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January 2021 - Dr. Richard Krieger

I was born in Jersey City, and except for five years during my post graduate training in Philadelphia, my home address has always been New Jersey. I lived in North Arlington for my first seven years and then Cranford where I graduated high school. After completing medical training in Philadelphia, my wife Laurie and I moved back to New Jersey to be near our families so hat our children would know their grandparents. We moved to Wayne in 1984, and since both of us were raised in Conservative Jewish homes, we looked for a Conservative congregation, which led us to Shomrei Torah.

I graduated from Cranford High School, Muhlenberg College, New Jersey Medical School in Newark, which is now part of the Rutgers University system, and then did my Internship, Residency and Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, which is now part of Drexel University; all in Philadelphia.

Currently, I am an Infectious Disease physician. Originally I had a solo practice, but for the last ten years I have been affiliated with ID Care, which is the largest Infectious Disease practice in New Jersey. In addition to seeing patients I am involved with committee work at Chilton Medical Center as chairman of the Infection Prevention Committee and part of the Antibiotic Stewardship Committee. I am also the former president of the medical staff.

My wife, Dr. Laurie Nahum and I have five children: Tara is an attorney married to Asaf, Brett is a teacher, and Jody, is a financial analyst who is married to Michael. They have two children, Charlie and Nina, and rounding out our family are Jeffrey and Mandy.

My parents, George and Irma Krieger influenced me to become the person that I am today. It is often thought of as trite, or too obvious, for one to cite his parents as his major influence, but in reality that should be so for many people. They taught me the importance of honesty as well as working and striving for what is important. They also instilled in me the importance of family, and in conjunction with that, the extreme value of being part of the Jewish community. They both served for many years in various capacities in their synagogue. They both passed away , from completely unrelated causes within the same week. Ironically, the two weeks during which I sat shiva I saw more plainly than ever the significance of being a part of a congregation. The outpouring of support and sympathy I received was as exhilarating as it was humbling.

When Laurie and I joined Shomrei Torah a fundraising drive was underway. Our first contact was with two members, a former president and a future president, who visited us at our new home. While sitting with them in our plywood floor kitchen, because we had not had time to install permanent flooring, we agreed to donate a bulletin board. Since that day, Laurie and I have become very involved with Shomrei Torah. We have both served on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Board. I also was president for one term, and two terms as Immediate Past President. Prior to the Corona virus I was a regular morning minyan attendee for years. Being Jewish means a great deal to me. It means that we are part of a proud and ancient tradition that values education, service to others, and community. Laurie and I have travelled extensively, and hope to continue post Corona. Very often when we visit a new city anywhere in the world we seek out synagogues, Jewish museums, kosher restaurants, and other Jews. Meeting other members of the “tribe” around the world automatically gives us a strong bond that we are all part of the same family, and we look out for each other. Some of our unique experiences traveling were Jewish related—visiting a synagogue in Helsinki where they had a Hebrew/Finnish siddur; being led through the streets of Gibraltar to a kosher restaurant by a black-hatted man whose English was limited so we conversed in Spanish. We ate kosher paella in Barcelona after visiting the old synagogue that is still in use. We had kosher Hungarian goulash in Budapest; and lunch in a kosher restaurant in Madrid with a family from Chile. We have taken Jewish history tours in Santa Fe, Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Buenos Aires. We have also visited a synagogue in Tallin, Estonia that was restored after the Holocaust and the Communist era. All of these experiences remind me that our people can be found nearly everywhere worldwide, if we seek them out. It is a feeling of comfort as if “family” is always nearby.

When I am not working, I enjoy writing fiction. I am currently completing my fourth novel which I plan to publish on Amazon Kindle, where you can find my previous three books.

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784