JCRC Event - Barry Shrage Community Award

That it's time for me to retire. I resent it. But when they made me, literally in the spirit of the Godfather, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. First they sent Mark after me, and Luca Brasi actually pales in comparison. And then they told me it was an opportunity to honor the bus gangs. So that's amazing. I stand here in an audience that is filled with people who deserve this far more than I do. Transformational rabbis and communal servants and communal leaders and people who have mentored me and taught me and helped us all to pull this community together. So to have an award like this named after me is completely, radically, undeserved and deeply appreciated. And, you know, I look around this room, and like I said, it's filled with love, and it's amazing. So I thought I'd start off by speaking a little. You know, you look at all these projects and you think, what's all this about? What's CJP's role in this? And what's the JCRC really doing in this? So I thought I'd take a step above, a step up and quote from my favorite teacher, the late Rabbi Joseph B. Solomgic, who maybe some of you in the audience remember or you've read his work. Truly a transformational rabbi. So he points out that in the Torah, it says that God asks the Jewish people to have two trumpets made of silver. And it says one of them is for calling the machana to war, the camp to war, and the other is for calling the adah, the congregation, together. And he asks, what do these two things mean? And I think if you listen carefully to this, you'll see what the purpose of the JCRC is and in a way, what Jewish communal life is all about, what being a Jew is all about. Rabbi Soloveitchik says that the camp which is called to war is created as a result of the desire for self defense and is nurtured by a sense of fear. We've experienced enough fear in our Jewish world. The congregation is created as a result of the longing for the realization of an exalted ethical idea and is nurtured by sentiment of love. Fate reigns in unbounded fashion in the camp. Destiny reigns in the congregation. The congregation is a group of individuals, like the people in this room, possessing a common past, a common future, common goals and desires, a common aspiration for a world which is wholly good and beautiful and a common, unique, and unified destiny. Isn't that what this is about? Isn't that what JCRC is about? On the one hand, to be with us when we are afraid and we need to get together to defend ourselves, and on the other hand, to never forget that fear is not the purpose of Jewish life. The purpose of Jewish life is to create something much bigger and much more exalted, much more important. And in a way, we sort of summarize this on the outside of our building when we say the world. The world stands on three things. On Torah, on the service of God, and on acts of loving kindness. So where's the genesis of this variety of service programs? It comes from one central idea that I remember so clearly talking about with Nancy Kaufman when she first had the idea, and then with Jeremy as we talked about how we were going to continue the idea and with so many volunteer leaders. And it's an amazingly simple idea. You know what? We're at a point where we're sending almost every one of our young people to Israel. It's amazing. Almost everyone. It's a big idea that we can transform a generation. And when we started Mayal, we said, we will transform this into a community where every Jew is a literate, learned Jew. Amazing. And then we said, what would happen if, like the Mormons, every Jew, every single Jew had an experience of service? What would happen? It would be a different world if they knew that this was an essential part of being Jewish. It would solve the problem of Jewish identity. All of these things are in our hands. And the JCRC said, we will accept this responsibility. We will accept the challenge, first through the literacy initiative, and then for the teenagers, and then finally, because we shifted radically in the direction of young adults so important to our future, the young adult program. All of these things grow out of the same common desire to create a unique and beautiful, wholly beautiful faith for the Jewish people, starting here in Boston. And then. And then beyond. This is what. This is why the relationship between JCRC and CJP is so incredibly important. So that's kind of the context for all of it. Now we turn to the bus gangs. An incredible couple, an incredible family, filling an entire table. Not just concerned about themselves and the volunteerism that they provide, but generations past and their volunteerism and commitment and their children and their volunteerism and commitment. All of this filling our community with all kinds of goodness. And if you look at what Jeff does in the community, it's amazing. He has an amazing program that he created to. First of all, we have a huge immigration problem, and Jeff has decided that he has an answer to part of that. It's an incredibly important program that Helps both industry and the immigrants and Kala Kavod. It's an amazing idea. Involved in facing history and ourselves involved in so many important and terrific programs that are involved in our community. And we're so proud to have Jeff involved in CJP as well. A great example for. For everyone. And Linda's role is also amazing when you think about it. So look, we had an idea. I'm great at ideas. Execution, maybe not so much. I got a lot of people to do execution. So when we decided that we were going to merge, put on the same piece of property he received you'd life and their project and the Rashi School, I was a great proponent to that. I had no idea whether it was going to work or not. But that never stopped me from being a great proponent of an important project. And I said, here's what this is. What's going to be amazing about this thing. Because the elders. Well, because the children will learn from the elders that they have a past, a history, a Jewish history. And the elders will learn from the children that they have a future. A future that's filled with opportunity. Let me tell you something. A lot of people have had that idea and there have been a lot of collaborations like this in a lot of different places. But Linda made it happen. Linda made it real. Linda is the one that created a tremendous Kiddush Hashem, a tremendous opportunity for social justice for so many people and a great opportunity for companionship for elders who really need it. And for the kids, a sense that there really is a past. You can see it in the movie. It's an amazing project. It was a great idea, but it wouldn't have been a great idea if it hadn't happened. And Linda made it happen. So for all those reasons, it's a pleasure to present the what's his name Community building. Wow.

What an incredible honor to receive an award in Barry's name. You teach all of us so much every day. Barry. Thank you and congratulations to Kanth and Amanda and to Rachel and Joel and thank all of you for being here to support all of us and to support the jcrc. What a treat to celebrate tonight. Jeff and I are so touched that this award honors both the work we have enjoyed so much over the years, but also the wonderful accomplishments of our kids. So Jackie isn't with us tonight. She's off for her first year at Hamilton College. Her deep, long standing connection with Temple Beth Elohim's telem program called Ha Vaya has been a primary influence on her commitment to service. She's traveled to Panama to work in remote villages. She's interned for a battered women's shelter, and she has now been selected to participate in a two year service program at Hamilton, which she's really excited about. Jj, this is jj. JJ has just come off of a fulfilling summer filled with travel and a wonderful new connection he's developed with Habitat for Humanity and Jonah. This is Jonah. Jonah looks forward to extending his service involvement with Temple Beth Elohim this year and continuing an iPad training support program he's provided for residents at Heber Senior Life for the past two years. My work at Heber Senior Life is a great privilege, helping students learn from the stories and passions of seniors and embrace their responsibilities as citizens and caretakers of those in our community. In our housing sites. We are fortunate to benefit from the TELUM program and reach out programs like you saw in the video before I get to work with people like Irving, who is 91 years old. He's losing his sight and hearing but craving the opportunity to delve into books with the help of a teenage girl. And in two weeks, I will see one of my favorite programs of the year unfold as nearly 40 fifth grade students accompany seniors in wheelchairs for walks and conversation around the new bridge on the Charles campus to celebrate Sukkot together. Every day. My work is filled with powerful connections between young and old. We are building a next generation of compassionate citizens and helping transfer the lessons of the past into able young minds that will carry them forward. Jeff and I have been on our own journey to learn how to live the values we care most deeply about and figure out how to help instill those values in our kids. We stand here very humbly recognizing that we still have much to do and to learn as we support both our children and the community around us to become more just, more compassionate and more actively engaged.

So I also want to say thank you everyone for being here tonight. It's an amazing opportunity for us to be here. Barry, I don't know if you remember like 10 or 12 years ago you sent a book in the mail. So you know, I get a mail from cjp, not a solicitor, but a book called An Ornament of the World written by a Princeton University professor that covers this amazing period of history in 9th, 10th and 11th century Spain where the environment was one of such tolerance service. There was really a cultural mecca and a renaissance during a period of time that was viewed and held up as an amazing point in history. And Barry's message was very clear. He had a vision that Boston would be an ornament to the world, that we could also create that kind of a cultural golden age. And when I look around this room, when I see and hear about all the work people in this room are doing, that JCRC is doing, it's happened. I mean, it's amazing, Barry. It has happened. We have created that. And for Linda and I to be a part of the institutions that we've been a part of these last few years, to be a part of Temple Beth Elohim and Rashi, the Rashi School, cjp, jcrc, Hebrew Senior Life. It's just been an amazing experience for us. So I wanted to ask, just to acknowledge the lay leaders, the board members, the volunteers of those organizations facing history. Jcrc, cjp, the Rashi School, Temple Beth Elohim, to stand and be recognized. And hsl. I said hsl, to stand and be recognized so we can acknowledge you for creating an ornament to the world. So please stand, if you could. Let me ask you to please stay standing, if I could. Because now I want to have the people who are involved in other amazing institutions in this community, other nonprofits, Jewish community of all faiths, many of you are board members and volunteers. Can I ask you to now please stand and recognize you for what you do for this ornament to the world that we live in. Now. Let me ask everyone to stand, because all of us, I want to have stand up and recognize and acknowledge our leader, a trust, true visionary who has helped create this amazing community together. Very strange.