Our Family Artifacts
Shomrei Emunah
5/Hey, Kitah Hey 5770
NJ, USA
Spring 5770
History is our story: his story, her story, their story, our communal story. At Congregation Shomrei Emunah’s Jewish Learning Center, we learn about two types of history in 5th Grade/Kitah Hey: the line and the circle.
We study the narrative line which is the ongoing saga of the Jewish people; a line travels into infinity in both directions. It begins in a time so far away that we cannot know for sure exactly what happened. And so, we tell sacred stories to tease out the meaning of our beginnings. Sometimes the road is smooth, sometimes it is bumpy and rife with danger, and sometimes we take detours in the interest of safety or in serendipity.
Circular history is the carousel of our time. We celebrate powerful, significant events in our personal, familial and communal lives. We re-enact these events, adding layers of meaning with the passage of time. Every re-enactment reminds us of times past and promises future opportunities to share these events.
Personal and familial milestones include births, weddings, anniversaries and deaths. We celebrate these lifecycle events with our families and with our Jewish community. We remember our birthdays, the day we lost our first tooth, the moment when we realized we were riding our bicycle alone without helping hands, the day our braces were installed and the day they came off, our graduations, and more!
As a community, we celebrate the birthday of the world, the birthday of the trees, the Exodus from Egypt, that extraordinary moment of Revelation at Sinai, the story of Purim, the victory of Chanukah, the day the blue and white flag flew over the State of Israel, and the day we rest. Memories live in our hearts and minds; ritual is a script that allows us to remember in concert with each other.
Artifacts are tactile, visual reminders of people we love and places we've been. The look-alike mischievous ten year old in the archive photo is also the warm, smushy grandmother we know and recognize. The handwritten note we discover in a book makes us realize that our Dad was once a high school kid who scribbled in his notebook. The barely legible recipe written by our grandfather helps us recreate his wonderful Hungarian desserts. The Kiddush cup our parents purchased on their honeymoon in Israel feeds our yearning to visit our Holy Land as well.
Some of us have ancestors who carefully preserved treasures. Others have ancestors who fled their homes with no time to pack. Still, there are others who have ancestors who did not recognize the importance of permanent remembrances. Some of us have families who were not always Jewish and others have relatives which Judaism is deeply ingrained in everything.
The Jewish history of Shomrei’s JLC Kitah Hey 5770 starts now. The curators are those who identify, display and preserve an artifact. The curators listed in our catalog have shared their family treasures with us. Please enjoy our catalogue and explore your surroundings with new eyes. In Ethics of our Ancestors, chapter 2:5, we read,
“Hillel would say: Do not separate yourself from the community.”
ה הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר: אַל תִּפְרוֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר