Approximately two hundred congregants celebrated the beginning of ENJC's 50th year at a gala dinner dance held at ENJC on the evening of Sunday, April 17th, 2005. The lively music stopped, suddenly yielding to an awed hush in the magnificent ballroom of our Conservative, egalitarian congregation as one of our dear founding members, Mr. William Katcher, gave his recollections:

About forty-nine years ago, I had an idea. I thought it was a good idea. Looking for affirmation, I went to see Frank Rothman Zt"l, an established resident and businessman in East Northport. He thought my idea had validity. My idea was to have a Jewish community center and shul in East Northport.

Frank Zt'l took the idea to the Patiky family and the Baker family, who were also established citizens of East Northport. They too thought the idea had merit and the idea of a Jewish center and shul became a discussion for many people who wanted to see this plan succeed. We have been fortunate to have had and still have many hard workers determined to make this venture a success.

Frank Zt"l and Mattie Rothman hosted a lawn party at their home to gather the Jewish population. They also helped with finances and supplied many of the necessities that are needed for an organization of that type to be functional. The Patiky family, Ida, Rose Zt"l, Belle Zt"l, Sarah Zt"l, Mamie Zt"l and Avrum Zt"l also contributed in many ways. Rose Zt"l and Belle Zt"l particularly put in tremendous efforts to assure the success of our shul. We had many other interested people who came to meetings and stayed until the wee hours to iron out problems. There were people, who ran for office knowing that the time spent might create conflict at home and at work, but they did it willingly and I truly believe, joyfully.

Now, here we are going into our 50th year as a congregation. "50 YEARS!" Think of what that covers; both good and bad. For instance, we are now located at 328 Elwood Road, East Northport. We do have a nice building, don"t we? It is a far cry from the store Edith Parrag Zt"l wrangled for us from the Staller Family, "RENT FREE", supposedly just for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Actually we were allowed to stay there much longer, "RENT FREE." BOY, THAT REALLY HELPED!! When we had to leave, the Silberstein Family gave us the use of a large white house at 5 Corners in Northport, again, "RENT FREE." However, we finally had to move and wound up in a store on Larkfield Road opposite the movie theater, but no luck here. We had to pay rent and that became a problem.

That is when the officers realized that without a home of our own, we would have difficulty existing too much longer. With a great deal of input from Leon Goldberg and others, we acquired a piece of land on Clay Pitts Road and built our first shul, which we quickly outgrew and had to once again look further. This time, we ended up at 328 Elwood Road, East Northport. There were lots of problems and some very heated discussions and disagreements while trying to keep us on an even keel. Luckily, we had people like Louis Greenstein Zt"l, an early president of our shul, who owned a bakery and who would bring cake, rolls, etc. and say, "We are all striving for the same goal. After the meeting, sit down, have some coffee and a little something and leave as friends."

We have had 29 presidents and it may be, some took the burden twice. I know Simon Alexander is a current example.

Do not get any ideas that it was easy going. It definitely was not. You know the expression, 2 Jews 3 opinions; but we pressed on. I believe that at one time, we were the second largest group on Long Island.

Let me give you an example of how close we came to not existing. Frank Zt"l and I went to the New York Seminary and hired a student rabbi in June, 1956 for the High Holy Days. We had commitments from over 100 families planning to attend Services. It is two weeks before the holidays and we have not heard from the rabbi. A call to the Seminary tells us he is unavailable and they have no replacement. We tried to find another rabbi but had no luck. Soooo, I called the Seminary, spoke to the Principal and was rejected again. I then told him to notify the police. When he asked why, I told him that if there was no rabbi in East Northport by 5 PM, I was coming to the Seminary, picking up whoever was on the bima and taking him out in my car to East Northport. He was shocked and said, "You wouldn't dare." I shouted into the phone, "Try me" and hung up. I am happy to say a rabbi got off the train at 5 PM and we had our High Holiday Services. Actually, they found him an assistant for the Yom Kippur service as well.

I hope this little incident tells you what we had to do in order to get and keep our shul going. I repeat, 1 cannot say to you everything was just great and dandy, it was not. We had good times and we had tsuris, lots of it, but we persevered and here we are and here we intend to stay and we will build and rebuild not to be second, but to be the largest Jewish congregation on Long Island.

We have people who are willing to work. We have Rabbi Silverman and Cantor Nussbaum who are second to none. Soooo, let's get moving and show what we can accomplish in the next 50 years.

- William Katcher