We are four years old! Today, I believe it is safe to say that the dream became a reality. Four years ago we started a new concept: to help people explore Judaism through education, rituals, and life cycle events when/where/how they wanted to do it. I say we, and I don’t mean the “royal we.” This has not been an individual effort. So many people have helped our institute become the exciting place it is right now. I am grateful to the people who are part of the board, the people who attend our events, who lead our services, who attend our services, who choose me for the celebration of their life cycle events, to the volunteers, to the people who help financially and to the people who help me refine my vision and my message. You are all part of the success of this enterprise—it is all ours!
In these four years I have grown and changed, also. The many years I spent seeing different possibilities for the Jewish community and feeling constrained by external limitations (that felt capricious and mean-spirited, to say the least) left me feeling beaten and sad. When I started JILLI I wanted to recover an old feeling of joy of being Jewish I used to feel, the feeling that motivated me to become a rabbi. I did not know it, but I grew up a post denominational Jew. I grew up enjoying all kinds of different Jewish experiences, religious, Zionist, cultural, feeling validated in different settings and believing that they were all valid Jewish experiences. I wanted to return to that kind of eclectic Judaism, to know and share the different ways and paths that Judaism could be experienced. This is the vision that informs Jilli. I will share with you the many possibilities we have to be Jewish, filled with fun and wonderful experiences, and I know you will find yourself somewhere in the vast ocean we call Judaism. In this quest to recover the joy of being Jewish and the desire to share with people the different possible Jewish paths, I became a Reform rabbi, as I feel it is a more authentic expression of how I experience Judaism.
Another characteristic of JILLI is that we all but abandoned the word should. One should live in this way, one should do things in that way…I never felt it to be a helpful or productive framework in which to live Judaism. As we abandoned the word should, my horizons started expanding to where I felt I could bring the joy, wisdom, and delight of Judaism. I could bring the joy of Judaism to the way in which I do all weddings, including weddings that brought together two cultures, two heritages, or different faiths. I could bring the wisdom of Judaism to end of life moments, combining the ethical, moral, and ecological sensitivities of our tradition with the thoughtful process of Jewish mourning. I could bring the delight of Judaism to people who wanted to learn more about the tradition, in classes, in individual lessons, in different settings. I have a mission—to serve God and the Jewish people. I will do this with your help through JILLI, spreading the joy, wisdom, love, and delight of Judaism. I am grateful for all your support throughout these last four years, and I hope I can count on you to help me expand this vision even further.