We Are Building Community
December 22, 2008
The Samuel and Bernice Shapiro Religious School of Temple Emanu-El is dedicated to:
Preparing our students to live and engage
Jewish tradition in an inclusive community of life-long learning.
Amazing things have been happening. We are building community right before our eyes.
I hope that by now all of you have had the opportunity to be touched by our room parent program, for which more than a dozen Religious School parents have stepped forward to coordinate the communication and efforts of families in their child’s class. Some are organizing a classroom snack schedule; others have orchestrated holiday celebrations. Last spring Jessica O’Gorman and Beth German, then Third Grade room parents, planned our first class Shabbat dinner in recent memory to such success that it has become a model for all of our Hebrew school classes this year. Our room parents make phone calls when there is news to get out; they bring food to share at parent coffees. One of our grade 3 room parents, who shall remain nameless for her own protection, has told us, “just tell me when you need it, and I’ll bake.”
Mitzvah Day in November inspired many wonderful parental contributions. Karen Gruskin, whose sons attend Sixth Grade and Post-Confirmation, chaired the outstanding event, and a small army of Religious School parents headed up cooking, yard clean-up, and football game projects.
As I write, Dawn Gilliland, a Sixth Grade room Parent, is coordinating our annual Hanukkah party with the help of an energetic team of new and seasoned Temple members. So far they have rounded up donations of latkes, and a DJ, and by the time you read this I expect we will all be basking in the afterglow of a fantastic party.
There’s Sharen Solomon, who many of you know from the Temple office, but who also serves as room parent for her daughter’s Confirmation class. She initiated the hugely successful Plummer Home project on Mitzvah Day, and, in the words of Religious School Committee chair Naomi Dreeben, she “does everything for everyone.”
And then we have the Religious School parents whose involvement as parents leads them to even broader contributions to Temple Emanu-El: Debbie Davis and Diane Goldenberg, co-chairing this month’s fourth annual Taste of the North Shore, and Joel Markus, who designed the new Temple Emanu-El logo, have unleashed their talents to the benefit of the whole congregation.
All of these Religious School parents not only sustain our community by sharing their skills and passion with us; not only do they have fun doing something good for our community. They also fulfill an important mitzvah, a traditional obligation. We read in the Talmud:
If a person resides in a town 30 days, he becomes responsible for contributing to the soup kitchen; three months to the charity box; six months to the clothing fund; nine months to the burial fund; and 12 months for contributing to the repair of the town walls. (Bava Batra 8a)
Whether you bake, paint, or plan; whether you’ve been with us three months, three years, or three decades; you have what this congregation has been waiting for. To those who now and in the past have stepped forward with your contributions (and especially those whom I haven’t named here—there are so many of you)—thank you. You are our foundation, our life. Those of you who have yet to bring your contribution: you are our future. Looking for an opportunity? Don’t know where your gifts belong? Contact our Religious School Chair Naomi Dreeben at rscom@emanu-el.org, or call me at the Temple.
Especially in these hard economic times, we all need to know that we can contribute. When money grows scarce, heart and head and hands become all the more important. This is how we build community.
