Federation Star - June 2019

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26 Federation Star June 2019 “Are we THERE yet?” Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross This summer season hearkens back to the innocent days of childhood, when everyone piled in the family car for family vacation. The way along the highway was marked not so much with mile-markers, as with the repeated inquiry from the back seat: “Are we THERE yet?” To which, your friendly neighborhood rabbi offers the world’s greatest parental intervention. Cock your head thoughtfully and, with a carefully modulated demeanor, share with your youngsters this profound philosophical observation: “As it happens, kids, we are never ‘there;’ we’re always HERE.” That’s more than a spatial truism, and more than a linguistic quip to keep the children thinking. It is ultimately a metaphor for the meaningfulness of life, as taught in the Torah. Consider that, when we first meet our forebear Abraham, he is migrating with his father Terach across the width of the known world. Genesis 11 tells us that Terach, who departed Ur to go to Canaan, got only as far as Haran and settled there. The next chapter depicts Abraham departing Haran and following God to The Promised Land – which is Canaan. The father began the journey, but the son completed it. Centuries later, with the birth of the Israelite nation through the Exodus experience, our liberated slave forebears left Egypt for The Promised Land. The next 40 years were spent in the Wilderness, training a new generation of Israelites free of a slave mentality, who would be capable of nation-building in the Land to which we were bound. The parents began the journey, but their children completed it. The Second Book of Samuel describes how King David, ashamed of his own arrogance, seeks to make amends with God (and to ameliorate his own presumptuous soul) by purchasing the threshing-floor of Aravnah to build a shrine to God. But the First Book of Kings makes it clear that the privilege of building God’s Own House in Jerusalem went not to David, the man of blood and warfare, but rather to his heir Solomon, a scholar and philosopher and man of peace. The father planned the project, but his son brought it into fruition. This is myth in the truest sense: a great truth, encapsulated in accessible and readily understandable terms. All three biblical narratives point to the reality that none of us is constitutionally capable of attaining our life’s goals. We’re not talking here about having a seasonal home on the Gulf coast of Florida, or a Gulfstream jet. Rather, it’s a matter of the bigger and more comprehensive goals that feel not just elusive but unattainable: achieving world peace; bringing about the redemption of the human family; ushering in the messianic era of orderliness and kindness. What matters is not that we don’t (and possibly can’t) accomplish these great ends. What matters is that it is in such worthy directions that we choose to reach. We may in fact always be “here,” and never “there”… but the fact that the “there” in question is so ennobling lends meaning to all the “heres” along the way. May your way be blessed by the worthiness of the destination you aim toward along the road of life. Rabbi Mark Gross serves at the Jewish Congregation of Marco Island. What do you think? The Federation Star wants to know! Send your letters and comments to fedstar18@gmail.com Letters Policy Include your name, full address and daytime phone. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for length and/or accuracy. Letters do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples, the Federation Star or its advertisers. We cannot acknowledge or publish every letter received. Presents The Israel Scouts Tuesday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m. 4630 Pine Ridge Road, Naples No RSVP required for this free event! 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Main performance: The Scouts are bright and dynamic performers. Their singing, dancing and storytelling are high-energy and upbeat. They have an intense love for the land and the people of Israel, and a strong desire to share that passion with you. They will have you singing and dancing in your seat and, if you are lucky, dancing with them. 8:00 - 8:30 p.m. Meet, greet and photo ops with the Scouts and an opportunity to purchase CDs and T-shirts Experience the excitement and energy of Israel like never before! We hope to see you on June 11. This Israel Scouts performance is co-sponsored by & The Israel Scouts Friendship Caravan is made up of five girls, five boys and two Caravan leaders from all over Israel. In order to be in the Caravan, these teenagers (16 and 17 years old) went through a highly competitive selection process and were chosen based on their maturity, fluency in English, and performance skills. Scouting is big in Israel, with over 60,000 members. Those chosen to participate here are selected for their ability to best represent the State of Israel. As Israeli delegates, these teens have a love for Israel and a desire to share that with North Americans. The Scouts spend the 10 weeks of summer performing in synagogues and churches, schools and summer camps, even nursing homes – wherever people want to share their love for Israel. Just Jewish Rabbi Adam F. Miller Walking into a grocery store to shop these days requires not only a shopping list, but also a significant dedication of time and brain power. Pick up any item from the shelf, and one finds a label with more information than ever before. The list of ingredients painstakingly documents every single item that went into the preparation of the food. Beneath that, one usually finds a separate list indicating commonly known allergens – milk, soy, wheat, nuts, etc. Following that is often an additional note indicating whether the food was packaged in a plant that may result in cross-contamination. All that, and you have yet to read the nutritional guide or even price comparison across brands. Although we may sarcastically mock the growth of these labels, the labels serve an important purpose – warning us against products that may contain elements dangerous to our health or that we simply desire to avoid. Indeed, we live in a society full of labels. Informed consumers rely on labels when purchasing everything from food and clothing to appliances and vehicles in order to make educated decisions. Being able to separate what we want, from what we don’t want, empowers us. We use labels not only for our benefit as consumers, but in almost every aspect of our lives. Individuals often identify by gender, religion, political interests or passions. These labels alone do not create disharmony. However, using labels of identity like consumers can exacerbate divisions within society. As a consumer, when we see one item on a label that we either don’t like, or cannot consume, we correctly reject the whole product. Human beings, however, are far more nuanced than a simple ingredient on a label. Learning that someone identifies by a label does nothing more than tell us a term that person feels is descriptive for them. Unlike ingredients, these labels are not concrete and objective. Each person interprets the label in a subjective manner. Which means that one cannot assume a complete understanding for what the person means when they apply the label. In other words, two different people could use the same term to describe themselves, yet not agree exactly on what that means. In addition, the use of a label does not indicate how significant that element is to the person’s overall COMMENTARY identity. A person may feel the term applies to some degree, but that other parts of their identity are more important when it comes to making decisions. As a result of all this uncertainty, one should not reject a person only for having a label with which you do not agree. Rather, we should search for shared labels, ways that we can connect to others. Nowhere is this search for common labels and unity more important than within our own Jewish community, where many labels are prevalent. We have Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox Jews, as well as Zionist, kosher, progressive, traditional, observant, cultural, culinary and “not-so-religious” Jews. To the extent that these labels serve to describe how we express our Jewish identity, they are indeed positive. Affiliation with a movement, for example, can indicate whether a person prefers egalitarian or single gender worship services. Kashrut will indicate a person’s dietary needs, and Zionism a strong connection to Israel. At the same time, we must be careful not to let these labels, which serve as information, be the reason that we create rifts and divisions among our own people. For as we have learned from the events in Poway, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Seattle, France and more places than we can possibly list, those labels carry little meaning beyond the walls of our community. To individuals filled with hatred toward the Jewish people, those twisted by anti-Semitism or anti- Jewish tropes, we are all just Jewish. If those who hate us and seek our destruction only see us as one people, why divide ourselves? Instead, we should be seeking ways after this latest act of violence to partner together. Not to remove our labels, but rather to find as many labels as we can that overlap and allow for creating a stronger community. To our credit, we already partner across synagogue boundaries with a community youth group, Chanukah celebration and Yom HaShoah observance. We need to seek other ways that we can respond to hate with unity inside our community. Last month we mourned the death of Lori Kaye as one people. Let our actions going forward reflect that sense of larger community, encouraging us to embrace new opportunities for partnership and unity. May we learn to look not only for the labels that divide us, but those that unite us. May this tragedy inspire us to be champions for repairing the world around us. And may we remember that beneath the surface, we are all just Jewish. May your summer be one of blessing, laughter and joy in the sun. Rabbi Adam Miller serves at Temple Shalom in Naples. Jewish Families with Children Group The Jewish Families with Children Group is looking for parents and their children to join us in making new friends and enjoying social activities together. Activities planned will include Beach Outings, Play at the Park, Movies, Bowling, Mini-Golf and a lot more! Join us on Tuesday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Temple Shalom for the Israel Scouts Friendship Caravan. The Israeli teens will perform for our community through song and dance. This is a FREE event and all ages are welcome! We would love to hear from you. If there are children in your home and you’d like to be added to our roster so we can keep you informed of our upcoming events, contact Renee’ at rbialek@jewishnaples.org or 239.263.4205. Save these summer dates for our upcoming events: Sunday, July 14 and Sunday, August 18 Sponsored by P For more information about the Scouts who will be coming to Naples, visit www.jewishnaples.org/israel-scouts
FOCUS ON YOUTH Naples BBYO happenings By Jessica Zimmerman, Associate Regional Dir., North Florida Region In April, Naples BBYO hosted a bowling event at HeadPinz on Radio Road. Teens from Fort Myers joined us for an event complete with bowling, food and fun. This summer, while BBYO teens are away at leadership summer camps or traveling the world with BBYO Jessica Zimmerman Passport, we will be on a hiatus in terms of local programming until early August when school is back in session. If you are interested in being added GRANT RECIPIENT to our email list to receive information about middle and high school programs, please email me at jesszimmerman@ bbyo.org. Your friends at Naples BBYO wish you a wonderful summer. We are searching for two advisors for our girls’ and boys’ chapters. Advising is a volunteer position and asks anywhere from six to 10 hours of your time a month. For more information, please email me. Temple Shalom Preschool update By Seyla Cohen, Preschool Director With a record number of students attending Temple Shalom Preschool this year, we were able to showcase nearly 300 pieces of amazing artwork created by our little artists at the Temple Shalom Preschool Art Show on May 4. With classroom baskets, silent auctions, Gifts of the Heart from our teachers, and delicious food and entertainment, all of our guests had such an incredible time. For the second year in a row, some of our Pre-K students’ artwork was accepted into the Annual Student Exhibition at Artis–Naples. What a great honor to be acknowledged as a true artist at such a young age. Preschool of the Arts update By Ettie Zaklos, Preschool Director At Preschool of the Arts, our “attitude of gratitude” is part of our everyday philosophy. In the last month of the school year, as we completed our 8 th successful year of Preschool of the Arts, we had the opportunity to take that to the next level with various events that showcased the sincere appreciation we have for so many incredible members of our community. Many of our end-of-year celebrations and performances highlighted the children’s achievements and thanked those who guided the students to reach their full potential. On May 2 we celebrated Teacher and Staff Appreciation Day. Our Preschool of the Arts teachers and staff are passionate, dedicated and committed to making our children the best they can possibly be. Our team of loving professionals are carefully selected for their warmth and passion for early childhood education. Every day they expertly model the values of friendship, kindness and gratitude that make up the ethos of our school. Throughout the year, they toil to not only educate but love our students, guiding them to reach their full potential. Our annual Teacher Appreciation Day is a chance for our entire POTA family to come together and express heartfelt thanks for everything our educators do. This year, Rabbi Fishel and I hosted an appreciation breakfast for our staff and teachers, while parent volunteers covered early care responsibilities in the classroom. Parents also gave generous gifts to our teachers and staff in appreciation of everything they do. Our staff enjoyed the delicious Our Lions (3-year-olds) serenaded their mothers at the annual Lions Mother’s Day Brunch. This beautiful program, organized by the Lions teaching team brought tears to everyone’s eyes. It was a moment the mothers will never forget. These little ones were so excited and emotional, showing their love to Temple Shalom Preschool’s Passover Seder in the temple sanctuary their mommies through songs, poems and the gorgeous gifts they created. At graduation, we said goodbye to 55 of our 4-year-old graduates with great pride and a bit of sadness as so many of them have been with us for four years. We are pleased that the children are so well prepared to move on to kindergarten. They have been breakfast and loving gestures, and our parents gained a renewed appreciation for our incredible teachers who make their jobs look so easy. The theme of appreciation continued with another event that celebrated our incredible parents, who are a vital element of our school’s success. On May10 we highlighted one of THE most important ingredients in the recipe for our children’s success in a very special June 2019 Federation Star Sign up for The PJ Library and you’ll receive a FREE, high-quality children’s book or CD each month. The PJ Library will enrich your family’s life with Jewish stories and songs – and it’s absolutely FREE for families with children from six months up to eight years of age in Collier County. The PJ Library is brought to the Greater Naples community by the Naples Senior Center at JFCS. For more information, call 239.325.4444. Preschool of the Arts celebrated Teacher and Staff Appreciation Day taught phonics and sight word basics, preparing them for a solid reading foundation. Writing journals have been used as a tool to expand the creative process using imaginative thinking and phonetic sound-out words. A basis for math, simple addition and subtraction skills have been taught through the use of manipulative and sorting instruments. In science, these children have learned measuring, sink and float concepts, and participated in experiments using basic chemistry. Art, cultural studies, STEAM, geography, current events and other higher order level teaching have provided our students with knowledge of the world around them. They have learned about how vegetables are grown in our flourishing garden, they have learned about composting and even the benefits of worm castings. We are proud to say that a majority of our Pre-K students are reading or surpassing beginning reading, writing and math skills. Our little ones have grown so big and are capable of so many more things from when they began their preschool journey. This reminds us that time moves very quickly. Each stage of our child’s growth brings wonderful new “sunshine”-themed Mother’s Day event. The event allowed our young students to express their appreciation for the most important woman in their lives: their mom! At POTA we know that the mothers in our parent body give their all to our children every single day, long after pick-up time, and deserve all the recognition in the world. Based on the theme of “Mom, You Are My Sunshine,” our children and staff hosted a wonderful, loving morning, where they got to “sun”-shower our wonderful moms with thanks for everything they do. Broadening our thanks to the greater POTA community, we celebrated our Circle of Hearts and Partners of Chabad members, who are a vital element of our school’s success. These special communities of supporters allow us to continue enhancing and improving the school, enabling us to create the perfect environment for our children to thrive. POTA hosted a fun appreciation evening with a lavish spread of delicious food, and even better company, celebrating the friendship and partnership of these committed benefactors and acknowledging the tremendous impact of their generosity. Gratitude has and will continue to be the foundation of the success of our 27 Photo courtesy of The PJ Library GRANT RECIPIENT changes, but we should try to slow down and appreciate what is happening now. Our Temple Shalom Preschool family is so blessed to have had the children and appreciate every moment we are able to be a part of their lives. So don’t wish away those sleepless nights. Be amazed at the stages your child goes through and enjoy them all. Sit on the floor and play with them, and read them a book at night. Know that before long they will be able to read to you. Listen to your child tell you about their first day in school. All too soon you will hear about their first day in high school or college. Cherish and love every minute that you have with these little angels. As we end our 2018-2019 school year, we begin our amazing 2019 Camp Shalom and Camp Einstein. Plans have been made to make this the most exciting summer ever. The fun starts soon, so don’t miss out! To sign up your children for a great summer experience, please call me at 239.455.3227. GRANT RECIPIENT school, as well as a core value we impart to our precious children. We want to take this opportunity to show gratitude to our entire community, which has supported us every step of the way. For seven years in a row, Preschool of the Arts has won the Naples News Champion Choice Awards in the categories of Preschool, Educational Services and Childcare. This year we are proud to announce that we have been voted #1 Preschool in Collier County by the Best of Gulfshore Life, Readers Choice Annual Rewards. It is an honor to serve our community and humbling to be recognized for what we have created together. Thank you! Preschool of the Arts 2019- 2020 enrollment is filling up quickly and we are at capacity for many of our classes. For more information, to register or get on our wait list, call 239.263.2620.
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