New program director position created at JCC
Joanne E. Glassoff of Toms River fills new post

Joanne E. Glassoff

OCEAN TOWNSHIP — The Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Monmouth County is welcoming a new member to its staff to act as a program director in a newly created position at the center.

Joanne E. Glassoff has been named as the JCC director of senior nutrition programs and adult/Jewish programming. Among her responsibilities is coordinating the JCC's Kosher Meals on Wheels program, which prepares and delivers thousands of meals per year to homebound senior citizens throughout Monmouth County.

She also oversees the congregate lunch programs at the JCC on Grant Avenue in the township's Deal Park section and the Morganville Senior Center in Marlboro, according to a press release from JCC, which states that Glassoff is already busy planning exciting Jewish adult events, including a Tu B'shvat intergenerational bingo and painting event in February, a kosher sushi-making family event and Yiddish theater trips.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Glassoff is a resident of Toms River. She graduated from Beaver College, now Arcadia University, in Pennsylvania with a B.A. in psychology

and a certification in special education. She also studied toward a master's of arts in Jewish education at Gratz College in Pennsylvania.

Glassoff has extensive experience in educational programming in the Jewish community, including serving as director of education at the JCC of Long Beach Island, according to the release.

She taught prayer and Torah reading at Solomon Schechter Academy in Howell and also coordinated the junior congregation at B'nai Israel in Toms River.

She also worked with the New JerseyYCampsKislakTravel Programs, taught the bar/bat mitzvah programs at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires and also served as the assistant director of public events at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Glassoff said that working in the Jewish field is her life's calling.

"It just feels right to make a difference in the Jewish community," she said. "My mother [the late Bella Ginn] volunteered her entire adult life to various Jewish organizations, and I realized I could make a difference both as a volunteer and a professional."

Glassoff currently teaches at Temple Beth Shalom's Hebrew High School in Manalapan; she and her husband, Avrum, have three children; Sammy, 16, and 9- year-old twins, Matthew and Steven.

"At one of the Jewish organizations I used to work, we had a motto, 'Sometimes you just know,' " Glassoff said. "That's how I feel about my career in the Jewish field in general. It feels right. It feels comfortable.

"And I am looking forward to working with Jewish adults and seniors across the county," she added.