Thursday, July 17, 2008

Every time I begin to think I'm saying goodbye to this community, it turns out that I'm not. I am the new program director for my Hillel, the little storefront I came home to every Friday night through four years of college and two years of graduate school. I'm glad I can keep giving back. I'm glad I'll be here to help it change, now that our beloved rabbi and program director of eight years has moved to a different city. They hired a part-time rabbi to make Shabbat and holidays with us, so that part of the job is not up to me. It's all programs, all the time. It's event planning and organizing. It's Judaism and education. Social action and ice cream socials. I get to work with college students without having to grade their papers. Before the rabbi left, I thanked him because this has been the kind of blessing that endures. It's still enduring. Though something tells me it would endure whether or not I had decided to take this job.

I felt starved for change, I was so ready to leave this town. It turns out that once again, I will change the way I interact with the town and the community instead of leaving it behind alltogether. There is leaving and returning.

What a perfect way to start the New Year in September.