I find it irksome when visiting friends balk that there’s no Starbucks in town, or poke fun that we don’t have a traffic light in Putney because I know our lack of urban trappings is not an indicator of lack of cultural richness, but I recognize that we are, perhaps, isolated Jewishly. I participate in many of the things that make our Jewish community as vibrant as it is--I go to services, I spend time with my kids at Hebrew School, I sit on the Board and the ritual and fundraising committees, I read the daily Ten Minutes of Torah emails (along with a plethora of other Jewish-content emails). Judaism is a huge part of my life, so it had never occurred to me that we are indeed isolated until my recent visits to little Springfield MA.
The Biennial was amazing: there were cantors and rabbis everywhere, and the singing was almost constant—hundreds of New Englanders singing songs I know to tunes I’d never heard. It was like summer camp. On Friday night we filled Sinai Temple with busloads of people (and I’m pretty sure they have a kitchen in which even our two Sharons would enjoy cooking). On Saturday and Sunday we had wonderful meetings and meals together. I remember thinking I need to make kibbitzing with this many Jews happen more often in my life—my kids have no idea, and I forgot, how great it is to be surrounded by Jewish people.
My recent visits with Faith, Abe, and Paul to the Grinspoon Foundation took place on the large JCC campus, which includes a preschool, a day school, the Resource Center for Jewish Education, a beautiful Judaica shop, and so forth. On both visits, we were joined by Bennington’s new rabbi, Josh Boettinger. It struck me that I’ve not been to a service in Bennington in the 16 years I’ve been in the Brattleboro area, and when I thought about what the most significant benefit to us would be should HGF open their programs to us in southern Vermont, I realized it was the broadened Jewish connections we would make as a result. We might be more likely to organize a shabbaton in conjunction with Bennington, Keene, or Greenfield (maybe led by one of our member college students?), to take our teens on a Jewish trip to NYC, to send our kids to Jewish summer camps, to work with the HGF educators as a resource in our own curriculum planning, and who knows what else.
I wouldn’t trade BAJC nor my life here for a large JCC or synagogue, but I find myself excited to recognize that our isolation is actually somewhat false. We’re within one hour of a quite a bit of Jewish activity and two hours of far more. When we first created the BAJC website, we surveyed the congregation and people said they’d like the site to have information about area Jewish happenings beyond BAJC. You’ll now find an ‘area events’ listing at the bottom of our home page. I encourage all of us to think about how we might want to connect Jewishly beyond our own community, whether on the web or physically, and make some plans! As you do, please consider sharing your experiences, either at a service or in the newsletter, so we all can be reminded how much Jewish richness is accessible to us.
B’shalom,
Julie
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