Ruth and Leonard Cole
Guests of Honor

For Ruth and Leonard Cole, an initial visit to Israel in 1976 inspired a profound sense of connection to the Jewish state.  Since then, they have returned to Israel dozens of times, often in conjunction with their national and local community positions.

Ruth is a member of the Hadassah National Board and has been Hadassah Magazine National Chair since 2003.  She has also served as National Vice President of Hadassah, Chair of Hadassah College in Jerusalem, and Chair of its National Jewish Education and Zionist Affairs Departments.  She has also served as an elected member of the Hadassah Medical Organization Board of Directors and the Hadassah Foundation.

In Northern New Jersey, Ruth is currently Partnership 2000 Chair for the UJA Federation and is a Federation Board Member and Past Chair of its Leadership Development Program, L’Atid.  She is Past Chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council and was a National Vice-Chair of its umbrella organization, The Jewish Council for Public Affairs.  She is also Past President of Jewish Family Service of Bergen County and former Chair of its Family Life Education Programs.  She has produced, participated in, and moderated numerous seminars on the Jewish family, demographic issues, and Israel-Diaspora relations for Hadassah, Federation, and other Jewish organizations.

Ruth is currently President-elect of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations.  She is also Past President of the Northern New Jersey Region of Hadassah.  A frequent traveler to Israel for national and communal Jewish activities, Ruth and Leonard lived on Kibbutz Carmia near Ashkelon with their son in the summer of 1980.  Ruth has also been a delegate to five World Zionist Congresses in Jerusalem and has been a delegate to Zionist General Council meetings and Jewish Agency Assemblies in Jerusalem from 1992 to the present.

Ruth is an educator, a professional counselor, and has earned a B.S. from Temple University and an M.A. in Human Services and Counseling as well as additional certification in English as a Second Language teaching.

Dr. Leonard A. Cole is an expert on bioterrorism and terror medicine.  He teaches in the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University and is Director of the Program on Terror Medicine and Security in the Center for BioDefense at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.  He received a B.A. with highest honors from the University of California at Berkeley.  Trained in the health sciences and public policy, he holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania - School of Dental Medicine, which in 2008 awarded him its Alumni Award of Merit.

He is a Fellow of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and has been a recipient of grants and fellowships from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation.  He is on the Advisory Board of the International Institute for CounterTerrorism, a trustee of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and a Board Member of the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association.

Leonard has written numerous articles for professional journals as well as general publications including The New York Times, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and The Sciences.  He has testified before congressional committees and made invited presentations to several government agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of Technology Assessment.

He has appeared frequently on network and public television and has been a regular on MSNBC.  He is the author or editor of nine books, including The Anthrax Letters:  A Medical Detective Story, which was named an HONOR BOOK by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.  His newest books include Terror:  How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn (2007), Essentials of Terror Medicine (co-editor, 2009), and a revised edition of The Anthrax Letters (2009).

Len is co-chair of the Task Force on Anti-Semitism of the Jewish Agency for Israel and Chair of the Birthright-Israel Committee of the Jewish Federations of North America.  He is a former chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and former President of the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Ruth and Leonard are the parents of three adult children and proud grandparents as well.

Fred Nagler
Koach Award

Fred Nagler has served as the Principal of BCHSJS for the past 28 years.  During this tenure he built the school from a fledging project to a premier Jewish educational institution in Bergen County that serves nearly 300 teens in grades 8 – 12 at three campuses. 

Fred has been engaged in Jewish education for over forty years. As a recognized leader and mentor in this field he has given workshops and leadership seminars to educators from across the US. He was a founding member of NAACHHS, the North American Association of Community Hebrew High Schools founded in 2006 and he was a frequent contributor to CAJE Conferences.  Fred enhanced the school’s program with the addition of the Winter Israel Experience Trip, Shabbatonim, BCHSJS Goes to Camp, a variety of community and social activities and alumni outreach.

Previously, he served as a teacher and Principal at Temple Israel, Ridgewood.  Fred served as a consultant for Jewish Educational Services of UJA Federation, and has led workshops for the BJE and Torah Umesorah.

Fred’s other career as a math educator and consultant included 32 years with the NYC Board of Education, the last ten as the math coordinator of a district.  He has also served as an adjunct professor at Queens College, the math editor of Sesame Street Magazine and he is the author of several math education books. He also serves as a consultant in mathematics education and provides math enrichment to students at Solomon Schechter Day School in New Milford.

Brooklyn born (and a life-long Dodger fan), Fred grew up in Parksville, NY. He received a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Jewish History from Yeshiva University and an M.A. and Ed.M. in Math Education from Columbia’s Teacher’s College. He has a license as Principal and Supervisor.

A long-time resident of Teaneck, NJ, Fred is married to Deborah. He is the father of a blended family of seven children and “Zayde” to twenty beautiful grandchildren.