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Dear Friends,
This week, Lori Ann and I took our youngest son, Julius, back to Clemson for his junior year. I loved having him home this summer. The house felt fuller when he was here, and it certainly feels a lot emptier now.
I know many families in our community are experiencing their own version of that feeling right now. Some are sending a child off to college. Others are walking a preschooler into a classroom for the first time, watching a teenager start high school, or simply adjusting to another school year and another reminder of how quickly our children grow.
And after a wonderful summer, there is something comforting about knowing that wherever our kids are headed, there can be places waiting for them where they belong.
We saw that all summer long. At camp, friendships picked up right where they left off. On Birthright, young adults who began as strangers came home connected by something much larger than themselves. Our children experienced what it feels like to be surrounded by other Jewish kids, to celebrate who they are, and to know, these are my people.
Now summer gives way to school, but that sense of belonging does not have to end.
For some children, it continues in our preschools and day schools. For others, it is synagogue religious school, BBYO, or a teen program. And for our college students, it may be walking into Hillel hundreds of miles from home and finding a Shabbat dinner, a familiar tradition, and people who understand a part of them that needs no explanation.
That is why we invest in these places and experiences. We are building spaces where Jewish connection can happen at every age and every stage. We are helping our children develop friendships, confidence, identity, and pride that they can carry wherever life takes them.
As a parent, I find myself appreciating that more this week.
I cannot make our house feel quite as full with Julius back at Clemson. That is part of watching our children grow up. We raise them, love them, give them roots, and eventually watch them make their own way in the world.
As a Jewish community, we have a similar responsibility. We cannot know exactly where life will take the next generation. But we can make sure we have given them strong roots, meaningful connections, and a community they will always know is theirs.
Our children will grow up. They will leave our classrooms, our camps, and eventually our homes.
Our job is to build a Jewish community they will always want to come home to.
Shabbat Shalom.
