Evan Jaffe

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Rabbi Evan Jaffe gives a voice to those who go ignored or have been abandoned. Flemington Jewish Community Center’s humble spiritual leader is a champion of compassion and justice for all. In March, he will be recognized by Volunteer Guardianship One-on-One, Inc. for his work with people with dementia and for mentoring new caretakers. He serves as emergency guardian for those abandoned at Hunterdon Medical Center. In December, when his synagogue completed its new Torah in honor of the congregation’s 90th anniversary, Rabbi Jaffe arranged for several severely disabled residents from centers for people with developmental disabilities to participate in the Torah writing process. He conducts weekly services for Hunterdon Center residents and regularly integrates them in synagogue. He is a founder of OPEN Religious Organizations Accepting Disabilities, which regularly arranges transportation to churches for the disabled. He also provides outreach to the poor and the homeless, and to Jewish inmates; co-sponsors African refugees; and volunteers with Meals on Wheels.
— Eileen Schwalb
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
