It is a small, very welcoming group, led by a lesbian Rabbi, Rabbi Elli, who has been there part-time for 17 years. They just completed a 6-year renovation project to their building, and this was just the second year that they were worshiping in the new sanctuary for high holy days. Rosh Hashana services were wonderful. Prayerful and tuneful. In fact, they started with the same song that we sing at CBI, "Return." Except, while we sing it emphasizing the first syllable "RE-turn," they sign it emphasizing the second syllable, "re-TURN." Hmmmm... Our only gripe was that there was a bit too much of repeating the English after having read the Hebrew, one of our pet peeves. (Yes, Yom Kippur is coming up, so I will have a day of forgiving...). Overall, a very sweet service. There was a beautiful moment on Rosh Hashana morning when as we were about to recite the mourner's kaddish, a man in the front row let out a deep, deep loud sob, and collapsed. We thought he was having a heart attack, but in fact, he was just feeling grief. Rabbi Elli came over to him, and through his sobs and struggle to even get words out, he shared that his father had passed-away in April, and that he missed him. Rabbi Elli took a moment to comfort him, to ask him for his father's name, and then to invite the entire congregation to hold this man's father's memory in our hearts as we continued on with the kaddish. What a beautiful moment. And what a gift this was for all of us. His grief allowed us all to truly feel for that moment, to feel in such a pure way the fragility of being alive. Zichrono Livracha --May his memory be a blessing.
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Labor Day. Take off! Finally. After three fabulous weeks on the east coast, Naomi and I finally were ready to get our passports out, re-pack our 254 pounds of stuff again, and head off to Newark Airport. Our Icelandair flight took off at 9pm, and after 5 sleepless hours, we were in Rekjavik. Then, after a 90 minute layover, we got on the plane to Gatwick, landing at 11. By noon all 254 pounds of stuff had been gathered, placed on a luggage cart, and wheeled precariously over to the train station. And by 2pm we had taken the 30 minute train ride to Brighton, hopped a taxi, and found our way to our apartment in Hove. Made it! Our four months in Brighton had begun. I was off to London the next day for a Fulbright Orientation; and so while I was being oriented to Fulbright in London, Naomi was orienting herself to our new home in Brighton: organic grocery store, pilates studio, small batch coffee shops, good possible restaurants, bus lines, train stations, etc. Lots to explore. It wasn't until Friday that Naomi and I got to spend the day in Brighton together, a 9-mile walking day through the rain, beginning at 7:30am, and ending at almost 11pm. And while one of the highlights was my first and chips and pint of lager for lunch, the real highlight was our evening out with my new colleagues from Community University Partnership Program (CUPP) at the U of Brighton. "Brains at the Bevy"
After having made our first visit to the U of Brighton earlier in the day, we headed to "The Bevy" to meet my colleagues (Dave Wolff, CUPP Director and Juliet Millican, CUPP Associate Director) for a rather special "academic talk." So, after two weeks with Naomi's parents in NYC, we began our third and final pre-departure week on the East Coast. This was an event-filled visit to Pennsylvania which included: 1) Patrick and Laura's gorgeous outdoor wedding in Washington Crossing, Bucks County; 2) a reunion of the "Grandchildren of Yetta and Alex Pollack" in Lancaster County (Amish Country) and Philadelphia; and, 3) Jacob Biehl and Naomi Iser's wedding in downtown Philly.
They had 5 children born between 1909 and 1925: Izzie, Abie, Philly, Razie and Adabelle. And those five had ten kids, born between 1943 and 1958: Suanne, Sheila, Janie, Lenny, David, Linda, Arlene, Susan (Lee), Alisa and "Seth-boy." This was our first gathering, and we had 5 of the 10 together. Highlights included:
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About MeI am a Professor of Service Learning and Director of the Service Learning Institute at California State University, Monterey Bay. I am interested in how universities can be more involved in social change, particularly in supporting underserved communities to address complex social and economic challenges. Archives
December 2017
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