Dear Families,
Gratitude, Love, & Hope
The end of the school year always feels like a swirl of emotions for children, teachers, and parents. Just as the beginning of the year is often marked by a mix of excitement and trepidation, the end of the year brings us to a similar precipice. We celebrate children’s growth and the now firm bonds of classroom communities that didn’t exist only nine months ago. At the same time we navigate the emotions that come with goodbyes and with stepping forward into the new, once again.
It goes without saying that this year our emotions are all much more complex and much closer to the surface. Parenting at any time is filled with moments of incredible, swelling joy as well as moments of anxiety. Sending our children out into the world is like releasing our own heart to travel outside of ourselves. Raising children is among the most vulnerable and most courageous acts of faith and hope. All of this is true even when we have the usual rhythms of our lives to keep us moving and to structure the dance of embracing and letting go, embracing and letting go, again and again, that defines parenthood. Since March, we have been doing this dance seemingly in the midst of a hurricane.
Throughout this year, but most notably during the storm of the recent months, parents and teachers have held children and each other with love, with courage, and with fortitude. We have all found completely new ways of helping children to learn and to feel safe, and our work at home and at school has merged, as the structures that usually keep aspects of life discrete have fallen away. Our children are suddenly at work with us, and our colleagues are in our living rooms. Though we are physically apart, there is a powerful intimacy to looking into each other’s homes, sitting in on our children’s classes, and relating to one another through constant close-ups on the screen each day. This experience could easily have shattered our sense of community, relegating each of us to our own isolated corners. Instead, we have shared our homes with each other and supported children in incredible tandem. I’ve rarely experienced end-of-year meetings and class parties in which not only parents but teachers’ emotions were so raw and so close to the surface. Everything is palpable for all of us right now, our gratitude, our exhaustion, our pride, our fear, and our joy. Perhaps that is the most remarkable feature of community—that even in the midst of so many challenges, there can still be joy, for a particularly unique feeling surfaces when we are in pain but closely held. We are apart in a way we have never been before, but we are not alone. That is a testament to the determination, care, and generosity of every member of our community.
As we sang together this morning, and as our families’ voices came together with voices from across the country in our shared video project, we were reminded that our community here in New York is only one pocket of a much wider community, and just as we all have the collective power to bring our voices together into something stronger and more beautiful, we also have the power to invite others into our songs and to expand the embrace of our community. Two of the core values that guide our teaching are Betzelem Elohim and tikkun olam. We believe deeply in seeing the divine in every child and in repairing the ruptures that occur when we fail to care for one another out of this firm belief in the innate value of each individual.
You have all cared for each other with such determination this spring, as we have faced unprecedented challenges. I am so proud of each of our teachers and parents for this tremendous act of love.
We must now reach outward with the same determination and generosity toward those who are not sufficiently embraced and held up by our world. We must hold them up. For if it is possible for us to be so united as a community, even when we cannot be together, then it is possible to hold those who most need us with that same tenacity.
As our JCC family, our city, and our world continue to be buffeted by so many strong winds, the winds of illness and the winds of injustice, we are committed to continuing to support you in caring for each other and your children, and in learning how to more powerfully extend that support and care to everyone who needs it.
As we announced this morning at Shabbat Sing, we will continue to come together each Friday for Summer Shabbat Sings. It has become so clear in these last few months how significantly the fabric of our community is held together and our spirits are bolstered by these regular opportunities to sing together.
We will also continue to offer parent support events. This coming week, we invite you to three events, encompassing the range of critical topics we are all facing:
On Tuesday, June 9th at 8:00 P.M., join us for “Pediatric Medicine & Concerns during COVID-19” with Dr. Anthoney Lim, Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine for the Mount Sinai Health System. As we enter the long tail of the impact of COVID-19, many of us are wondering what life and parenting will be like in the coming year. Dr. Lim will lead a discussion for parents on questions like: What does it look and feel like to visit the ER or your pediatrician during this time? When and how should we use telemedicine? How do we speak to kids and to each other about COVID-19? What are the signs of stress to look for in our children? If you would like to submit a question in advance, feel free to fill out THIS form.
On Wednesday, June 10th at 8:30 P.M. The Center for Family Life will host a second conversation with Jean Schreiber, Yael Khan Pinto, and Rabbi Abigail Treu on the many parenting issues that are keeping us all up and night these days. Register HERE.
On Thursday, June 11th at 8:30 P.M., join me and Jean Schreiber to begin a conversation on talking to our children about racism. We will support each other in talking about the fears that stop us from broaching this critical topic with our children and the ways in which we can begin to find the entry points that will open the door to their growing understanding over time.
We are also in the process of planning other opportunities to invite your children back into the comfort of their JCC learning environment over the summer. We will be in touch with more information on this soon and look forward to continuing to hold our community connections strong over the course of the months to come.
With gratitude, love, and hope,
Alicia