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Susan Saltzman, the former director, principal, and religious school administrator of Congregation Knesseth Israel's Hebrew School in Bound Brook, received the Legion of Honor award by the Chapel of Four Chaplains.

Saltzman and her fellow recipients Rita Burke, Mary Evancho, Artie Muller, Herbert Patulo, and Marge Schofield, were all honored at an Oct. 19 ceremony at Knesseth Israel in Bound Brook.

The award will be formally presented to Saltzman and the fellow recipients at the Thanksgiving Interfaith Service, on Sunday, Nov. 23 at Congregation Knesseth Israel.

"It was a total surprise," Saltzman said. "I was told by my husband that I needed to come with him to the Chapel of Four Chaplains Dinner and I said OK," she said. "I had a couple of hints from a couple of people, but I never put the pieces together. And I certainly didn't expect this."

In 1947, the Chapel of Four Chaplains was founded as a national, non-profit organization, whose main purpose to acknowledge and support those who show charitable, benevolent, and unselfish acts toward others. It is in memory of four army chaplains who gave their lifejackets to other men on the troopship Dorchester on Feb. 3, 1943.

The ship was torpedoed, and pandemonium erupted as many on board were either killed or began to jump ship. The four army chaplains that sacrificed their lives and helped save four others were; Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed. Instead of jumping off the ship into life boats with everyone else, the four chaplains gave their lifejackets to four men from the ship.

According to the Chapel of Four Chaplains, "The Legion of Honor Award is given in recognition of exceptional selfless service n the part of an individual which contributes to the well-being of his or her community, and to a spirit of interfaith cooperation."

"When I got there, they were handing out the program, people were coming up to me at that point and congratulating me, and so I put two and two together and then I read what people who got the award were about," Saltzman said. "Then I understood. It was Eleanor Gerber who nominated me to the committee."

Throughout her life, Saltzman has been very active in interfaith and community-based activities.

"Because I was the director of the religious school for five years at Knesseth Israel," she said. "I ran all the mitzvah programs and projects. We did the Operation Promise with the airplanes with the Jews from Ethiopia; we collected backpacks and all kinds of toiletries for the homeless bus organization in New York City. Every year we would do different projects."

Saltzman said she was honored and it was very nice to have her work recognized.

She said while at Knesseth Israel, she always promoted interfaith community interrelations.

Her family is very proud that she received the award, Saltzman said.

"Everybody was very proud and excited," she said. "They all know I work pretty hard at what I do. They felt that I deserved it."

Saltzman said throughout her tenure as religious school administrator at the temple, she made sure the children truly understood the act of giving is more important than receiving.

"Besides organizing the curriculum and the classes, a big goal was community awareness - the Jewish community as well as the regular community," she said. "And two of the things that I felt was the most important for the kids to understand were mitzvahs and tzedakah. So, in the five years that I was there, we did at least four projects a year, like every couple of months we would pick different Jewish and non-Jewish organizations that needed help that would appeal to children and had the kids raise money bringing in tzedakah, or by doing various fundraising projects to support these organizations."

Saltzman said it isn't just about helping Jewish people, but helping anyone that is in need.

"I feel that in order for a world to be the best it can be, people have to help people no matter who they are," she said. "If everybody just spent time helping people instead of hurting people we'd be in a far better situation right now."

Saltzman was born on Dec. 6, 1964 in Brooklyn. She grew up in Long Island, where she maintained excellent grades throughout her entire educational career. She attended Nassau Community College, SUNY Stony Brook, Hofstra University, and eventually received her graduate degree in education, graduating summa cum laude from Queens College.

One of her first jobs was as a paraprofessional teacher at the Henry Viscardi School in Long Island, working with special needs children and teenagers. She lived in Texas for eight years and taught in private and public schools in the Dallas area. She then moved back to Long Island with her family, and soon after the settled in Middlesex. The Saltzmans became members of Knesseth Israel in 2002. A year later she became an adult bat mitzvah there. After working for five years as the director of the religious school at Knesseth Israel, she is currently teaching in the vocational program in the Piscataway high school district.