Beloved Edenwald Social Worker Relies on Faith, Spirit After Devastating Accident

In a span of less than 40 years, Ed Sperling’s first and last trips to Israel changed his life forever.

In 1972, as an Asian studies major at SUNY Albany, Sperling completed a long and circuitous trip through the continent, visiting Israel for the first time at the end of the journey. Originally, he had gone to Singapore to study, then volunteered to do humanitarian work in Bangladesh before taking an overland trip through Burma, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.

“Then we went to Israel. That kind of changed my life,” recalled Sperling, who was raised in Yonkers. “I had kind of taken a hiatus from Judaism after my Bar Mitzvah. I went on holidays and that was it. But in Israel, I loved it–the land–and my faith was rekindled.”

The experience of visiting poverty stricken areas throughout Asia and forming a bond with the Jewish homeland inspired Sperling to change his career path. Upon his return to the United States, he completed his undergraduate studies, got a job as a counselor at Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry and went to Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work for his masters.

Before pursuing graduate studies, Sperling had gone on a second trip to Israel, this time volunteering with social service agencies following the Yom Kippur War in 1973. On that trip, he met his wife, Hedi. The couple have two grown children and now one grandson.

“I became more devoted to my faith and also to help people in need,” he said of his life’s newfound direction.

In 1976, Sperling began a 28-year professional affiliation with the Jewish Child Care Association of New York, beginning as a social worker at the Pleasantville Cottage School, a JCCA facility. The only interruption was a six and a half-year stretch from 1979 to 1985 where he and his family moved to Safed in northern Israel.

He visited the area in 1985 because his father remarried. By chance Sperling ran into his old boss at the Cottage School. That supervisor had become director of the Edenwald Center, located on the same campus in Pleasantville, and enticed him to come back and work for him.

Sperling and his family had planned on staying a couple of years, but his wife became so enamored with the United States that they’ve been here ever since.

Fast forward to October 2010. Sperling, who had become a serious mountain biker participating in charity events throughout the metropolitan area, returned to Israel on one of his many trips, usually to visit family and friends. This time, however, he embarked on a weeklong, 250-kilometer charity ride to benefit two organizations–one dedicated to working toward peace in the Middle East and the other an environmental group.

“I put two of my loves together–my love for Israel and my love for biking,” Sperling remembered.

Since the end of that ride, life hasn’t been the same for Sperling–and likely never will be again. During the final kilometer disaster struck.

“I was riding down the hill, a steep descent. My bike, it felt like I hit a bump. Later it turned out to be a flat tire. I went over the handlebars,” said Sperling, now 62.

He was instantly paralyzed. Sperling had severed the C-4 and C-5 vertebrae. There was no movement in his legs and initially none in his arms. After surgery and a five-week hospitalization in Israel, Sperling was transported home where he spent a little over a year in physical therapy at Helen Hayes Hospital in Rockland County. He was forced to breathe and be fed through a tube and needed speech therapy. He also required various instruments to help him lift utensils and use a computer, although some movement in his arms has returned.

“I’m still to this day living a nightmare,” Sperling said. “My life has changed so much. I was in the best shape of my life, until Oct. 24 (2010).”

Certainly, there are difficult days. But there has also been support. Confined to a motorized wheelchair, the JCCA renovated a ground-floor apartment on the campus of the Edenwald Center, and moved Sperling and his wife, into those quarters until they find permanent arrangements. The family has lived on the campus for more than 15 years.

The determination that had helped countless youngsters come through the foster care system at the Cottage School and Edenwald Center is evident in Sperling. Although he can no longer work, partly because it would jeopardize the benefits he receives, he still volunteers regularly to help children with emotional and cognitive issues.

Many of the children who enter Edenwald are between the ages of 6 and 16 and have experienced real trauma. Sperling’s goal has always been to prepare them with the necessary life and social skills to return them home or to a loving foster or adoptive family.

“To work with children and families has been very meaningful to me,” Sperling said. “I always loved resident treatment, because as I said, you can have a lot more effect on the children then just seeing them one hour a week. You’re seeing them 24/7. I think it can have a profound difference on their lives.”

Having dedicated more than a quarter century of his life to helping young people in need, the UJA-Federation of New York honored Sperling on May 9 at its Westchester Celebration. Dana Asher, marketing communications manager for UJA-Federation, said there has been a tremendous outpouring of support to help Sperling.

“In his work, Ed did more than serve as a role model and a mentor, he strove to build a bridge between the center and the community, including the establishment of a community-service tutoring program, now in its 20th year, for young teens in the area to work with Edenwald students,” Asher said.

Sperling has been faced with the devastating emotional, physical and financial effects of a life-altering event. Having helped others throughout his life, now he is unaccustomed to relying on others for help, whether it being with assistance to help navigate the bureaucracy and paperwork to receive the services he is entitled to or having benefit events organized to help pay for various equipment. He also has had to get used to being a lot less busy, although one treat this year was being placed on the selection committee for the Jacob Burns Film Center’s Jewish Film Festival.

He said it was natural for him to question his faith since the accident but tries to counter his doubts philosophically.

“If you don’t have faith, what is there?” he asked. “If you don’t believe then what do you believe in?”