A WEEK IN CONNECTICUT

Another amazing week has passed. We have been commuting back and forth to Connecticut because of a week of gigs organised by (the fabulous) Pam Ehrenkranz (left, with us), CEO of the UJA Federation Greenwich Connecticut. Not only was the week itself super (and we were made to feel especially welcome), but we were incredibly fortunate to be visiting during the height of (a particularly stunning) autumn. I am not sure I have the words to mix together to paint a suitable picture of the yellows, reds and oranges. We didn’t really have the chance to photograph anything, which is a shame…

Pam put together a fantastic (and varied) schedule for David, including for him to give three presentations of The Whole of Jewish History in One Hour to schools in Connecticut. Interestingly, two of these schools were middle schools (ages 11 to 13, I think) which were by far the youngest audiences to whom David has ever given this talk. We were a little apprehensive at first about the children’s ability to comprehend the talk – as well as their capacity to simply sit still! I was especially concerned when we arrived at the second middle school and I realised there would be more than 100 children in the audience - but all went fabulously well. Both the two middle schools and the high school loved the talks and David managed to pitch it at a level and pace that held their attention throughout…much to the astonishment of some of the teachers! Pictures are of the school gigs in chronological order: Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy (Monday), Westchester Hebrew High School (Wednesday) and Bicultural Day School (Thursday).

Interspersed in between these talks were three adult lectures. The first, on Tuesday morning, was to a group of about 20 women, at a women’s leadership meeting, held by UJA Federation Greenwich. David spoke on the leadership of Rabbi Akiva, also looking at two of the significant female figures of this time (his wife Rachel and Bruria). The talk was great – a wonderful combination of historical lecture and moving storytelling.

On Tuesday evening David spoke on A Whole Jewish Education in One Hour, which was open to the entire Jewish community of Greenwich. The talk was great. Mark came with us and the two of us (Mark and I) kept looking at each other saying: ‘this is great’. David covered a lot of information – it was seriously high energy – and his section on Hebrew was fantastic.

The Thursday ‘Lunch and Learn’ session at Greenwich – following a few hours after the last of David’s school talks – was called ‘Making sense of Kabbalah’ and was effectively an adaptation of his Introduction to Kabbalah talk. The room was packed – it was literally standing room only, so those few in the room who were under 70 were the ones standing! – but you could have heard a pin drop in the room, such was the extent to which David captured his audience’s attention. Amazing talk…

But after four mornings of rising before the sun, we were ready for the week to end and to be able to catch up on sleep, which meant, of course, that we spent most of Shabbat resting...