Mazal tov to our Simhat Torah honorees, Seth Park and Hannah Bachman
As we mark the end of the year’s Torah reading cycle, we also recognize the contributions of two community leaders with the honor of reading the final verses of this cycle (this honor is called Kallat/Hatan Torah) or the very first verses (Kallat/Hatan Bereshit) of the next.
This year, we are thrilled to honor Seth Park and Hannah Bachman by naming them the Kallat Torah and Kallat Bereshit, respectively.
Mazal tov to Seth and Hannah!
Seth Park
Seth Park and his wife Rachel joined BJ in 2018, soon after their move from New Jersey to the Upper West Side. He is a past president and a former Man of the Year at Adath Israel Congregation in Lawrenceville, NJ. At BJ, Seth is a frequent minyanaire, and an active Hesed and Hevra Kadisha volunteer. He is a Kol Nidre solicitor, and he often performs (and teaches) hagbah—not as a feat of strength but as an act of prayer. Seth delivered the Eleh Ezkerah address during Yom Kippur this year.
Seth is a recently retired lawyer who litigated environmental insurance coverage disputes before transitioning to a practice devoted to humanitarian-based immigration law. He was the founding Supervising Attorney at the Asylum Support Clinic at Rutgers Presbyterian Church. From one-time counseling sessions to task-specific representations to complete case advocacy, Seth’s work has directly impacted over 1,000 immigrants from over 25 countries. He is an occasional consultant to BJ’s community engagement and social action team on immigration law and sanctuary issues.
Seth shares his life with his wife Rachel, who is a member of BJ’s Board of Trustees; their daughter Abby, also a BJ member, who lives in New York; and their son Solomon, daughter-in-law Hannah, and granddaughter Shaya, who live in Boston.
Hannah Bachman
Hannah Bachman first learned about BJ the way most people in their 20s and 30s do: at Simhat Torah. She started regularly attending Aviv services and events in 2021, became a member of Aviv’s engagement team in 2022, and joined BJ in 2023. She has been a part of every iteration of Aviv’s engagement/leadership team and organizes the team in its current form. For the past three years, she has served as gabbai at Aviv’s High Holy Day services. She particularly enjoys planning parties, and has planned Aviv’s Hanukkah, Purim, and Pride Shabbat celebrations. She is also a regular attendee at BJ’s Kabbalat Shabbat services (when there’s no Aviv service, of course!) When she’s not organizing Aviv, she works as a project manager, lives in Lincoln Towers, and spends most of her free time knitting.