Act like you are 80 and feel blessed! #BlogElul

Wedding picture, Marian and Jerry Michaels
January 1955

Yesterday was my mother's 80th birthday and hence the delay in posting for blog Elul.  I think the rules are lenient enough to take a DOUBLE POST.  My mom, Marian Michaels turned 80 yesterday and was surprised by her friends with a birthday luncheon.  The luncheon was hosted by her walking group and other attendees included  her book group, family and friends from 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago.  My mom knows the meaning of ACT.  Just last week she worked a McHenry Country Citizens for Choice booth at the County Fair which is not an easy task.  She volunteers yearly and this is the first time she was not accompanied by her 90 year old friend who passed away during the year.

"The Walkers" Skit

My parents have always acted and stood for all things Jewish and liberal.  They hosted coffees, went door to door and tried to get their candidates elected.  Our house modeled the idea to act and get out there.  There was no question about voting, wearing a button for your candidate and of course supporting your candidate financially.

 Everyone sitting in that room is a testimony to my Mother and her actions and how she acted over her life.  She made a comment about everyone in the room and knew not just their stories but also the stories of their families, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren.  She is remarkable and I know she feels blessed.  My parents have 5 grandchildren and are involved with each and every one and their friends as well.  They are blessed and we are blessed to have both of my parents in all of our lives.  Shabbat Shalom.

Marian and Jerry Michaels and Grandchildren

Marian and MJ

It's Elul; time to PREPARE and BLOG

Lakeside at OSRUI second session 2013

Today is the first day of Elul, the Hebrew month before Tishri, the start of the Jewish year and Rosh Hashanah.  If you attend morning t'filot during Elul you will hear the Shofar blown.  What a wonderful way to prepare yourself, your senses and your mind for the upcoming New Year.  Many, many people ask me what I do during the summer.  I think some people are under the false assumption that I am on vacation during the summer.  I enjoy my time at OSRUI and do spend part of my summer at camp.  Even with that I think that I can sum up what I do during the summer with one word which also corresponds to the first topic on #BlogElul:  PREPARE.  Summer is a time to prepare and work on the new school year with added time to reflect and respond.  It is a time to think about your preparations and to plan for the fall winter and spring.  To begin front loading some projects so that they CAN be completed during the year.

I hope to be blogging for all of Elul and I have listed the topics here.   I have not blogged daily since I left Israel.  I like the structure and discipline it takes to do this project.  I may not write paragraphs and paragraphs every day but I hope to make time to think and prepare something every day of Elul. 

I look forward to blogging Elul with my colleagues and thank Rabbi Phyllis Sommer for putting this all into motion. 

Are you prepared for Elul?  Have your registered for Religious School?  Did you get your High Holy Day tickets?  Do you have your menu for the festive meals?  OK, maybe I have gone too far with menu planning and I need to keep SOME topics for my other 29 posts in Elul. So Here's to #BlogElul and to all of you as you begin to PREPARE!

Yes your mom and dad were my campers at OSRUI too!

Captain Kehillah

I am on faculty at OSRUI in Kallah Gimmel with 72 campers and  over 15 staff members.  This session our limud or educational piece  is Kehillah Kedosha a holy community.  Our campers aged 9-12 are having a fun time with our limud as Captain Kehillah, in full costume and mustache has visited almost every day to make sure we are becoming a community.  In fact the campers have to summon Captain Kehillah by singing a special song and when she hears she comes and helps us out.

The campers know we have fun with limud and we have written a cabin brit or covenant for each cabin. We know by discussing and writing out rules for our cabins we will be able to grow and become a more caring community.  This week campers played cooperation games and realized they needed to communicate and talk to one another to accomplish the tasks we had set forth for them; even if the task was just trying to pass a hula hoop around the circle with everyone holding hands.

Cooperation games

Campers and Madrichim, counselors have been wonderful to work with as we do limud throughout the week.  I see evidence of community at every part in our day.  I see girls comforting another friend and making sure no one sits by themselves at meals.  I see boys hunting for swimming googles, water bottles, hats, Ok you name it with friends, counselors and faculty and I think we have done good job of keeping our lost and found down and everyone knows they can count on one another to help find misplaced items.

We are all a part of the web of camp

This is my 4th year in Kallah gimmel with Cantor Arik Luck, from Beth Emet in Evanston and we welcome Rabbi Lisa Bellows from Congregation Beth Am in Buffalo Grove to the team this year.  Cantor Luck and I have worked with some of the same madrichim for 4 years and we enjoy coming back year after year to have fun, teach, sing and live our Judaism.  To watch Kallah gimmel for the past 4 years become a community and reassemble with new staff is a fun and rewarding process.  New staff is inducted and we have continuity for the next generation.

I think the aspect of community which really hit me this year on opening day is how many campers in my unit whose parents were my campers in years past.  I feel not just the love and continuity in seeing the second generation coming to camp but it gives me even more incentive to work harder to make our limud, our Hebrew classes or just swimming in the pool a little more interesting, a little more fun a little more rememberable for our campers.  I work hard during my time at OSRUI every summer and I reap the benefits as I see Madrichim, campers and even the children of my old campers come back every summer. I am proud to have been on faculty long enough to see my campers' children come back and experience the whole summer just as they did.

I love to Read!

Just the NEW BOOKS in theYoung Adult Section
Deerfield Library

I have always loved reading since I was a toddler.  My parents swear they toilet trained me by putting a pile of books by my potty seat.

My favorite part of 4th and 5th grade Public school was the WHOLE hour on Friday when we could do "free reading" and sit quietly for 60 minutes and read.  I realize now it was not just a good idea but the teacher was probably taking a break too.

 When I would go weekly to our public library in Crystal Lake, Illinois where I grew up with my Mom and sister I would check out as many books as I was allowed.  As I got older I actually read through the young adult section of my Crystal Lake library, ( I am sure there are
MORE books there now).  I distinctly remember in Junior High that I read A Separate Peace commonly now assigned to High School students.  I now know that  I didn't really understand  the book but I didn't have many books to choose from.   I began reading adult books at an early age including all of James Michner's books: The Source, The Drifters, Hawaii, Poland, you name it.  I also read many books by Leon Uris including QBVII, Exodus, Trinity and Mila 18.  I loved all of these books and have fond memories of them.

Part of Lakeside Congregation Library

What I wouldn't given for the children's and young adult section like you can find at my newly rebuilt  public library.  I love all of the different book sections including the books on CD.  Deerfield also has a section for book groups which has many copies of the same book including many Jewish books.

My library at Lakeside Congregation also has a great selection of Jewish books and our librarian, Margaret keeps everything up to date and current.  I am proud of our collection and our students and families take advantage and check out books regularly during the year.

Exodus by Leon Uris

I love reading young adult books today and maybe this stems from not having enough books when I was of age.  I enjoy not just the Vampire series but other genres as well.   I did read The Hunger Games before all 3 books had even been published.  I am now a big fan of the dystopian young adult books and have read quite a few.  Interested in my book list take a look on my Goodreads, a site/app which keeps track for me all the books I have read and more importantly those I WANT to read.

I enjoy reading and my summer list so far includes for my Jewish books:
The Wayward Moon by Janice Weizman, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker,  What we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank by Nathan Englander, The List by Martin Fletcher and Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji.  My non Jewish book list reads:  Paris by Edward Rutherford, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and a few more too many to list here.  Take a look on Goodreads though.  Have a great summer and take up a book; there's nothing good on TV anyway. 

Synagogues as an Apple Store; Are we up to the challenge?

My computer in Israel at Kibbutz Tzubah

I bought a Mac Book Air about a year ago and have enjoyed it since day 1.  I got it right before I went away to camp, OSRUI, so I could have all my madrichim, counselors, help me work out the kinks or at least the kinks in me as the operator.  What I didn't take advantage of until a few months later was the Apple One to One tutorial sessions.  For $99.00 which in my case was a BARGAIN Apple provides you with as many tutorial sessions as you want for a year.   I enjoy the hour sessions and I can ask any silly question and receive immediate answers.

Why blog about this?  Well sitting in a planning session at Lakeside today I realized that Apple knows how to make people comfortable in a world in which they are normally not comfortable and give them the knowledge they need to understand what is going on around them and feel competent.  

The more I thought about it I realized that this is something in the Jewish world we are not always successful at doing.  We need to give our members the opportunity in our synagogues, camps and schools the opportunity to learn at their own pace, ask any question no matter how foolish it may sound or seem to them and provide this at regular intervals.  How do we make congregants comfortable in places and situations where they may not be comfortable.  The staff at the Apple store makes working with computers, IPods, iPads and everything Apple look easy.  When you sit and work with the staff they let you navigate your system at your own pace until you learn how to for instance make an iMovie.  I have enjoyed learning a new skill and know that in the back of my mind that I can always go back to the Apple store if I have more questions.  

New Ark at Lakeside

I know that Apple is a business selling something most of us want and value.  I do believe that Judaism is something our congregants/campers/family want and we just need to think about the packaging.  We need to keep expanding our horizons and making room at "our stores" for everyone.  We need to engage people where they are at and where they feel comfortable.  Maybe if we open up a Synagogue NEXT to the Apple store? I might be on to something here!

Bonjour France from the whole Mischpacha Ehrlich/Shanker/Michaels

For 10 days I had the pleasure of touring France with my extended family; my parents celebrating their 80th birthday's this year, my sister and her family and my family for a total number of 12 people.  It was a wonderful trip of touring, eating treats, and traveling as a family.

We were able to travel to Normandy right before the anniversary of D-Day on June 6, stay in apartments in Paris for 5 days and walk, walk and do more walking over all of Paris.  We visited old favorites: the Louvre and loved the Musee D'Orsay with all the Impressionists and that is just the tip of the iceberg of our visits.

A pre dessert of cheese and candied plum

After walking many miles, which I know we did as my pedometer registered over 30,000 steps for 4 of the 5 days of our walking.

To make sure we didn't die of hunger every night we had delicious meals and finding places where they could seat 12 people was not an easy task.  Once finding these restaurants making the reservations was also a challenge.  Special thanks to Arthur Ehrlich for finding the restaurants and to Neil Leiter for making the actual reservations for us in FRENCH.  Every night we dined at about 8:00 pm and were finished by 11:00 pm at the earliest.  We enjoyed all of our meals as we ate from the Basque country, at a Vietnamese restaurant and a European restaurant.

Jonathan with WWII Jeep

Here is a top ten list of what we learned while in Paris:

1. Butter is a MAIN food group and it is used in EVERY meal.
2. If you are in Normandy near D-day it is like being in a time machine back to WWII.
3. Using the Metro (Mass Transit) while easy does NOT mean there is NOT a lot of walking or going up and down 100's of steps.  
4. In the Marais (Jewish quarter) you can get a Schnitzel of course aptly named: Le Schnitzel
5. Even the Pacific Rim restaurants have fully stocked wine cellars 
6. When touring museums it is more fun if you act out the painting or sculpture
7. Ice at a restaurant means 2 cubes for the whole table of 12 people
8. High School and College French skills go a longway in communicating with people
9. If Taxi drivers get in a fight while you are in the car they will not charge you the full fare



Acting out Rodin's sculpture 

10. A family vacation in France is a wonderful way to start the summer of 2013

BONNE ANNIVERSAIRE Marian Lee and Jerry; 80 years old and as we say in Hebrew Ad Meah V'esrim, until 120.  Where are we going next year?

Marian Lee and Jerry Happy 80th!

"EIE you changed my life" Ethan Ehrlich

This morning I woke up and read this on my youngest son's Facebook:

From the trip to Poland

"over the past four months, i have had the most amazing time of my life. I made countless memories, l'm sure lifelong friendships, and have totally changed as a person. I have been apart from you guys for around 12 hours and i already miss you guys more than i can bear. I love you all so much."

I couldn't be happier or prouder.  Ethan has been in Israel on EIE, the Reform Movement's High School in Israel semester program.  I know Ethan had a transformative experience although we did not hear much from him over the 4 months.  Weekly phone calls and sporadic emails and some Facebook postings; he didn't blog, post many pictures but we did have a great visit when I participated in the Parents Pilgrimage.  Reading this post this morning I knew, as I knew all along it was all worth it and then some.

I believe it is important to be grateful and to acknowledge those who have made Ethan's journey possible.  There are so many people I don't know where to begin.  

First to Ethan's chevre in Israel; I have written before you are an exceptional group of young Jewish adults.  I am intimately involved in the URJ's Campaign For Youth Engagement and I have seen the numbers and data and know that only a small percentage of Jewish youth take advantage of this program.  You are our ambassadors for being engaged in all things Jewish and Israel. Your relationship with Israel will change over the years and don't be afraid to wrestle with the issues and most importantly keep your relationship with Israel fresh.

 Remember your time together learning, experiencing and being a real Kehilah, community and take this experience to engage your friends and spread your enthusiasm.  Many of you will be at URJ camps this summer and I know you will have the opportunity to talk to the next generation of EIE participants.  

Todah Rabah to the faculty on EIE all of the teachers, (special thanks David Alon, Ethan's Jewish History teacher) Jewish history, Hebrew and secular studies!  You made sure our students kept up with their studies over the semester. You made Jewish History come alive, made sure our kids were learning and speaking Hebrew and still had time to work on Chemistry, Math and English.  

From EIE Aviv, (spring) 2013 Year Book

Baruch Kraus and David Solomon you are the Roshei, heads of this program and know how to keep things moving at just the right pace.  To all of the Madrichim if Baruch and David are the heads you are the lev, hearts of this program and I know from first hand experience it is not always easy but you certainly made it look like a breeze and fun to boot.  Todah Rabah.

At the Kotel

To our cousins and the many families who took these students in with love and care.  Ethan was able to experience an Israeli wedding and a Pesach Seder with our family.  Todah to Ronna, Miko, Omer, Tzhava, Yogev and Raanan for welcoming us as always to Israel, your home and your simchas.

To all the parents who sent your students on EIE; some of you are colleagues in the Jewish world and some of you  had never been to Israel until the Parents Pilgrimage.  I know I echo the sentiments of all of us when I say we are thankful for this group and the friendships that were formed.   

I could go on and on but need to leave soon to meet Ethan in Paris where our family is gathering for a fun vacation.  I know it will not be an easy entrance into the real world.  I am very glad Ethan will be at OSRUI this summer in our Avodah Corps with some of this chevre.  I can't wait to hear all his stories in person with even more pictures.  

I am passionate about teaching and experiencing all things Jewish, Israel and Hebrew.  EIE wraps it all up in one for me and am so glad Ethan had the time of his life.  I have not yet read Ron Wolfon's 

Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community but it's on my list of books to read.  I bet EIE is a great example of Ron is talking about and is certainly a way in which we can make a change in our own Jewish communities.