Author: Rabbi Michael Farbman

As young parents Lee and I needed help in raising our children as Jews.  Structure, ritual, education and life cycle support was needed and Temple Emanuel proved to be the answer.  What started as an aid for our children led Lee and I into our own search for answers and our own places in the world of Jewish belief.  Over 40 years later we are still exploring and refining our relationship with our ancient faith.

At Temple Emanuel we are able to participate, question and continue to grow.  We are able to progress in our own individual style and at our own pace.  We are surrounded by a congregation of loving and nonjudgmental people.  It is a hamish place, it is home.

Our legacy gift allows us to feel that we will be able to provide that environment that nurtures us to future generations.

It all started about 40 years ago. We had recently moved to our new home and were looking for a Sunday school for our daughter to start her Jewish education. We had heard about a small synagogue with a young Rabbi who played guitar, so we decided to try it out. Needless to say, we loved him and his tunes. We joined. Rabbi Jerry presided over Rachel’s Bat Mitzvah and Mark’s Bar Mitzvah; he married Rachel and Stephan; and helped us through the deaths of parents and loved ones. His connection to our family was deep. As often the case, as the children became more involved, we did, too. We came to more Shabbat services and events, served on boards and took leadership roles. TE became our community.

When Rabbi Michael came to TE, he had a new musical vision. He had new musical variations to try out, new melodies and the idea of a community that played as well as sang together. We had serious reservations. How could he change the tradition? We listened more intently, and the tunes grew on us to the point that we learned to embrace how others created music around our familiar prayers. But, of course, there is more to it than that. Michael brings spiritual guidance to families, works with the children and teens in our school and actively involves them in the community of prayer. Shabbat services are a joy that we anticipate sharing with a loving and giving group. It is interesting to us that our married children, who are raising our grandchildren, are looking for a TE – like synagogue in their own communities, but are having trouble finding one. They hold dear the values that they learned here at TE.

It is for these reasons that we wish to support this spiritual community by joining “Leave a Legacy”. We want to ensure that Temple Emanuel will continue to enrich other families in the future.

We were engaged, but not yet married, and knew we wanted to be part of a Reform synagogue. Temple Emanuel was close to where we lived at the time. We first attended TE in 1991, just to check it out, and were greeted with open arms and a feeling of belonging. We attended services more and more and became involved with some of the social action programs. Soon after that, we decided that this was the kind of community we wanted to belong to and became members. We felt at home with Rabbi Jerry, his music and his passion for TE and its members. As we raised our son, Adam, Temple Emanuel was a large part of his Jewish upbringing— through Hebrew School, bringing many Jewish traditions into our home, educational and fun programs, volunteering as he grew up and later participating in the TE Band.

Temple Emanuel has been a cornerstone of our Jewish lives, both spiritually and through traditions. It has been the Jewish foundation for Adam, and it has been my (Nancy) Jewish education as a Jew by choice. We have formed many long-time friendships here. TE members have been by our side in times of sorrow and celebration, like family.

THIS is why we joined the Leave a Legacy Program; to give back to Temple Emanuel, and to sustain this amazing community.

In 1968 my husband and I came to Connecticut for one year of his residency. We had no plans of putting down roots, since this was simply another stop along the educational road. We had both grown up in New York, and hardly realized we were a minority group. Neither of our families were observant, nor did we have any formal religious education. As young adults, we had gone alone to High Holiday services, where we felt less than welcome. However, we both had done our own study of Judaism and felt a spiritual need to further our understanding. Although being Jews by birth, we were now Jews by choice.

We heard of a small group of people who had organized in 1962 with “a keen sense of Jewishness, a pioneer spirit, and desire to practice their religious beliefs and educate their children in a more meaningful manner than was available from other reform congregations.” Within 5 years, the small congregation became Temple Emanuel and was given recognition. We joined this unique community, with its basis of volunteerism, and held our services throughout the New Haven area with a student part-time rabbi. Once we realized that Orange was going to be our home, we became more active members, teaching and serving on many committees.

Temple Emanuel has changed and grown from its inception. However, its basic values and the spirit of our special community have remained the same, first with the expert guidance of Rabbi Mark Winer, and then with Rabbi “Jerry” Breiger. I am truly grateful to both of these men and the friends of TE who not only helped educate my family, but supported us through both the most joyous and most difficult times of our lives.

As one of the more “mature” members of TE, I have been lucky enough to experience the advances our synagogue has made and now share the presence of our remarkable Rabbi Farbman in our new home. I have pledged to the “Leave a Legacy” program to make sure those of the next generation have the same opportunity that those before gave to me. Someone recently said that “we are the memories of tomorrow”… and I want us to be remembered as passing on the gift of Temple Emanuel.

    My path to a committed and treasured Jewish life has had bumps, ruts, peaks, and valleys.  Since 1981, when my family moved to Connecticut and joined Temple Emanuel, the path has become gradually smoother and more fulfilling.  Spiritually, socially, and emotionally, Phil and I found our “home-away-from-home family.”  Although some essential aspects of Jewish life are individual, many aspects are communal.  Worshipping, laughing, playing, and evolving with members of the Temple Emanuel community has led to me developing many fulfilling and very special relationships.  I treasure these friends and am sustained by our interactions.  My religious community has been a supportive presence in both dark times and simcha celebrations.

Phil and I committed to the Leave A Legacy program prior to his death in 2013, and I remain fully committed to the efforts to insure that Temple Emanuel—our special place—is sustained in the future.  I want to help provide future members with the kind of awesome experience found in being part of our unique Jewish community in the woods of Orange.

TE is a welcoming and supportive community and one that has made important differences in each of our lives.  That’s our strongest reason for deciding to participate in the Leave a Legacy program.  We benefitted from a TE community that was built by members before we joined, and we feel strongly that we want to support future TE members.

When Anne joined TE in 1992 after her divorce, she was looking for a bar mitzvah program for her son Matt.  TE provided a supportive community of guitar-playing Rabbi Jerry Brieger and many attentive teachers who helped meet Matt’s individual needs with caring and compassion.

Larry “joined” TE when he began dating Anne and attending Shabbat services in early 1996.  Larry was taken by how everyone sang at TE and he sang as well, albeit off-key.  Larry started going to Rabbi Brieger’s Torah study group and went to Matt’s bar mitzvah a few months after meeting Anne.  Anne and Larry grew together by getting to know the spiritual in the person they had first met.  Larry officially joined TE when he and Anne were married by Rabbi Brieger in 2000.

Once again the TE community was there when Matt passed in 2001.  TE provided open-hearted support and caring through a very difficult period.  Because Anne believes in the need to reaffirm life, working to beautify the TE grounds and TE cemetery is Anne’s way of expressing gratitude.  Anne has also specified the cemetery as her Leave a Legacy recipient.

Larry is a past TE president and board member and was chair of the rabbi search committee after Rabbi Brieger retired.  As it happens, the search committee received an application from a rabbi who briefly mentioned guitar playing and singing as a vital part of his services.  TE has been most fortunate that Rabbi Farbman, Olga Markus, Sam, and Robert became members of the TE community.

Temple Emanuel is the story of an evolving and growing community.  Leave a Legacy is designed as an investment in the future of TE, and we want this story to keep going.

We were pleased and honored to participate in the Leave a Legacy program so enthusiastically and skillfully established by our Temple committee.  Members since 1975, we have embraced all that this community has to offer through many stages of our lives.  Our youngest son was named right here in the sanctuary.  Our children studied here, were bar mitzvahed here, and we have the joy now of bringing our six grandchildren here on occasion.  Our parents were buried by Rabbi Brieger.  It is important to us that this synagogue continue for future generations; we are overjoyed to attend services with the hum of little ones in the background.  Rabbi Farbman has energized and enriched Temple Emanuel.

We are aware that the future of many American reform synagogues is imperiled.  We see that younger families often view Temple membership in a different light.  The physical structures of our buildings grow older.  Somehow, we must fulfill the needs of aging families and teenagers; we must support families from diverse backgrounds and keep everything fresh—from the music to the prayerbooks, from the religious school to the Rabbi’s participation in spiritual/religious activities outside TE.

This takes financial resources as well as enthusiasm and shared history.  We want to do our part to be sure that Temple Emanuel will be strong and vibrant long after we are here.