CHABAD OF RIVERDALE'S - Pro-Found Software, Inc.

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G U E S T S O F H O N O R
Ilene & Neil
LEIBOWITZ
Neil is from Queens NY. He received his B.A.
in Business Administration at American
University in Washington DC. His occupation
is handbag design and marketing. Ilene is a
physical therapist who grew up at the
Amalgamated Houses in the Bronx. She
attended SUNY College at Stonybrook and
received her B.S. in Physical Therapy at NYU.
Ilene currently treats private patients in the
Riverdale area. Both Neil and Ilene are baalei
teshuvah.
Neil had travelled many times to China for
work and eventually lived in Taipei, Taiwan. It
was there, in 1996, that he first began to focus
on his Jewish roots and values through his
interactions with new religious friends and rabbis. Neil greatly respects the Israeli
friends he met in Taipei: Yochai and Ruchama Shechter, Akiva Tor, and Alon Glick,
who taught Neil Torah and Hebrew, as well as Rabbi Eli Hecht from Chabad in
California, who put tefillin on Neil for the first time. Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon of
Chabad in Hong Kong directed Neil back home with an understanding of the
importance of Torah. In 1999, Neil returned to the US and rebuilt his life in
Boynton Beach, Fl., where he was embraced by the family of Rabbi Sholom Ciment
of Chabad. In 2003, Neil moved back to New York and was encouraged to stay on
a religious path by Rabbi Ely Rosenzveig in New Rochelle.
During these same years, Ilene was also increasing her knowledge of Judaism by
C H A B A D L U B A V I T C H O F R I V E R D A L E