This year, I have had the honor and good fortune of having been accepted to the Wexner Field Fellowship. In advance of our first Fellowship Institute last month, we were asked to submit a photograph that represented a place crucial to our Jewish identity development. Of course, I sent a picture of camp, though not a photo of myself as a teenager. Instead, I chose a picture my husband took about nine years ago, of me sitting on the porch of the bunk where I had been both a camper at 13 and a counselor at 18. In the photo, I am holding my infant daughter. My curly-headed son, wearing his first camp T-shirt, is standing behind us. Something about the image collapses time for me; it captures the transition I have been lucky to make from recipient of the beauty of Jewish communal life to its disseminator.
That theme of transmission has been everywhere for me in recent weeks. Most obviously, this coming Thursday, I am so excited to celebrate the Riemer and Goldstein families at our annual gala. The Riemers and the Goldsteins, including our amazing current Board Chair, Mara Riemer Goldstein, and her dad, Bob Riemer, who Chaired the JCC board almost 30 years ago, embody the kind of multi-generational commitment to community that is a model and inspiration for so many of us. Transmission is also one of the main themes of The Postcard, one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. The Postcard tells the story of the writer AnneBerest’s family before, during, and after the Holocaust, and is a meditation on identity, legacy, and memory that I have thought about every single day since I finished it. Passing our story, our tradition, our values, and our love from one generation to the next is also at the heart of the Passover seder, which is almost upon us!
Considering these echoes, I am entering this Passover season wondering: Why do we want to pass things down? Why does a snapshot from camp, an anonymous postcard, a ritual meal evoke such strong emotions in us? What makes our Jewish stories feel so important that we want to learn them from our ancestors and transmit them to our children? And why has this legacy been so enduring for almost 3000 years?
This year, my answer to those questions, and the blessing I am bringing with me to my Seders is love. It matters to us to transmit our Jewish lives, values, and identities from one generation to the next because we love our parents and grandparents, and because we love our children. And because of that love, we want to offer one another the gift of a tradition and a value system that helps us understand the world, enables us to feel connected to one another, and enriches our lives. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, “Judaism was the first religion in history to place love at the heart of the spiritual life: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your might. Love your neighbour. Love the stranger… That is what Judaism is: a life of love and a love of life. All the rest is commentary.”
In that spirit of legacy, memory, an eye towards the Jewish future, and a deep sense of love for my family, my community, the JCC, and the Jewish people, I wish you all a sweet Passover, and I hope to see you soon!
-Lily
