A Jewish Idea- ROLL TIDE!

  

Good luck to Alabama tonight! May the athletes, both of the Crimson Tide and Clemson, play safely and be uninjured. May Alabama bring home another title!

Just this past week Mimi Holberg celebrated her 100^th birthday! Amazing!  To live a century, embodying history within one’s own being, is incredible. Very few people attain such an age. As I marvel over Mimi’s longevity, I remember that a number of our people have reached and even surpassed this milestone. Celia Olensky, mother of Bernice Handwerger and her siblings, reached 103. Dorothy Korman, mother of Maddie Cohen, also reached 103. Sophie Gershfeld, grandmother of Eric Lobel, recently marked her 100^thbirthday. If I unintentionally excluded anyone please bring this to my attention.

     Over the course of our Shul’s history and that of Mobile’s Jewish community, people have contributed energy, leadership, creativity and other resources to our overall community. Taken a step further, over the course of Jewish history, we have all benefited from the energies of noteworthy and exceptional people. Seeing these women in our community nearly takes my breath away. Literally, they are witnesses to Jewish and American history, having seen society transformed. These centenarians are human testimonies to the power of will, determination, stamina, perseverance and personal strength, and their value to our shared achievements and growth is immeasurable.

      We need to see ourselves as part of Jewish history. History is not only words penned by a scholar and warehoused in a dusty volume. History unfurls one person at a time, sometimes by accident and sometimes by intention. In diverse areas such as communal enrichment through the Federation Film festival, in adding spiritual depth and intensity to our homelife by observing Shabbat and Kashrut, unknown to the world without us, in strengthening worship life by supporting the Shul, in supporting Tzedakah through Shul, Federation and many other essential organizations, in developing Jewish literacy by reading a Jewish book or joining  one of a number of study opportunities, in reaching out to Jewish people whom you do not know and strengthening Jewish relationships, in visiting Israel and talking about her beauty, strength and democracy with your neigbors, how will you shape Jewish history in the days and years ahead?

     We each have strength to share with those who are currently by our side and those yet to come. May we all write a history with our deeds of support, of caring, of insight, of activism, of learning, of generosity and of love.

Shalom,

Rabbi Steve Silberman