As I begin my tenure as president at HJC, I would like to tell you about myself and how I came to this point in my life.
Unlike many congregants with a lifelong and multigenerational connection to HJC, I’m somewhat of a newcomer. I came to HJC nearly 16 years ago as I heard it had a wonderful preschool program. I enrolled my son, then two years old, in Sue Stern’s class. I can remember like it was yesterday, sitting outside of the classroom for weeks until he was ready to let me leave. Over the next few years he graduated preschool, followed by my daughter. It was during this time, as a nursery school mom, that I made many of my closest friends. We trekked to nursery school. We stood in the halls waiting to pick up our children and we began to spend time together. We connected as parents of young children and we connected Jewishly.
During my children’s preschool years, I , too, got a nursery school education in Judaism. I was brought up in a home in which I knew that I was Jewish and in which we celebrated all of the holidays, but in which there was no formal Jewish education. Neither my two sisters nor I went to religious school and none of us became bat mitzvahs during our youth. I can remember, as a child, when school was closed for a Jewish holiday, spending time with one particular friend as all my other friends were at synagogue. Growing up as part of a synagogue community was not part of my experience.
So when my children were in nursery school, I began to learn about being Jewish. They came home with a challah and a Haggadah. They took me on a school trip to Israel. They said the blessings on Shabbat. These are all common Jewish experiences, but they were foreign to me. My desire to keep up with my children and the curiosity that was now peaked in me led me to seek out Rabbi Kurshan and find out how I could learn so I could understand what my children were telling me. A few years later, I was one of about twenty women (and one man) who as adults became bat(bar)/ mitzvahs. We met with Rabbi Kurshan every other Tuesday for two years and learned about rituals, customs, prayers and many other things which began to lay the foundation of my own jewish experience. I learned how to read hebrew (albeit slowly) in a two week crash course taught by Mark W. and even chanted a fourth of a haftorah, which was an enormous and gratifying challenge.
The discussions about spirituality resonated with me during my bat mitzvah education. How this is experienced is unique for each individual. For me, it translated into a sense of peacefulness. I took in the peacefulness of sitting in the sanctuary on shabbat- shutting off my cell phone, letting go of the outside and its stresses, enjoying the serenity of this time and just being. I found a certain sense of calm and comfort in the regularity and sameness of the Shabbat service. I could count on it weekly to give me the same message to let go and just be and it, generally, worked for me. That sense of sameness became a support and I found myself gravitating to the sanctuary in times of difficulty. When I learned of illness in my family and death, I went to services to be a part of a community which I knew would help me through my grief and my sadness. I came to services to seek out that peace of which I was so fond. And I was able to find that peace and comfort and move through some of the more difficult times in my life and the life of my family.
I also celebrated many mitzvahs in the sanctuary at HJC. My daughter was named at the Shul and both of my children went to religious school and became bar and bat mitzvahs in the main sanctuary. I call the front seats in the sanctuary where the family sits on bar/bat mitzvah day, “the best seats in the house.” Sitting there proudly watching each of my children lead the congregation in prayer were truly highlights in my life. Also, my husband and I were fortunate to be married by Rabbi Kurshan with Cantor Chesler beautifully chanting the brachot. So I can say at this time that while we are relative newcomers to HJC, my life and the lives of my family are filled with many HJC experiences.
As for my involvement in synagogue life, in the past I served as fundraising chair and centennial programming chair. I have sat on the board of trustees for I’m not sure how many years and am a member of the executive committee. Over the last several years I have not worked in my profession as an attorney, but have devoted my time to raising my two children, nurturing a relatively new marriage and volunteering for HJC.
I hope that you have learned something about who I am and, even those who knew me well have learned something new. I look forward, in the next two years, to working with and getting to know more of you, finding out where you are from and, hopefully, to make a worthwhile contribution to this special synagogue of ours.