Every year at about this time, two groups of people prepare to leave our community. First, a cohort of our teens goes off to college. Second, about 3 percent of our members move out of the area each year, usually for jobs.
For a number of years, we've had an Away-From-Home program for our students. At Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot, at Hanukah and at Purim, our college students get a care package from the Youth Committee to let them know we are thinking of them and that they still have a home at Adat Shalom. Even for kids lukewarm about anything Jewish, the cookies are extremely well received! Your child needn't have gone to Torah School at Adat Shalom or become a B'nia Mitzvah on our bimah to be part of this program. If you joined when your children were past those stages, we are still happy to include them in this effort to keep a link between these young adults and the world of synagogue life. To make sure your child is included, be sure that Carol Feder has his or her college address. You can also let her know if you are willing to help her get the packages together.
This program, which has served about 17-22, kids a year, will stay small for another year or two but we forecast having 110-130 college age kids connected to families in our community by 2006. With your help and support, I hope we can keep this effort going even when it gets too big to lay all the boxes out at one time on someone's dining room table! While these care packages don't contain a magic formula for ensuring Jewish continuity, we hope it does create a good feeling about the organized Jewish community. One of the first graduates of our cookie program, Maya Jaffe, has come "home" to join Adat Shalom and been elected to the Board as vice chair of the Youth Committee.
"Home" is in quotes because as Maya arrived, her family left for England -- not
forever (we hope) , but for long enough to discontinue their membership at
Adat Shalom. For Helen and Sima, leaving the Adat Shalom community was one of
the hardest parts of relocating for work related reasons. Membership chair
Susan Kron, realizing that there are many relocated former members who value
their connection to Adat Shalom, developed a new program called "Long
Distance Friends" to enable people to keep a connection to Adat Shalom. For
the cost of our mailing the Scroll ($50 in the US and $65 to $75 overseas),
they not only get the Scroll but also qualify for discounted High Holiday
tickets and are welcome, when they are in town, at member-only events such as
the retreat and in-home potlucks.
This program is only available to those who
moved more than 40 miles away from the synagogue and who left the
congregation as members in good standing. In the next couple of weeks, we
will be mailing an invitation to those who we know have moved away but all
our address may not be current. If you know someone who may be interested,
please send his or her email address or current address to Susan Kron.
Have a great summer!
Shalom uv’racha,
Judy Gelman