Rebbetzin Sheva Turk speaks about her time in Queens as the Turks move to
East Meadow for a new chapter in kiruv
This writer had the honor to interview Rebbetzin Sheva Turk, who has been the kiruv rebbetzin along with her husband Rabbi Moshe Turk, Director of the Jewish Heritage Center of Queens and Long Island, for the past 35 years. The Turks are moving to East Meadow after Chanukah, but they will continue to come back to Kew Gardens Hills for a monthly get-together with Jewish Heritage Center alumni, and Rabbi Turk will continue to come back to teach his shiurim. They also have children living here, so that is another reason they’ll be back often.
Rebbetzin Turk shared that Kew Gardens Hills is an amazing, warm community, and the kiruv they’ve done here could not have been accomplished without community support, which doesn’t just mean financial support. So many people were hosts and hostesses for baalei t’shuvah and opened their homes and learned with people. Some are still learning with the same person they started with over 20 years ago. She shared that the members of the community became family to so many of the baalei t’shuvah.
She then related a story that happened once when some students were coming for a Shabbos meal to their host and knocked on a door in the community. They told the person who answered that Rabbi Turk had sent them for a Shabbos meal. The family ushered the guests in and served them a meal. Later, these students found out that they had knocked on the wrong door. This type of story is a tribute to our community.
She noted that she loves our community and it’s very comfortable living here. “We’re going because the kiruv center has moved as the demographics of the neighborhood has shifted.” There are more secular Jews in East Meadow, and the focus of the Jewish Heritage Center has always been on kiruv. The minyan in the Jewish Heritage Center building was originally started for the baalei t’shuvah of the Jewish Heritage Center. She explained that their resources need to move on now to help the Long Island Center. In East Meadow, there is an opportunity every minute there to make a kiddush Hashem. She shared that when she is there, people are always “bageling” her. They want you to know that they are a Yid. On Yom Kippur in East Meadow, a jogger waved at the Turks and said it was hard to fast when he’s running. Even from cars, people will stop and say, “Good Shabbos.”
Recently, due to the situation in Israel, the Turks rented a tent in East Meadow and invited the East Meadow Jewish community to come for Shabbos. Over 200 people showed up. Many shared how their former friends were no longer there for them since the war started.
She confided that she would miss KGH terribly, but at the same time she is excited to have the opportunity to make a kiddush Hashem and to assist the younger generation with their kiruv in East Meadow.
When asked what her advice is for “kiruv rebbetzins,” she shared the following: Kiruv professionals have to truly care about their fellow Jews, and they have to realize that we don’t make people frum. We facilitate their growth. Our role, she explained, is to show them the beauty of Yiddishkeit by sharing it with them and to accept people where they are. “We show them what we have, and if they are willing, then we are just a facilitator.”
The community is grateful for all the wonderful work of the Jewish Heritage Center, and we wish Rabbi and Rebbetzin Turk much success and happiness in their move to East Meadow. B’ezras Hashem, we will all be moving together to Eretz Yisrael, with Mashiach here at last!
By Susie Garber
