01 Jun ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO HOSTS ANNUAL ESSEX COUNTY JEWISH HERITAGE CELEBRATION Star of Essex Awards Presented to Essex County Health Officer Maya Lordo and NJPAC President and CEO John Schreiber
Published on June 1, 2022
Newark, NJ – Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. hosted the Annual Essex County Annual Jewish Heritage Celebration on Tuesday, May 31st. The festive event recognized the influence and positive impact that Jewish people have had, and continue to have, on the economy and culture of Essex County. During the ceremony, DiVincenzo presented Star of Essex Awards to Maya Lordo, Essex County Health Officer, and John Schreiber, President and CEO of New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
“Maya Lordo and John Schreiber have both been influential members of our community having had great personal success in their respective careers,” DiVincenzo said. “Their commitment to serving the Jewish community and improving the lives of Essex County residents, their leadership, and dedication to public service is to be praised,” he added.
Maya Lordo, born Maya Rabinovich, immigrated to the United States in 1991 from the former Soviet Union with her family. Her family originated from the Ukraine and later moved to Uzbekistan during WWII to escape the persecution of Jews. In 1991, Maya arrived in Brooklyn, NY, and was brought up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where she not only learned about Italian American culture, but about her Jewish religion as this was not an allowed practice in her former country. Maya later moved to New Jersey, where she attended William Paterson University where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health and New Jersey City University where she earned her master’s degree in Health Administration. She has her state license as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist and is a nationally recognized Master Certified Health Educator. In 2017, she earned her NJ Health Officers license that allows her to lead a Public Health Agency in the State of New Jersey.
Those who know Maya know her passion for Yoga. She became a certified yoga teacher in 2016 and continues to live by the mantra, “You cannot always control what goes on the outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.” This particularly allowed her to take on the challenge as Essex County Public Health Officer in 2019. Four months after she began her career in Essex County, the world as we know it had changed. Covid-19 became her first, middle and her last names. Working through the pandemic, Maya still managed to create a health department that promotes emotional and physical resilience in the community. The department aims to prevent, detect, and educate about diseases while developing new policies to advance the well-being of Essex County residents. Maya moved the department to become the state recognized LINCS agency/and emergency response coordinator with the New Jersey Department of Health.
“When I came to the United States in 1991 at the age of 7 with my mother, I didn’t know what being Jewish was because we were not allowed to practice our religion in Russia,” Lordo said. “We should be compassionate for those who are not the same as us,” she noted.
John Schreiber grew up in Queens and lived at the last stop on the subway. Starting at the age of 9, his parents gave him $5 and let him take the subway into the city so he could buy a seat in the balcony at a Broadway show. From those experiences, John fell in love with the theater and thought, “I don’t know how, but I want to be part of that.” He became the second President and CEO of New Jersey Performing Arts Center on July 1, 2011. In a typical season, the Arts Center presents more than 650 events, serving over 575,000 patrons. Its acclaimed arts learning programs reach over 100,000 children and families annually.
Termed “a visionary producer” and America’s “impresario of brand names” by The New York Times, Schreiber’s career has encompassed award-winning theater, television, concerts, festivals, documentary film, branded entertainment, and a host of other cultural and cause-related events. His producer credits include the nationwide KOOL and JVC Jazz Festivals, the Newport Jazz Festival, the weekly television concert series Hard Rock Live, the Benson & Hedges Blues Festivals, the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (PBS), the New Yorker Literary and Arts Festival, the American Express Gold Card Grammy Festival, and, with the trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, the Harman: How to Listen music education program. He received Emmy® and Tony® Awards as producer of the Broadway and HBO hit Elaine Stritch at Liberty. He was the lead producer of George C. Wolfe’s Harlem Song, the only musical ever to play a six-month engagement at the legendary Apollo Theater.
Prior to joining NJPAC, he served as Executive Vice President at Participant Media, the Los Angeles-based global entertainment company specializing in socially relevant documentary and feature films, television, publishing and digital media, where he was responsible for managing the creation, development and execution of unique social action and advocacy campaigns for each of the company’s movies. Participant’s award-winning films include An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night and Good Luck, The Help, Waiting for Superman, Food Inc., Lincoln, The Kite Runner, and Syriana.
Schreiber is a board member of the Newark Alliance and is an Advisory Board member of First Book and Rutgers University-Newark. He served as Programs Chair for the year-long 350th celebration of Newark’s founding. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Montclair State University.
“I am surprised, honored and thrilled to be recognized by the County Executive, who is always thinking about what can be done for Essex County,” Schreiber said. “From my mother Irene, I observed the importance of serving the community. She was always trying to be of some service to the community and that’s what I thought about when I came to NJPAC,” he added.
The Essex County Jewish Heritage Celebration is part of a yearlong series of programs initiated by County Executive DiVincenzo to recognize and celebrate the diversity of Essex County. Other cultural celebrations celebrate African American Heritage, Irish Heritage, Italian Heritage, Jewish Heritage, Latino Heritage and Portuguese Heritage.