Chiropractor in Highland Park, NJ

President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has claimed another victim in New Jersey. This time, the federal agency has taken aim at a mobile health clinic run out of a church in Highland Park.

The Global Grace Mobile Clinic is run by Dr. Norma Bowe. The clinic was given a stop-work order and was told that its funding had been cut off.

On Tuesday, Bowe and her four-person team took the RV to tend to a group of homeless men who live under a train bridge in New Brunswick. The team was checking blood pressure and performing diabetes tests while handing out paper bags with essentials.

“We always have socks, water, toothpaste, granola bars,” says Bowe. “Just a little human dignity when you have to live under a bridge.”

The team was also focused on a man whose life they recently saved when he was found in a diabetic coma.

“He spent some time in the hospital on an IV insulin drip,” Bowe says. “They released him with no medication and no follow-up.”

However, the work performed by this mobile clinic, now in operation for four years, will have to end and the team will have to park the RV for good following the order from the New Jersey Department of Health.

The NJDOH said the program is losing its $20,000 per month grant.

An email stating it’s a decision from the Trump Administration, explaining, “Any expenses incurred beyond March 28, 2025 will be at your own risk, as NJDOH may not be able to reimburse any costs moving forward.”

Two of the community health workers losing their jobs from this decision are Sarat Busari and Andrea Mesa.

“I love this work. I love doing it. It saddens me it’s going to end,” says Busari.

Mesa worked with the mobile clinic while working toward a PhD in behavioral health.

“When we are out there we really feel we are making a difference, making a social impact, which is really meaningful for me,” she says.

Bowe says that the clinic started four years ago with COVID-19 vaccines, then flu vaccines and then moved into general medical care.

She says they've been incredibly successful, but if they don’t find funding to keep the word up, she fears there will be consequences.

“People will die, people are going to die,” Bowe says.

Bowe says they can stay afloat for the next five weeks but after that, there’ll be no more money. The program is actively searching for funding. Click here to donate.

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WRESTLING

MyCentralJersey.com

Look at this snapshot of Noah Berlin-Langston’s wrestling career at Highland Park.

As a sophomore first-year wrestler: He finished 5-18, went winless in tournaments and said, “I honestly didn’t like wrestling. … Honestly, some days I would cry. I hated it so much.”

Fast forward to his senior year: He’s currently 37-2 and captured a Region 5 title this past weekend to qualify for the state tournament. Oh, and his current take on the sport?

“I’m definitely enjoying it right now,” he said after a smile. “It’s a lot of fun.”

What makes his story even better is that Group 1 Highland Park isn't known as a mat power and sits as the state’s 23rd-lowest enrolled public high school with a wrestling team. The Owls didn’t even field a squad in the spring-shortened 2021 season when the administration axed the team because of COVID-19 safety concerns.

Saturday, Berlin-Langston stood among standouts from St. Peter’s Prep (No. 3 team in state), Rumson-Fair Haven (No. 1 public school team in state) and St. Joseph Metuchen (No. 1 team in Middlesex County).

After he got a sudden, surprise pin in the final, he leaped into his coach Craig Girvan's arms, who must be strong himself by catching the wide 215-pounder, and yelled out a yelp.

Score one for the little (big) guy.

“There’s no place in the world I’d rather be at,” Berlin-Langston said. “I’m so proud to be an Owl. It’s the best thing ever. I love it.”

So, just how did Berlin-Langston make his rise?

'Growth mindset'

Before wrestling, he trained in Olympic weightlifting. A coach, Michael McKenna who has a gym in Highland Park, was a wrestler and suggested the sport.

“He just kind of put me on to it,” Berlin-Langston said earlier in the season. “He told me it’s the greatest sport in the world. I’m like, if a weightlifting coach is saying wrestling is the greatest sport in the world, it has to be kind of something special.”

So, Berlin-Langston gave it a try. He had the strength base but needed to learn, well, everything. The moves, rules and, he noted, “I couldn’t even, like, hold a stance.”

He said “getting your butt kicked every day” wasn’t fun and he thought about quitting. He kept, however, coming back to the room.

“It’s going to sound kind of corny, but it was like I just put so much work in I was like, I’m not going to make my whole experience a wasted time,” he said. “If I’m going to do this, I might as well try and be as good as I can be at it.”

Enter heading to club practices and offseason tournaments.

Berlin-Langston said his rise could be attributed to having “a growth mindset.” Simply, learning how to fail, seeing where you’re weak and constantly making adjustments.

“He’s very determined,” Girvan said. “He completely dedicated his life to getting better at wrestling and he’s worked extremely hard. It’s great. It’s great for our program. It’s great for everybody to see that hard work pays off.”

From five wins to Region 5 champ.

“That’s fantastic," Girvan said. "That’s quite a transformation.”

'Bracket of sunshine and rainbows'

After a while, Berlin-Langston saw level jumps at practice and made a huge leap as a junior, going 33-4. He went 1-2 in the region with a brutal path. He took second in the district (losing to Rumson-Fair Haven’s Hunter Skove, the state runner-up) and to state champion Vincent Lee (Delbarton) in the region quarterfinal.

He plans to wrestle at Stevens Institute of Technology next year, but first, he had a goal this season of reaching the state tournament.

At Saturday’s region, the third-seeded Berlin-Langston knew he had a tad more fortunate draw than last year with Rumson Fair-Haven’s Conor Delaney (32-1), who finished top 12 in the state last year, not entered.

Then, he avoided the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds who each got upset in the quarterfinals.

“Coming into this we were kind of calling it ‘the bracket of sunshine and rainbows,’” Berlin-Langston said. “Because we’re supposed to have the third-best guy in the state in our bracket (Delaney) and then he’s out with mono. And then, people are just getting upset left and right. The one seed is losing to the 14th seed. It was pretty crazy from the start but I kind of just trusted in my training and took it a match at a time.”

It just seemed like there were no dark clouds above Berlin-Langston all weekend. He opened with a bye and won 12-1 in the quarterfinals, sidestepping the upset bug. In the semis, he met Matawan’s No. 7-seeded Metin Metioglu, who took out the No. 2 seed. The Highland Park star eked out a 2-0 win.

At the end of the rainbow was a finals meeting against Old Bridge’s fourth-seeded Zach Florio in a rematch of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final won 7-2 by Berlin-Langston on Jan. 25.

Berlin-Langston noted he felt that Florio game-planned to counter his underhook but it didn’t work as he used his speed. Then in the second period, Berlin-Langston rode his opponent and Florio went to his back for a moment on a roll and Berlin-Langston seized on it for the fall at 2:59.

“At the end, he didn’t clear his leg on that Granby and I caught him and put him on his shoulders,” Berlin-Langston said. “I’ve had that happen with a few guys where they kind of just roll over their head and get pinned really quick. I mean, that’s a hard position to wrestle out of.

“I couldn’t believe I pinned him in the finals. I thought I was just going to go out there, do my thing, score a lot of points and get my hand raised but I did not expect to pin him. That was great.”

Berlin-Langston stood up and faced the crowd with both arms stretched out, letting out a yell before turning around to head to the corner and hug his coach.

“It’s great to celebrate our victory,” Girvan said. “It’s just awesome.”

Now, they're looking to Governor Phil Murphy to help them recover over $1 million they say are 'owed' from the Trump administration.

HIGHLAND PARK, N.J. — A New Jersey church that received $18 million in federal aid to resettle migrants is now struggling after its funding was cut off, leaving its programs in crisis. Now they are saying the Trump administration owes them more than a million dollars. In 2018, Governor Murphy stood with church leaders and members to fight against ongoing ICE immigration raids. After that, they began receiving millions of dollars from the federal government to continue placing migrants.

Reverend Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park said his organization is owed more than $1.3 million for services rendered in January alone. He warned that without immediate support, vital programs assisting refugees could collapse.

“For the past 3.5 years we have experienced that refugees and immigrants are a blessing,” Kaper-Dale said. “Since January 20th everything has collapsed.”

The church had helped place 1,200 migrants in jobs across New Jersey, generating an estimated $182 million in revenue for employer, according to the church.

Kaper-Dale said 85% of the refugees they resettled achieved self-sufficiency before requiring additional state assistance once they were placed.

“I would argue that the new arrivals to our state not only added beauty, creativity and joy to the state of New Jersey, they also brought with them tremendous economic growth. We all remember how the ‘story of the day’, after Covid, was that there was a shortage of workers. We were able (even just over the last 2 years) to see 1200 of the people in our caseload land work in New Jersey’s businesses. We saw the equivalent of 182 million in Revenue Per Employer added to the economy by those workers. 85% of the refugees we resettled were self-sufficient before they needed any help from the Board of Social Services in any county,” said Reverend Seth Kaper-Dale. “Since January 20th everything has collapsed. We are owed hundreds of thousands for services rendered in December. We are owed 1.3 million for services rendered in January (and we have no confidence, at this point, if or when we’ll be paid). Our programs have either been “cease and desisted” or, payments just delayed. To be honest, we (like the rest of the country), just don’t know if we’ll be paid or whether we have months of court ahead of us before we see a dime.”

The reverend said he is now leaning on Murphy to continue to placing migrants and opposing ICE.

“I tried, this past week, to speak with your office (and good, smart people attempted to be helpful) and with State Senators (and they tried to be helpful there too). However, no short-term assistance, or ‘carry-over until Elon releases the money’ funds were found. In the meantime volunteers and the good people of NJ sent incredible donations, to try to fill the gap of broken contracts and massive uncertainty,” he said.

Governor Phil Murphy has ties to the church, having visited in 2018 to stand in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Kaper-Dale is now urging Murphy to intervene again, saying, “If possible, stand with us again, in this new immigrant-related ‘raid’ that Donald Trump is carrying out.”

The church is seeking immediate relief while facing what Kaper-Dale described as “months of court ahead of us before we see a dime.” Volunteers and local donors have attempted to fill the gap, but the uncertainty surrounding federal payments has put the church’s efforts in jeopardy.

The church, once a pillar of New Jersey’s migrant resettlement efforts, now faces an uncertain future without intervention.

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I could tell you that I had to work hard to put together this careful review of the newly opened and much-anticipated kosher restaurant in Highland Park. But honestly, the review basically wrote itself.

The new restaurant has been the talk of the town for months, as residents noticed the full-scale overhaul of the building exterior and heard tidbits about the menu of the new eatery. Anticipation was at a high pitch.

The management decided to launch the restaurant with a soft opening that lasted for a few weeks. The windows remained covered and there was no publicity to draw in customers. But word of mouth spread and, well, if you knew, you knew. People started stopping by and picking up dinner. News got around and reviews started appearing on social media. Anticipation went up a few notches.

Finally, the restaurant formally opened on Monday, March 4, and the delighted reviews have been accumulating ever since.

Writing on the Jewish Highland Park/Edison Facebook group in mid-February, during the early part of the soft opening phase, David Weintraub of Edison said: “The decor was wonderful. It’s modern and clean … will be a great place to take nonreligious family members and colleagues. … you can’t ask for a better bargain.”

Speaking to The Jewish Link in February, Miriam Tarlow said: “My daughter and I went to Grill House … for their soft opening. … Nice to have a meat place in Highland Park again.”

Malcolm Greenberg of Edison told The Jewish Link, on the last night of the soft opening: “Excellent takeout. The crunchy schnitzel is wonderful. Just right: not too soft and not dried out. The spicy mayo has a great kick. The fries are wonderful. A great meal.”

Writing on opening night on the Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies Facebook group, Rafi Katz of Highland Park shared: “… We shared a barbecue schnitzel sandwich on a challah roll and a grilled Mexican chicken wrap with an order of sweet potato fries. The sandwich came with sautéed onions and pickles. The wrap came with spicy mayo, avocado and corn salsa. All the food was delicious. The portions are satisfying, the prices are reasonable, and the staff is friendly. We will definitely eat here again.”

Seth Berman of Highland Park shared his and wife Mindy’s review of their opening night order: “We had the schnitzel sandwich on a challah roll and the shawarma on a challah roll. Both were delicious. The schnitzel was crisp, flavorful and not overly greasy. The shawarma was tender and very flavorful. The vegetables in both sandwiches were crisp and fresh. Nice touch adding sliced pickles to the sandwiches! The challah bun, a unique choice for sandwich bread in our experience, is a great idea—delicious, the perfect size for a sandwich and not prone to get soggy. We also tried the sweet potato fries, which were excellent.”

On opening night this writer, with his wife, Fran, and two friends, Cyndy and Avi, visited The Grill House and had a very enjoyable, fresh and flavorful meal. One of our group, Cyndy Berger of Edison, stated for the record: “I’m really enjoying the barbecue burger. It’s juicy and tasty and the onions on top added a wonderful flavor.”

We strongly recommend this restaurant. Like, a lot.

The Grill House menu offers 14 appetizers, including three kinds of french fries and of course onion rings, four types of salad, six types of meat sandwiches, four different chicken platters, three sizes of chicken fingers, four types of smash burgers, and a kids menu. To see the full menu, go to: https://tinyurl.com/apvac8ns

The restaurant is located at 120 Raritan Avenue Highland Park and the hours of operation are Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-9:45 p.m.; closed Friday and Saturday. The Grill House is under the strict supervision of the VAAD HaRabonim of Raritan Valley.

Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at harryglazer615@gmail and he welcomes reader feedback.

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