Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),
Our Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center leadership and staff had very heavy hearts this week. Many of us paid our respects to beloved Levis JCC community leader and philanthropist Nina Rosenzweig, who passed away last Thursday. It has been comforting to know that even as many of us came together in sadness, over the past few days, there has been so much happening at our Adolph & Rose Levis JCC that lifts us up, connects us, and helps strengthen our community.
Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),
This week it is my privilege to be visiting the “Second City,” Chicago, along with Levis JCC Board Chair Steve Clarfield, Board and Executive Committee member Mark Gotlieb and Board member and National JCC Association (JCCA) Board member Shirley Solomon. We have been attending the JCCA J Summit 2024, a national biennial gathering of 170 Jewish Community Centers in North America. We are among the approximately 350 participants (including both lay and professional leadership) coming together to learn, network, share, and acquire tools and ideas to guide JCC communities to new heights. It has been a wonderful few days of connecting, learning, and planning for our Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center’s bright future.
Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),
If you are a regular reader of my weekly Shabbat message, then you know I never miss a week. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with you, and to share some aspect of my life, our community, local and/or world events, and what’s happening at our Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center, as well as our weekly Torah portion. This week I write to you 6 days into a spectacular 9-day Travel with the J trip to Colombia. It has been an amazing adventure. Few, if any, of us in the group realized the impact the Jews of the Spanish Inquisition made in the development of Medellín and Jericó. We see Jewish history and heritage in so many unexpected places – we have visited homes that still have original mikvehs. We have learned that some people still refer to bread as Parve. Best of all, there is still a vibrant congregation of 150 fellow Jews (we enjoyed a meaningful Shabbat service and dinner with them) and another congregation of 300 people who have converted back to Judaism after being forced into Christianity generations ago, including the Rabbi, who had been a pastor! While the sights are beautiful and there are so many wonderful cultural things to experience, connecting with Colombian Jewish communities and learning their history is the highlight of this journey. We may be scattered all over the globe, but we really are just one big Jewish family.
This week Lori and I are joining 21 other travelers on what promises to be a wonderful and meaningful experience as we journey to Jewish Medellin, Colombia with the Levis JCC’s Travel with the J program. I cannot leave without expressing my devastation and deep sadness at the brutal murders of the six hostages executed by Hamas this past weekend -- with little heard from the worldwide community. Our Jewish world is a small one with just a few degrees of separation between most of us. Many in our community have personal connections to the hostages. Collectively, our thoughts are with all of the families of those who were murdered, as well as with the families still waiting and praying for the safe return of their loved ones. We hold each of them in our hearts!
As we come into the last few days of August, I am so looking forward to a busy and fulfilling September. Lori and I are headed to New York City this weekend for a wedding at the Pierre Hotel. I used to staff events at the Pierre when I started my career at the UJA-Federation of New York in the late 80s. It will be great fun to celebrate this simcha at such an elegant old haunt. Lori and I will then briefly return home before joining 21 fellow travelers to depart for the Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center’s latest “Travel With the J” trip. Beloved longtime Levis JCC staff member Susana Flaum, a native Colombian, will lead us on a spectacular tour of Jewish Cultural Colombia, home to more than 5,000 Jewish people. This will be a very special adventure as Susana shares “her” Medellin with us!
The dog days of August are quickly coming to an end. It’s certainly not too soon for me as this is about the time of year when the Florida summers of 90-100 degree temperatures with near 70% humidity become tedious, and yet we know that we still have 2 more months of brutally hot and humid weather to go. After 15 years in Florida in total, one would think I’d be used to the furnace like summer weather here. As August winds down and I look forward to the possibility of cooler days ahead, it also means the beginning of another exciting season at the Levis JCC.
This week my dad, Otto Haberer, z”L, would have turned 95. He passed 26 years ago and yet I am always keenly aware that my family exists in this world because of that man and my mom of course. His impact is so far-reaching. Thinking of him makes me think of my favorite movie of all time, the 1946 classic It’s A Wonderful Life, which highlights the impact each and every one of us has in the way the world is shaped and what goes on in it.
As we come to the end of the exciting summer Olympic Games held in Paris, this week JCC Maccabi Games and Access welcomed 1,200 Jewish teens to Houston, Texas to participate in the world’s largest Jewish youth sports event. I am very proud that our Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center’s Levis Krug Team Boca athletes have the opportunity to be a part of this incredible program. Unfortunately, my family and I had to cancel our eagerly anticipated vacation to Siesta Key Beach, but it really was the right call in postponing that trip. The Sarasota/Bradenton area received 17 inches of rain and some of the worst storm damage in its history due to Hurricane Debby. Lori and I are now eager to reschedule some precious time with our daughter Danielle, son-in-law Colin, and their daughter, Emi Lou, our precious granddaughter.
Today, our son Noah and his beautiful family returned to Arizona after spending such a wonderful week together. From a visit to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, beach time in Delray, and lots of time in our pool, we soaked up quality family time eating great food and watching season six of Cobra Kai together. Though it’s always so very hard to say L’hitraot (till next we meet), we are so looking forward to our next family visit – this time with our daughter Danielle, her husband Colin and our granddaughter, Emi Lou. We will be spending that time on Siesta Key beach in Sarasota, which was home for us for 13 glorious years. We can’t wait!
Today is “getaway day” for my family. Lori, Noah, Patricia, Gabby, Ollie and I will be enjoying Disney World for a few days. It is the first time Lori and I are visiting since we took our two young children 25 years ago! This time, as grandparents, is very special! We may even run into excited happy campers from our Marleen Forkas Summer Camp, who are on a two-day overnight trip to Disney World! It’s just one of the many things that truly makes our Levis JCC Marleen Forkas Camps program so wonderful.
What a crazy and hectic week this has been – Lori and I are very much looking forward to wrapping it up with some wonderful family time with our son Noah, his fiancée Patricia, and their daughters. We can’t wait for them to arrive! I know all my fellow baseball fans tuned in for Major League Baseball’s 94th All Star Game on Tuesday. After that terrific game, we’re all ready for the final third of another exciting season!
This Friday evening, Lori and I are very excited to be hosting another lovely group of 10 of our Board members at our home. It is such a nice way to get to know our leadership and we look forward to sharing a beautiful Shabbat dinner together. We have been hosting Shabbat dinners periodically since we moved to this community, and we really have made some wonderful friendships. We are both looking forward to another great evening of friends, food and fun!
Wishing all of you and those you love a happy and safe Independence Day and 4th of July weekend. Independence Day is a federal holiday commemorating the Declaration of Independence and establishing the United States of America, yet somewhere along the way, much like Memorial Day and Labor Day, the true significance of the holiday got lost. It’s important to remember the meaning of this day as Americans, as we celebrate by watching the fireworks and enjoying our barbeques.
We did it— our Florida Panthers are the Stanley Cup Champions for the first time in the 30-year franchise history! It took all seven games to accomplish it, but we got it done! It’s always so exciting when your home team wins a championship, and I am already looking forward to next year’s season of fantastic South Florida sports.
This Shabbat message comes to you after an exciting Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between our Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers. While it wasn’t a win for us on Tuesday night, our Cats are leading the series 3-2, and I am hoping for a win tomorrow night. Go Cats!
This week, we celebrate one of the holiest Jewish holidays of the year, Shavuot (sometimes known as the Feast of Weeks). It is always interesting to me that so few in our Jewish community are aware of Shavuot, which is, our tradition tells us, when the Torah was given to the Jewish people. We count 50 days from the second night of Passover in anticipation of Shavuot (the Counting of the Omer). On a lighter note, Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs was spectacular, with the Florida Panthers defeating the Edmonton Oilers last night; the Panthers are currently leading the best of 7 series 2-0 — GO CATS!
I am pretty excited about our Florida Panthers going back to the Stanley Cup finals for the second year in a row with home ice advantage and the favorites to beat the Edmonton Oilers to win their first ever Stanley Cup Championship. Lori and I do have a pretty good track record of bringing championships to the cities we move to while we are living there—New Jersey, Detroit, Tampa, and Phoenix (who came pretty close in 2 professional sports).
It is hard to believe that this is already the last Shabbat message in May and that Lori and I are completing our third May living in South Palm Beach County. I truly feel like I have once again become a Floridian, and while I have to admit I never expected it, I have become a passionate Florida Panthers fan…and what an amazing time to be a fan! I am personally elated by Tuesday night’s overtime victory and can’t wait to continue cheering them on in game 5. GO CATS!
Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),
This week we will be commemorating Memorial Day, honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is a holiday with deep personal significance and meaning for me. My Uncle and my namesake, Private Martin Haberer, fought in World War II and was killed during the Battle of Bastogne on January 14,1 945, just shy of his 20th birthday. He was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, 327 Glider Infantry known as the Screaming Eagles. He is my hero.
This week I had the honor of welcoming guests to the Levis JCC Betty & Marvin Zale Early Childhood Center’s Pre-K graduation ceremony. It is such a wonderful feeling to see our collective future proudly cross our stage in cap and gown as they experience the joy and achievement of graduating from something for the very first time. It was a beautiful morning celebrating the children and acknowledging proud parents, grandparents, and recognizing our dedicated Zale teachers and staff who infuse each day at Zale with love, warmth, and caring. We will miss our graduates but know they are on their way to great things ahead in kindergarten and beyond!
