BY HILLARY VIDERS
SPECIAL TO NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. –– Cheryl Rosenberg is the newly-elected councilwoman for Englewood’s first ward. Although new to the political scene, she has considerable leadership experience in community institutions and organizations, and expertise in governance, strategic planning and fiscal responsibility. For the past three years, she has served as president of the board of trustees of Ben Porat Yosef (BPY) in Paramus.
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Rosenberg has also worked for several non-profits, including the ACLU and the Murray & Sydell Rosenberg Foundation, a family foundation, where she was an advocate for women’s health issues and helping impoverished families around the globe.
Rosenberg currently serves on the executive committee of Teach NJS, an initiative of the Orthodox Union (OU) to help secure state government funding for non-public schools for things like security and nursing aid. She is a recent graduate of the Berrie Fellows Leadership Program through the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.
Rosenberg comes from York, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and moved with her family from New York City to Englewood in 2007. She currently lives in Englewood with her four children.
Hillary Viders: First of all, congratulations on your election to the Englewood City Council. Although this is your first foray into politics, you’ve been involved in community affairs from an early age. You were the senior class president at your high school, Lancaster Country Day. You were also involved in the model United Nations, and in fundraising for your class. What inspired this civic-minded attitude?
Cheryl Rosenberg: I always wanted to help people, and from a young age, I was a leader and an organizer. So, I knew that I could use that to help the larger population.
HV: What are the main assets that make someone a good community leader?
CR: The most important thing is to be a good listener. You have a million people who just want to be heard, and you can help them if you just listen to what they’re saying.
An effective community leader is also someone who is good at organizing groups of people to make change.
HV: As a woman and a mother, what new insights will you bring to the issues currently facing the Englewood City Council?
CR: As a mother, I think that the key to the success of Englewood is the children. Communities can be brought together through children in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Amongst adults, you sometimes find resentment and anger toward each other, but children don’t see that. When my kids play on a soccer team, they don’t care where the other kids come from or what their religions are. When my son asks for a playdate, a new connection is made, and that’s it.
HV: In Englewood, as in many towns, council discussions can become very heated. Do you have an approach to dealing with this?
CR: Because I am new to this and because I am sensitive to all the different aspects of families in Englewood, I don’t come to any specific issue with a pre-ordained solution or a pre-ordained stand. I’m happy to look into the different sides to find compromise. I think that I will be one person who really takes things issue by issue instead of having allegiances on just one side.
HV: Englewood is admired for its diversity. How can we bring these many cultures together to engage with one another and participate together in community events?
CR: One way is by having city-wide festivals that don’t just highlight one culture, but rather all of Englewood’s cultures. I would like to see Diversity Day events. Again, this goes back to the children. When kids interact together, their parents are naturally brought together. I think a lot of it is making sure that the city is not broken up into non-diverse neighborhoods, which it is now.
In my kids’ school, Ben Porat Yosef, they have a Heritage Fair, and it includes people from many different countries. We have Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, children from Morocco, Spain, Greece, Poland, Germany, etc. That way, everyone gets to talk about and show their pride in their own heritage.
In the same way, I would like to see festivals in Englewood that are not organized just for one group, but that bring everyone together and make everyone feel that they belong.
[slideshow_deploy id=’899′]HV: How else can Englewood bring its different cultures together?
CR: By interspersing the retail stores within different parts of the city, so that one part of Palisade Avenue isn’t limited to just one crowd of people and another part of Palisade Avenue limited to another group.
HV: One of your specialities has been fundraising. What do you suggest to bring the city more revenue?
CR: I think that there is currently a lot of opportunity in the city for public/ private partnerships that has not been explored. We need this to sponsor events and pay for capital improvement on buildings and properties…
HV: There are many opinions about what should be done with the Liberty School that has been closed for several years. What would you like to see this building used for?
CR: The Liberty School can be used in any one or more good ways that would be beneficial for all the residents of the city, such as a cultural center, a community center, that may include a new location for the Southeast Senior Center for Independent Living (SESCIL), or an extension of a college.
Whatever is decided, it should be an investment in the community as a whole and particularly people that feel disenfranchised. And, it should be self-sufficient and not drain the city of funds.
HV: It is remarkable that you accomplish so much with such a full plate. How will you budget your time to make room for your responsibilities as a councilwoman while fulfilling your role as a mother of four?
CR: I allot my time so that I am home for my kids in the morning before they go to school, and between 4 and 7 p.m., I’m all theirs. So, whether its carpools or doing homework with them, I’m totally invested in them during that time. Some nights I’m going to have meetings. Weekends will be largely for my kids, but there will be events that I have to attend and my children are welcome to join me.
My kids are sacrificing, and I am sacrificing, but in return, they are learning a lot. For example, they were actively involved in my campaign. They came to the debate; they passed out flyers and they helped serve coffee and cookies during my campaign.
HV: What values as a councilwoman do you want to inspire in your children?
CR: They are already learning what it means to be part of a community. They are learning how to be active and passionate about the issues that you care about and to not just sit back.
I also want my children to see that you can do anything, that you can pursue what you love and what makes you happy. For example, I never thought that I would be able to run for elected office, which is not a traditional role for an Orthodox Jewish woman, but it has happened. Most of all, I want my children to see that you can really make a difference in the world.
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Photo by Hillary Viders