reform judaism - UAHC

PORTRAITHOLIDAYS BOOKS JUDAICA YOUTH ENGAGEMENT WORLDVIEWKERRY GLASS EDITS A MEMORIES LIVE MOVIE ABOUT J. TORRES.NAME: Kerry GlassCONGREGATION: Congregation B’naiJeshurun, Short Hills, New JerseyFAVORITE ACT OF TIKKUN OLAM:Creating Memories Live (MemoriesLive.org), a free service that helps terminallyill people and their families create apersonalized movie interweaving “live”footage, selected music, and personalphotographs to share with loved ones.The idea came to me a couple of yearsago, after I heard about a New Jerseymother of two children under age sixwho had died of lung cancer. As I wasalso the mother of two young children,I kept thinking about those other twochildren who would never “know theirmother.” If only this mother had beenable to create a movie or video recordingof her life, hopes, and dreams for herkids, I thought, perhaps those childrenwould grow up having a stronger senseof who their mom was.The Memories Live interviewees are oftenuplifted by the experience of celebratingtheir lives and knowing theyhave created a legacy of memoryfor their families. One suchwoman, a 65-year old Jewishmother/grandmother, made hervideo just before she died ofcancer. Her grateful son learnedthings about his mother henever knew—but more importantly,he cherishes being ableto hear and see her at anytimehe wants—to watch her purseher lips and shake her headwhen she’s thinking, to take inher voice. And because his childrenare unlikely to remember her whenthey are older, he is thankful to have thisway to keep her “alive” for them.FAVORITE JEWISH MENTOR:For my master’s thesis in Art TherapyI interviewed a Holocaust survivor whohad been hidden with her mother andsister in an attic without windows. Heronly link to the outside world was a smallcrack in the wall. She would stare at itfor countless hours, imagining what it feltlike to be outside. Today she paints magnificentflowers and trees and a sky filledwith the richest of colors—creating overand over again what she missed while inhiding. She is my hero.FAVORITE JEWISH EXPERIENCE:Camping out in the Judean Desert whilein Israel for a semester at Tel Aviv University.Laying down to sleep in such silenceon the arid, rough terrain amidst so manystars, I thought of how many people andreligions had passed through here, one ofthe most peaceful places on Earth.Photo courtesy of Memories Livereform judaism 6 winter 2012