BERGEN COUNTY, N.J. — After more than four decades in Bergen County, Rabbi Larry Rothwachs is offering a final farewell to the community he grew up in, served as a rabbi and ultimately called home.
With his aliyah already long announced and his departure now just hours away, Rabbi Rothwachs published a reflective essay titled “Here’s to You, Bergen County,” looking back on the community that shaped him.
Rabbi Rothwachs is something of a homegrown Bergen County rabbi. He was raised in Fair Lawn and later served in the pulpit at Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck, where he spent 24 years as a rabbi.
He has already said a more personal goodbye to his own shul. This time, his farewell is to Bergen County as a whole.
“Tomorrow night, I will board a plane and make aliyah,” Rabbi Rothwachs writes. “The timing of this departure places it during the week between Parshas Ki Seitzei and Parshas Ki Savo, between going out and coming in.”
Rather than focusing on where he is going, Rabbi Rothwachs uses his final hours in Bergen County to reflect on what has been built here and what the community has managed not to lose.
“Leaving forces us to see what familiarity lets us overlook,” he writes.
Rabbi Rothwachs describes Bergen County as “one of the largest and most vibrant centers of Orthodox Jewish life in North America,” pointing to its shuls, schools, kollelim, mikvaos, chesed organizations and communal institutions.
But he says the community’s greatest accomplishment is not simply its growth.
“The most impressive thing about Bergen County is not only what it has built. It is what, despite its remarkable growth, it has managed not to lose.”
Rabbi Rothwachs identifies four qualities that stand out: remaining a community despite its size, maintaining achdus without demanding uniformity, cultivating a culture of responsibility and preserving continuity across generations.
He devotes particular attention to Bergen County’s rabbanim, describing the “respect, love and admiration” among them as extraordinary.
“I cannot stress enough how unusual and precious this is,” Rabbi Rothwachs writes. “For a community of Bergen County’s size, with so many shuls and such a genuine range of religious perspectives, the closeness among its rabbanim is a tremendous blessing.”
He also reflects on the countless acts of chesed that take place quietly throughout the county.
“Communities are not ultimately built by facilities, membership numbers or organizational charts,” Rabbi Rothwachs writes. “They are built when enough people decide that another person’s problem belongs, in some measure, to them.”
Rabbi Rothwachs acknowledges Bergen County’s shortcomings, but leaves with gratitude for the community he has known virtually his entire life.
“May Bergen County continue to grow without losing what has made it extraordinary,” he writes.
“For more than forty years, Bergen County has been my home.”
Then comes his final toast to the community:
