We Love Our Teachers!

Tonight was, among other things, our Teacher Appreciation Shabbat. It was really wonderful, and I am including my speech here because it illustrates well how I feel about my job and my teaching staff:

"I wanted to pick a nice Jewish quotation to begin tonight, but the one that kept running through my mind wasn’t Jewish: Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

I don’t know if Confucious was exactly right. After all, some days do seem like work, no matter how much you love your profession! But the feeling I get from the people you see here is that they love the job of teaching your children. I see it in every classroom, on every bulletin board, in every lesson plan, and in every day of the seven years I have had the privilege of leading them. I don’t think I could come to this job that I love without them.

And I owe an extra debt of gratitude to two of you in particular - for Rabbi Joel Mosbacher and Cantor David Perper are not just extraordinary in their dedication to our congregation as clergy. They are extraordinary in their dedication to teaching as a part of this school’s amazing team. Cantor Perper has rejuvenated our weekday and Sunday t’filot and brought his talents to unique Kadimah offerings, and Rabbi Mosbacher is a Kadimah teacher, a Family School teacher, sometimes a substitute teacher, MY teacher – There are no speeches or certificates long enough to thank you both sufficiently.

And now, I'd like to speak about Barbara Schwartz. For 26 years, Barbara, you have been teaching our children. Tonight we have invited one of your former students, Sharon Cohen Ramsey, to help honor you, but if any of Mrs. Schwartz’s other students are here tonight, I would invite them to come up as well. (At this point pretty much every child in the room came up to stand by Mrs. Schwartz and she was given a bouquet of flowers.)

Barbara, you have welcomed hundreds of young Jewish boys and girls into a religion that you obviously love. Your caring and dedication show themselves with every day you come through these doors with a smile on your face and endless enthusiasm for your work. It is clear that every child has been special to you, and on behalf of everyone who works with you I would like to say a very public “Thank You.”

The quote that I chose for your certificates this year, by Jewish scholar and educator Abraham Joshua Heschel, reads: “What we need more than anything else is not text-books but text-people. It is the personality of the teacher which is the text that the pupils read; the text that they will never forget."

Not only does Rabbi Heschel coin a new phrase – text-people, which felt so right to me as a description of you all as teachers, but he also put a literary finger on how each of your unique personalities are creating memories for your students, for me, and for each other, that will last a lifetime. Shabbat Shalom. "

Then after the oneg the teachers who remained and I went across the road to the Mason Jar restaurant for drinks (some of my teachers are fans of tequila shots!) and laughter. (We were very loud and took great pride in explaining to the waiter that we were teachers from the synagogue across the street.) Got home around 11. Lovely ending to a lovely evening.

Thanks to Rod, Ralph, & Joel, who drove home to deal with the kids while we had some fun.