Rabbi's Letters

It was just about one year ago that the reality of Covid-19 really began to sink in. We hoped it would be over by summer, we imagined it over by summer. Yet, our optimism was premature. Still, we have kept our spirits as high as could be expected and low and behold, here we are, it is a full year later. When I think back over this year, I realized that my initial drive was to be a new Rabbi, Covid or not, I had to introduce myself to you with the hopes and dreams that I would be well received.
 
The first few years of a rabbi’s tenure are always intensely challenging. I wanted to show you who I am, with the hopes that we would begin to forge ties of trust and caring. I was obsessed to show you that your decision to hire me was the right one and that for me, that my decision to move here was the right one as well. It is so truly like a marriage, it’s just that we have to sign the Ketubah before we have even really met. Luckily and by the grace of God, I have never been happier and I do feel that the chance that we took on each other was a very very good one. I pray that you feel the same way.
 
So for me, Covid was just another hurdle along the newbie year, but now that we have made it safely through the “new rabbi transition”, I have begun myself to realize the ramifications of Covid and how truly difficult it has been for everyone. So, I am offering to all of you a chance to have a visit with your Rabbi over Zoom and to have a spiritual check-up. To see how you are doing, what’s been easy and what’s been hard and how are you imagining the future. A chance to examine how this world pandemic has shifted your world.  I would be honored to share this experience with you. It’s not only the body that needs a periodic health check-up, the soul is in need as well. So, if you would like to have a session with Rabbi Julie, please email me and we will schedule it. This won’t be starting until March but if you are interested, please sign up now to secure your space.

I am also so excited to tell you that I have opened the Israel trip back up for discussion. I spoke with JJ in Israel this week, who owns Maven Tours and is my only go-to company for the many trips that I have hosted to Israel. They never fail to craft with me the perfect trip and I am beginning to plan in my head what a perfect trip for TBS would look like. JJ said that he had recently met with the Bureau of Tourism and they are planning to open the skies in late Spring. I told JJ that I would like to aim for October of 2022, one year after our initial plan but that if things really get back to normal beforehand, we would up the trip. I just don’t want to have to keep pushing it back.
 
I am going to schedule a Zoom meeting for the Israel trip on Thursday May 20th for all interested parties at 5PM. Please tell your friends and let us know if you plan to attend. I can promise you an Israel trip of a lifetime!

Purim’s almost here!!!!
Please join us on Sunday the 21st at 4PM when I’ll be doing a bissel teaching on Purim, we will be visiting “Allee’s kitchen” as she makes hamantaschen as we look on. Barbara Sealey will be stirring up the Purim passions for the crowd and it promises to be an all-around fun Zoom gathering. So please join us, this will be the perfect way to get in the mood for Purim. See you there!

Passover is just around the corner (Yikes) and I reached out to the Porters to see if they would be willing to cater the Seder meal as they did so incredibly last year. They are so wonderfully helpful and said that they absolutely would be happy to do so again this year. I want to get the temperature of the community as I am considering doing a Zoom seder. It would be a bit more condensed, there would be participation and we would wrap it up before we said goodbye to have the meal. If you would be interested in having me Zoom the seder for everyone, please let me know. I am not sure what is preferred, separate seders or a Zoom seder. Please send me an email letting me know your position on this question. We will be sending out information about the Seder meals to cater as soon as we get into March.  Time to make plans!!!!!

Fran Basch Rousseau
My heart is so heavy to have to inform you that Franny Basch Rousseau, the beloved daughter of Esther Basch has passed away from a long battle with illness.  She had not been well for quite a while and finally said goodbye to our world on February 14th. The funeral was today in North Carolina. Franny is survived by her husband Ed, her siblings, Rachel, Paul and Mark and her beloved mother, Esther. It is said that Fran was often called a Mini Esther. It seems as if her heart was extra large, and she was known for her relentless kindness. 

Franny will be so missed by the many people whose lives she touched. Yet you can be sure that her memory will continue to spread seeds of love and goodness even without her here in our world. For these seeds that she sowed with her very life can only grow as time goes by.

Our hearts go out to the entire Basch family. To experience such a loss at this time of Covid just amplifies the pain and sorrow.

May the memory of Freida Rivka bat Esther, continue as a blessing throughout time.
And may God's love protect and guide her as she ventures into eternity.

Irene Danon
What a difficult week of loss this is for our community. Our beloved Irene Danon passed away recently at the beautiful age of 91. Irene was a Holocaust survivor and a brilliant, powerful, and talented soul. The horrors that she experienced as a child in the Shoah only served to ignite her love for humanity. She was one of the most optimistic and hopeful human souls that I have ever known. Irene is survived by her three daughters, Michelle, Roberta, and Laura.

One of Irene's final wishes was to have her body donated to Science and because of this wish, there will be no funeral, yet her family will soon announce a Celebration of Life gathering once Spring arrives so that coming together outdoors will be more accessible. It was Irene's way in everything she did in life to benefit the larger good and now her body will help so many others live better lives themselves. How beautiful.

Irene received an honorary membership here at Temple B'rith Shalom as a Holocaust survivor. It is our passionately held belief that every Holocaust survivor should be honorary members of all synagogues in the world. This is true here at TBS. Irene wasn't only a member of Temple B'rith Shalom for this lifetime, she is an honorary member for all of eternity.

May the memory of Irene, this precious soul, remain in this world as a blessing. The world is so much better for having had her goodness in it. She will be missed beyond words.

I’ll be seeing the kids this Sunday on our One Room Zoom Shul House. That’s always a sweet morning. Parents, please let me know of you plan to be there.

At this week’s Board meeting, I started by saying these beautiful words of Torah as my blessing for the Board officers, From Strength to Strength, you will be strengthened. I was sharing this with the Board in gratitude for all that they do for our congregation. They care so much about our community and protecting the sacred trust that leadership must inspire. I loved how this interpretation differed just a bit, yet just so beautifully. It says,
 Be strong, be Strong, and strengthen each other.

So, my prayer for each of you this Shabbat is to be strong, relentlessly strong, because that strength will strengthen all of us. And when everyone is chasing the same foundation of strength and loyalty to our Jewish legacy, we can’t go wrong.

Rabbi Sager's class today on "Teaching Each Generation Its' Torah". 

May this Shabbat comfort and hold you in all that is divine and blessed. 

WIth blessings, 

Rabbi Julie Kozlow