By Jeanette Friedman
ENGLEWOOD, New Jersey — Shari Alter and her oncologist husband Robert have five kids and live in Englewood. You would think that would keep her busy with no time for so much as a bubble bath or “Oprah” break, since everyone knows, five kids means lots of car-pooling, hockey and assorted craziness. So multi-tasking, including checking the dinner in the oven while being interviewed, is par for the course.
But wait, there’s more. Four years ago, the family wanted her son’s bar mitzvah to take place in Israel. Shari, her mother Judith Kallman and son, Kevin, traveled there to put the beginnings of the party together and met Harvey Tannenbaum, an American-born party and event planner who made aliyah ten years earlier. It took a year to make Kevin’s bar mitzvah happen, and then serendipity took over. There were unintended consequences. Namely, a new career for Shari. In her previous life (read before the kids) she had been an interior designer for a commercial firm in Manhattan. So good taste was a given trait.
In planning Kevin’s bar mitzvah, Shari learned about what it’s like to put an event together from 5,000 miles away. On her first trip, the family visited different venues, created an itinerary for a family tour across Israel, figured out a way to put the mitzvah back into the bar with acts of chesed, and organized the writing of a Sefer Torah in honor of the event. They took only that one trip for the preplanning and came back with everyone in tow else exactly one year later. Everything was waiting for them, perfectly conceived and executed.
There was a little bit everything.…florists, rabbis, tour guides, music, food, photographers, videographers, clowns and entertainment, camels, and plane rides. Every little detail was covered, from the hospitality baskets in each guest’s room, to pre-printed programs, siddurim, the place cards for each meal and much more. The bar mitzvah lasted a full week, 100 people attended from all over the world, including Australia. The main event took place in Jerusalem at the Kotel, with a party later that night at a venue that overlooked the Old City Walls and the Temple Mount.
The rest of week was spent touring Israel and spending the following Shabbat at the King David and the Great Synagogue. It was a learning experience and when it was all over, Harvey said to Shari, “I want you to work for me.”
She agreed to become his “American partner, ” and three years ago, joined Protexsia Plus, Harvey’s firm. She spends most of her time in Englewood, putting plans together for people from across America who want meaningful, memorable, events in Israel. Though she cut her teeth on her own son’s bar mitzvah, she’s also planned Passover programs in Herzliya, events at orphanages, army bases, the Israel museum, winery tours, spa
tours, weddings (she’s now planning one on the beach in Caesaria, near the Roman ruins) and VIP tours that are very personal and not like typical “Missions to.”
Sometimes things are offbeat: they arrange for rock climbing, rapelling off mountains, jeeping in the desert at night–there’s no thrill like the thrill of daring someone to take potshots at you or taking shots yourself on a shooting range, in addition to chopper rides, parasailing, swimming with the dolphins and spending nights in Bedouin tents.
Shari says, “The best part for the hosts and hostesses is that what we do for them is hassle-free. When we did our own party, my husband said it was fantastic because he was able to enjoy himself as if he were a guest not a host. That sensibility is what I bring to everything I plan. I want it to be a personal, happy experience for everyone, including the party planners. There’s no joy in grief.”
Since then Shari has commuted back and forth and across this country and that country more than fifty times, in order to accommodate her clients. The most interesting event she planned was a bar mitzvah that took place in King Solomon’s copper mines in Timna, near Eilat. Imagine 100 West Siders from Manhattan gathered in a tent in the desert, eating and drinking and praying and partying until all hours of the night. “There was no Zabar’s in sight, and they still had a good time,” she said, laughing.
One about to be engaged couple took a chopper ride to the top of Masada, all decked out in their finest…ties and tails for him, elegant gown for her. When they got there, the iced champagne was waiting, he proposed on one knee, she accepted, and all the people on top of the mountain, all strangers, wished them well.
She agreed to become his “American partner, ” and three years ago, joined Protexsia Plus, Harvey’s firm. She spends most of her time in Englewood, putting plans together for people from across America who want meaningful, memorable, events in Israel. Though she cut her teeth on her own son’s bar mitzvah, she’s also planned Passover programs in Herzliya, events at orphanages, army bases, the Israel museum, winery tours, spa tours, weddings (she’s now planning one on the beach in Caesaria, near the Roman ruins) and VIP tours that are very personal and not like typical “Missions to.”
Sometimes things are offbeat: they arrange for rock climbing, rapelling off mountains, jeeping in the desert at night–there’s no thrill like the thrill of daring someone to take potshots at you or taking shots yourself on a shooting range, in addition to chopper rides, parasailing, swimming with the dolphins and spending nights in Bedouin tents.
Shari says, “The best part for the hosts and hostesses is that what we do for them is hassle-free. When we did our own party, my husband said it was fantastic because he was able to enjoy himself as if he were a guest not a host. That sensibility is what I bring to everything I plan. I want it to be a personal, happy experience for everyone, including the party planners. There’s no joy in grief.”
Since then Shari has commuted back and forth and across this country and that country more than fifty times, in order to accommodate her clients. The most interesting event she planned was a bar mitzvah that took place in King Solomon’s copper mines in Timna, near Eilat. Imagine 100 West Siders from Manhattan gathered in a tent in the desert, eating and drinking and praying and partying until all hours of the night. “There was no Zabar’s in sight, and they still had a good time,” she said, laughing.
One about to be engaged couple took a chopper ride to the top of Masada, all decked out in their finest…ties and tails for him, elegant gown for her. When they got there, the iced champagne was waiting, he proposed on one knee, she accepted, and all the people on top of the mountain, all strangers, wished them well.
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Friedman is our bureau chief for the greater New York area and a freelance writer based in New Milford, New Jersey. A member of the American Jewish Press Association, she recently wrote with David Gold, Why Should I Care? Lessons From The Holocaust. More information about the book is on the web at www.whyshouldicareontheweb.com