Taking the Lead in New Jersey’s Jewish Legal Community

A contingent of Rutgers alumni including Joseph Lemkin RC’90, his spouse, Susan Wernick Lemkin NCAS’88, and others are leading JBAR, the newly formed Jewish Bar Association of New Jersey. 

Joseph Lemkin’s Jewish identity, and the struggles of the Jewish people, “have always been pervasive in my life,” he says. “It doesn’t go away.”

He is the son of a Holocaust survivor who lost both parents and siblings at Auschwitz, and one of his brothers lives in Israel. “When I call him on WhatsApp, I can hear the rockets in the background,” Lemkin says.

He also is the cousin to Rafael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer who worked on the Nuremberg trials and coined the term “genocide” to describe the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people. 

His heritage inspires Lemkin today “to do my part to strengthen the Jewish community,” he says.

Lemkin, an attorney who earned a history degree from Rutgers College in 1990, bolstered one cohort of that community by founding JBAR, the New Jersey Jewish Bar Association, to help the state’s Jewish lawyers connect, advocate, and join forces on good works, such as offering scholarships.

“I’ve worked for many firms, and all of them are huge supporters of many different affinity bar associations,” Lemkin says. “I’ve been to so many events for the Hispanic Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association, the South Asian Bar Association. I think they’re all fantastic, but there was nothing like that here to bring the Jewish community together. There are plenty of Jewish lawyers. We have a wonderful community. But we didn’t have that formal connection. And I truly thought we needed one.”

And since no one else picked up that baton and ran with it, Lemkin—a shareholder with the law firm of Stark & Stark and, in his free time, an active supporter of both Rutgers and many charities and nonprofits—decided to start one himself.

Lemkin and his then-fiancée, now wife, Susan Wernick Lemkin, a 1988 graduate of Rutgers–Newark, discussed the need for such a group with friends in the legal profession in the wake of the outbreak of terrorism in the Middle East in fall 2023.

“That wasn’t why we pursued it, but it was an incentive,” Lemkin said. “What’s happening overseas, the rise of antisemitism in this country, incidents on university campuses—they weren’t the impetus, but they certainly energized us.”

The couple mentioned the idea to colleagues, and even posted a “coming soon” video to social media, and “immediately we were getting messages and phone calls and texts asking, ‘How do I join?’” Susan Wernick Lemkin says. 

A Strong Start

In May, more than 200 people gathered in the Roseland offices of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi for the installation of the board of directors of JBAR, which had already secured the support of dozens of law firms from across the state. Lemkin became the group’s president; Wernick Lemkin, the chief marketing officer of Bederson Accountants and Advisors of Fairfield, became executive director.

JBAR is “practically a Rutgers organization,” says Wernick Lemkin, as the majority of its officers have a connection to the university: In addition to Lemkin and Wernick Lemkin, Secretary Nancy Isaacson RC'78 is a graduate of Rutgers–New Brunswick; Treasurer Jason Sobel NLAW'97 and Board member Rich Kelin RC'79, NLAW'82 are Rutgers Law School grads; Board member Ed Dauber RC'66 is a graduate of Rutgers College; and Board member Victoria Rivkin DC'93 attended Rutgers–New Brunswick and now serves on the board of Rutgers Hillel. 

“There’s something about Rutgers,” Wernick Lemkin says, “that created a lot of leaders, people who can create a vision and bring it from thought to reality.”

The organization, which is already in conversation with Rutgers Law School and Rutgers Hillel about future joint projects, plans to offer programming and scholarships for undergraduates and law students, as well as mentoring opportunities for young lawyers, and professional development programs for working attorneys, among other initiatives.

Making Connections at Rutgers and Beyond

As the couple worked to get the group off the ground, they were aided by the fact that networking is Lemkin’s superpower. 

“One of the things I do well is reaching out to people, all kinds of people,” he says. “I get in touch and I find a way to connect with them. I love doing that.”

Lemkin’s talent for forging connections has most often been deployed on behalf of Rutgers, which is not only his own alma mater and his wife’s, but that of his daughters Lara and Cayla. His son, still in high school, is “the biggest Rutgers fan there is” and is hoping to follow his family to New Brunswick soon.

When he was considering college, Rutgers was the perfect school for him because “I wanted that rah-rah spirit of a big state school.” 

Rutgers had that and was also close enough to allow him to go home to work at his family’s furniture store in the Bronx on weekends. His father, who had avoided Auschwitz by being drafted into the Russian army during World War II, passed away when Lemkin was a sophomore, leaving his wife and children to run the family business. Lemkin also was able to take classes in Judaic studies and celebrate some holidays with Hillel.

After graduating, Lemkin became deeply involved in Rutgers alumni groups, serving as president of the Touchdown Club (which supports the university football program, of which he is “still a huge fan”) and later chair, and now, Emeritus of the Rutgers University Alumni Association (RUAA). He often worked on fundraising projects, persuading celebrities to donate items to auction, including one time he talked actor James Gandolfini of “The Sopranos” fame into donating a script from the show’s first season that was signed by the entire cast. On another occasion, he persuaded fashion designer Marc Ecko to donate Rutgers-themed ensembles. 

Lemkin’s networking prowess and his wife’s marketing skills have helped JBAR grow considerably in its first year. In July, the group hosted more than 350 people for its official launch event, “July Chai,” a gathering of the new organization's “mishpacha” (Yiddish for family) in West Orange. 

“Due to the rise of antisemitism, many Jews are feeling intimidated," says Wernick Lemkin. "JBAR is a strong, dynamic organization, which is very much needed, especially now.”