in occupied Europe, but that they were hard to trace.