During Purim, we believe that the world can be turned upside down, and then right-side up. Vulnerability can turn to power. Terror can turn to joy. We celebrate this with revelry and noise and food and drink. We even try on different versions of ourselves as we dress in costume and yell during the public reading of a biblical text. We tell our children a story that includes attempted genocide and tremendous violence. But then we assure them that Esther’s bravery and cleverness helped save the Jews of Persia.

It has been my honor, privilege, and pleasure to serve the synagogue and the people who define the synagogue – shepherding enlightening programming, professionalizing administrative processes, bringing High Holidays worship services back into the city, engaging and supporting members, leading change, navigating the multitude of challenges through two years of COVID, and, yes, of necessity, tending to the bones of the physical facility of the building.

Since last Shabbat I have had, and have heard, a lot of reactions to what occurred in Colleyville. Fear that antisemitic attacks can occur anytime, anywhere. Anger that we still need to be vigilant about it. Relief that the hostages escaped. Solidarity from and with our partners in the ongoing fight against hate. These each have a rightful place in our consciousness.

As we spend 2022 celebrating the impact of the Downtown Synagogue on multiple generations over the past 100 years, I am extremely excited to share that one of those generations will soon be hitting its own“100” milestone. We now have almost 100 kids under the age of 18 in our membership. Most of them are age ten or younger and represent a tenfold increase in kids in our congregation over the past decade.

We are working to meet the needs of these children as they grow. We are blessed to have our stellar musician-in-residence Gavri Yares leading Tot Shabbat on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month at 10:00 a.m. Gavri does an amazing job engaging the kids (and their parents), and our kids (and their parents) give rave rewards.

Each year, Hanukkah brings light into our homes and light and leadership into our synagogue. At our annual meeting we have the opportunity to express our gratitude to our outgoing board members and elect new ones.

It is wonderful that blacks and Jews alike now again make use of this sacred space. But the past, our past, pricks at us here, doesn’t it, as we confront the scars of time? We wrestle with the implications of the exposed wrought-iron rebar in the ceiling and the holes in the plasterboard above us.