By Tamar Davis, CEO, Gateways
I hope you had an easy and meaningful Yom Kippur! Now for the next holiday in this busy month, as we prepare to build our temporary dwellings for the holiday of Sukkot. The sukkah — a simple little hut with holes in the roof — is usually our annual reminder of how impermanent our lives truly are, and that we cannot take blessings like food and housing security for granted. Yet on this Sukkot, it is these temporary dwellings that somehow feel more permanent, as once again I see masked community members congregating in tents for the High Holidays at our synagogues, and masked students and educators gathering in tents as they return to school. We are all continuing to question whether life will ever return to some sense of normalcy.
Yet, I take hope in seeing our teen volunteers gather to train for our in-person (masked) Sunday and B’nei Mitzvah programs. In our Jewish day schools, we already have a caseload of over 90 students, and our therapists are navigating ever-evolving Covid protocols to ensure that these students receive the services they need. Educators in our community are requesting professional development and consultations from Gateways to improve their ability to educate the next generation, especially during these current circumstances. We are not taking any of these moments for granted.
So on Monday evening, as we glimpse the stars among the branches of the rooftop of the Sukkah, let us take hope in these moments that we do not take for granted, and continue creating more of them.