August 11, 2022

Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),

Florida in August! Outside it’s hot, humid, sticky, and uncomfortable, but things are heating up in a much more positive way inside our new space at the Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center. It is so nice to see a full parking lot, even on a Wednesday night after 8:00 pm! In addition to all of the wonderful Levis JCC programming happening, we have also been welcoming guests to our new space. I have been so happy to give “DreamTours” to so many in our community. Recently, our DreamTours included new friends Rabbi Baruch & Shayndel Plotkin, Provost Van Williams from Palm Beach State College, Bryan Hunt and Robin Nierman from the Peter Blum YMCA, and Karey Greenstein from Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. We have welcomed so many new friends to tour this space during my first 4 months in this wonderful community. To all of you, please know how grateful and pleased I am for these collaborative moments, and for the great things I know we will do together in the future – all to benefit our Jewish community and the greater community. It is a very exciting time.

Speaking of collaborative opportunities, our partners at Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services are seeking volunteers to deliver bags of food pantry items to residents of the Gould and Weinberg Houses, located on our Federation’s campus. For details and to register, click here.

Successful organizations are often built on collaborations, and I am told that Allan Just, who led our Levis JCC through tremendous growth and development during the late 1990s and early 2000s, was a stellar collaborator. We learned that Allan passed away recently and I wanted to share that sad news with our community, one he served so well. While I did not know Allan, I do know that his legacy of leadership lives on. His tenure at our Levis JCC came at a time of critical growth and expansion, and I am told that he was instrumental in creating and nurturing numerous community collaborations, many of which are still in place to this day. We remain grateful for his service to our organization. May Allan’s memory be for blessing.

This week’s Torah portion is Va’etchanan (implored), also known as Shabbat Nachamu (comfort). In it, we are reminded to study Torah, to bind “these words”as tefillin on our arms and heads, and to inscribe them in the mezuzot that we affix on our doorposts.

In moving into my new office this week, I quickly noticed that I will need a new mezuzah on my door and I so look forward to blessing that office and our new building with mezuzot throughout the building wherever they are currently absent. This is yet another opportunity to take our Levis JCC and our entire Jewish community to the next level. Let’s all do it together!

Light Shabbat candles Friday night at 7:41 pm Shabbat ends Saturday night at 8:35 pm

Shabbat Shalom!

Marty