Dear Friends:

As I write to you, I'm sitting in a tour-bus heading south from Jerusalem to Masada. We've just passed the outskirts of Jericho and we will soon be driving parallel and adjacent to the Dead Sea. The enormous sense of privilege that I feel, being in our Homeland together with so many of our own Ner Tamid family and enjoying every moment of it, has grown only deeper and stronger with every passing day of this -- our second -- Ner Tamid trip to Israel this summer.  To those of you right here on the bus, I thank you for joining me on this special Family Adventure. To those who joined me in June for our Adult Trip, thank you for making our experience together so special and meaningful. To those of you who couldn't participate in either trip this year, please know that we will enjoy numerous opportunities, long into the future, to journey to Israel together as a community, and I hope that you will join us on one of these trips.

The scenery is majestic in this portion of the Judean Desert. This area is the lowest portion of the Syrio-African rift and it is, in fact, the lowest point in the world! The Judean Desert's mountain peaks seem as velvet, absorbing the harsh desert-sunlight so gracefully. This is just one snapshot of the many beautiful sights and sounds, of people and places, that over 60 of our members have enjoyed in Israel this summer on Ner Tamid sponsored trips to Israel. We have much to be proud of!

Still, with all of the exciting preparations back home for the upcoming year, there is reason turn our attention back to Ner Tamid -- even from Israel! As is almost always the case, good things occur when good people work together. At Ner Tamid, this is far more than a slogan; it is a core value that both guides how we do what we do and exhibits why we do all that we do. We are blessed with an unusual cadre of decent, talented, and dedicated individuals among our staff and lay-leadership, and it is my pleasure to dedicate this column to those who are working together in tandem this year and who will do so in the years ahead to deepen our synagogue in spirit while we continue to strengthen in number.

 For the past two years, I have enjoyed a most committed lay-partner in our now Immediate-Past-President, Sam Osofsky. Sam's love and passion for our community is simply unending. He exhibited in every facet of his Presidency a true devotion to the welfare of our community. The progress that we made and achievements we celebrated during his tenure were monumental. As well, and more personally, Arianna and I will always cherish Sam and Joanne as dear, personal friends and we thank them for leading our community in welcoming our family to Ner Tamid.

While I will miss working with Sam, our incoming President is equally committed to our community. Mark Simon is, above all, a man of enormous integrity. He and his wife, Clara, have given of themselves to our community for so many years and in so many ways. Their children have been schooled and nurtured at Ner Tamid. Mark understands both the interpersonal and very practical needs of our community. He exhibits a depth of wisdom that will serve him well in his Presidency and will serve to strengthen our synagogue as we continue to build our future one family at a time and all-together. I know these things of Mark and his leadership because I have enjoyed both a close working relationship and an ever-deepening friendship with him over the past two years. I am delighted that Mark will serve for the next two years as our President; our community has much good to achieve during Mark's tenure and I feel blessed with a wonderful partner as our work continues together.

Joining Mark is an outstanding collection of talented and dedicated individuals who will serve on our synagogue's board. These individuals (listed in Mark's column in this issue) deserve our respect and admiration for the time and attention that they give to their volunteer involvements on behalf of all who benefit in any way from their association with Ner Tamid. Howard Blumberg and his nominating-committee worked diligently to put together an array of talent on our incoming board and we will only grow stronger from their efforts.

 This past year, we welcomed to our staff our new Executive Director, Eric Shatzkin. Eric is a caring, loving presence in our synagogue who does so much more than tend to administrative matters, though his role in this regard is indispensable. For giving blood and platelets to our members in their times of need, for keeping an extra eye on our kids at Preschool or at CLAL, for driving Shivah books to people's homes when needed, and for so much more, Eric, I thank you on behalf of our entire community for your meaningful expression of the essence of who we are as a community in the course of your work with us. Welcome aboard!

Eric's life, however, does not begin and end entirely with his work. It is my distinct privilege to announce in this column Eric's engagement to be married to Melissa Marcus. Eric and Mel will soon determine their more specific wedding plans, but I do know that they plan to be married right here in our synagogue. So, friends, when you have a moment, please drop by Eric's office to wish him and his beautiful bride-to-be, Mazal Tov!

As was prominently and most proudly shared in last month's Bulletin, our synagogue welcomes a very familiar face to the position of Director of Education. Ami's commitment to our community, to our families, and to our children and teens is beyond exemplary; as one who has supervised more than a few very capable Directors of Education, I am entirely confident that Ami is as committed to our community and to our educational aims and objectives as any Director of Education and Youth Programming, in any synagogue, anywhere.

While I could recount her achievements in her previous positions at Ner Tamid or her abundant qualifications (all of which we should be very proud of!), it is all that Ami is doing already to make our school everything that it can be that should inspire our greatest excitement. With every intent upon developing a team that reflects our values as a community, Ami is putting together an outstanding faculty for CLAL for the coming year. In Ami, we are blessed with an individual who will lead our school toward a true celebration of Jewish Life and toward ever-greater integration of CLAL into our larger Ner Tamid community.  Our children will be the beneficiaries of her dedicated endeavors on their behalf, long into the future!

While our accreditation process this past year with the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education concluded that our school is as fine as its excellent reputation, we know that we can always improve. To ensure that we are taking fullest advantage of the finest materials and resources in the field of Jewish Education, we have engaged an expert consultant to CLAL for the coming year. Lesley Silverstone served most recently as the Regional Educator for the Pacific Region of The Reform Movement. She is a nationally recognized expert in Religious-School education. Lesley is a committed member of our Ner Tamid family and her expertise and dedication have already proved invaluable.

 Of course, Ami's new position at Ner Tamid necessitated the hiring of someone to serve as our Assistant Youth Director and CLAL Program Coordinator. When our search concluded, we found our way back home, once again, to a product of our own community. It is with great excitement that I share with all of you the hiring of Heidi Shulman on a full-time basis for the coming year! For those of you who have joined our synagogue more recently, Heidi’s father, Rabbi Ron Shulman, served with great dedication as Ner Tamid’s spiritual leader for 21 years until 2004. Heidi will be supervised directly by Ami Berlin. Having met personally with Heidi after Ami identified her as a candidate for these positions, it is abundantly clear that Ami's assessment that Heidi was the right person for the job was nothing short of a stroke of genius. Heidi knows our program, her experience as a counselor and in other leadership positions at Camp Ramah over the years has prepared her most meaningfully for her new roles at Ner Tamid, and her own commitment to our children and to our community runs as deep as anyone's -- and then some. Ner Tamid has always been Heidi's second home, and we are all very glad to welcome her back among us. Heidi, welcome home!

 So many in our community have enjoyed the blessings of our Preschool, as our children have been nurtured and loved within its walls toward their readiness for school. Such nurturing does not occur by accident. The warmth of our Preschool Director, Shelly Shapiro, is the very warmth that inspires our Preschool's faculty and permeates the entire first floor of our building. I can speak to this as your Rabbi. I can also attest even more personally to this reality as Jacob's father. Personally, on behalf of Arianna, and on behalf of all of the parents of our Preschoolers, I want to thank Shelly and her staff for the wonderful work that they do with our children every day. Theirs is truly and so obviously a labor of love, and the Jewish future will shine evermore brightly for the love that they show to all of our  children.

In synagogues, those who work so hard to ensure that practicalities and logistics are taken care of are often forgotten when recognizing contributions of individuals to all that we achieve and enjoy together. But, who would we be without Chef Peter Carpenter's contribution to beauty of almost all of our occasions? And, who would we be without Bryan Hawley's attention to our facility, with the kind of personal care with which one would maintain one's own home? Without Alma, Inez, Herman, Leslie, Pam, Bea, Pat, Jackie, and Kris? Without our stellar and always available office-volunteers, Ruth Schuller and Sue Berliner. Not only would we be less efficient in all that we do, but we would be less of who we are! Our gratitude as a community is ultimately for the devotion and dedication shown hourly and daily by our staff for all of us, from our youngest children to our most experienced members.

 Last but certainly not least, I was reminded while walking in Jerusalem just yesterday with Cantor Radwine that, just slightly more than two weeks from today, the two of us will celebrate two years together in sacred service of our community. We share together constantly in the joys and sorrows of our entire community. For the unique and extraordinary blessings of kindness, decency, and wisdom that he brings to our community every day and every Shabbat, our Cantor has earned a profound love and respect shared by our entire community. Cantor, thank you for all that you bring to who we are.

We are nearing the right turn, eastward toward Masada, King Herod's desert-palace and protective fortress, used by our ancestors approximately 2,000 years ago as a final Jewish stand against the Roman conquest of Judea. How moving it is to prepare to ascend this sacred ground in the full knowledge of the wonderful Jewish spirit of our Ner Tamid family that we carry with us. There couldn’t be a more meaningful gift to bring to this place of extraordinary Jewish determination in the face of an unbeatable foe than reflections upon the vibrancy of our own Jewish community as it lives onward today. -- To all of you, on behalf of our collective Jewish past and with blessings for a bright Jewish future, thank you for all that you do to make our Jewish present as joyous and meaningful as it is.

B'Shalom -- With Blessings of Peace and Wholeness,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret
Spiritual Leader