Hillel's Angels - a brief history
In 1997 Cantor Ilan Mamber of Temple Beth
Rishon in Wyckoff, NJ, a motorcyclist for many
years, organized a rather unique group of
bikers. At the time, this had been the only
known Jewish motorcycle club in the country.
They were only a hand full of riders initially,
riding under the name, 'Galgalei Shalom', the
Wheels of Peace.
It was a great name but the Hebrew was not
easily remembered and in a moment of great
inspiration in 1998, Cantor Ilan re-named the
club the Hillel's Angels. Soon, many more
motorcyclists from across the state of New
Jersey had heard of this band of Jewish riders
and could not resist the allure of riding with
the new Angels.
But the life of a Cantor, at least a Cantor as
productive as Cantor Ilan, does not allow for
all that much time for riding! While the concept
was great, it was a struggle to get rides
scheduled and Ilan and the club needed someone
to help share the load of leading and organizing
rides.
1999: enter a new Temple member and
motorcyclist, Mel Morris.
Mel was instrumental in creating the first club
logo and building a real ride schedule that we
maintain to this day. The last Sunday of every
month, from March through October is a Hillel's
Angels ride day!
Now, with the advent of our forum, we have more
rides than ever before.
Mel's passion for the club, the name, the new
logo, and growing participation worked together
to draw the attention of the Jewish press and a
number of articles appeared through out New
Jersey. This lead to even more participants.
Through all of this time, Hillel's Angels was a
club in name only, i.e., it was not structured.
There was no charter or mission statement, no
meetings, no dues, and no officers other than
its de facto ride leaders: Cantor Mamber, Mel
Morris, and then, Steve Kaplowitz.
This created a few issues that gave the above
mentioned ride leaders and club founders reason
for concern. First, with Mel having moved to
Florida, he was no longer available to lead
rides. Steve had noted a desire to dramatically
cut down on the number of rides he did lead and
the Cantors schedule was no more forgiving than
it had been in the past.
In March of 2007, the club took on a more
organized structure with the election of Gil
Paul as the first formal President of the
Hillel’s Angels. That board formalized a charter
which serves as a foundation of rules that we
use today. In March of 2009, this board was
unanimously re-elected for an additional two
year term. Gil was succeeded as president by
David Levine, Gil's vice president. David served
the club well during his term in office. Mike
Reuveni assumed the presidency for two years.
Ari Wallach became the next president for two
years, then Jeff Sprintz assumed the office.
Alan Kane became president in 2016 and like
those before, continues the tradition of
selfless service to the club that we are so
proud of. And so our club continues to grow.
We keep on rolling, we keep on riding. We keep
on making new friends. In 2020 Larry Edelman
became President by unanimous consent.
The above shot was taken at Van Sant Air Strip
near New Hope, PA.
|
Current officers of the
Board:
Larry Edelman - President
Barry Litwin - Vice President
Jeff Diamond - Treasurer
Len Weinberg - JMA Rep
Alan Kane - Past President
contact us
at hillelsangels@gmail.com
Download
Charter and By-laws Here
If you are interested in seeing where
your fellow club members ride from, check
out the map below. The map shows
placemarks, each representing at least one
member and in some instances, several members
all living in the same town. If you are
interested in finding a member near you,
please email hillelsangels@gmail.com
View
Larger Map
|