By COLlive reporter
Members of the Jewish community in New Jersey’s Palisades area gathered this week in Tenafly to commemorate the life of Stephanie Prezant with a groundbreaking ceremony.
Prezant, 22, lost her life in a rock-climbing accident when her safety equipment failed on the Trapps Cliff area of the Mohonk Preserve in upstate New York on April 29.
Rabbi Mordecai Shain, executive director of Lubavitch on the Palisades, has known the family for 18 years.
“She was a member [of our shul] with her family,” he said, according to the Jewish Standard.
“As she got older, she became involved in children’s services on Shabbat, and helped run them with the rabbi. She also was very involved with the Teen Friendship Club. For four years, she came every Wednesday. It became like a family unit.
“She was always patient and loving with children. She didn’t complain. And not only with children, but with adults, as well.”
This week, the Lubavitch on the Palisades School has begun breaking ground to expand the active building in Prezant’s memory.
Another 8 classrooms as well as a multi-purpose room will be added, along with a social hall and a cafeteria.
Rabbi Shain added that “a big challenge facing us is to lower the tuition costs of Jewish education to at least half of what is the standard today. And together with that, keeping the high academic level expected in private schools.”
