Allan and Celeste Fine, Daniel and Frances Higger, Dr. Ira and Joan Lederman, Chuck and Nancy Rosenblatt, the Honorable Bert and Sarita Sachs, Lyn and Eileen Swartz, with Rabbi Michael Panitz.
Every Autumn, congregants from area synagogues leave Tidewater for a different kind of “Promised Land”—the land flowing with orange juice and sun-tan lotion. The minyanim are a little bit smaller, and cherished neighbors are absent for a season.
This past summer at the Temple Israel daily minyan, Rabbi Michael Panitz was speaking with some of the regular worshipers about their Jewish lives during their Florida sojourns. The conversation lead to the idea of having a Temple Israel reunion in South Florida.
And so it came to pass. With Celeste Fine, Sarita Sachs and Ilene Swartz chairing the event, the rabbi visited a dozen congregants in the Broward and Palm Beach area, and all the participants passed a delightful afternoon reminiscing about the Jewish community of Tidewater. There was an immediate consensus that this ought to become an annual event, and open to more of Tidewater’s Jewish community.
All of these snowbirds will be back in town before too long, and this reunion allowed them to stay that much more closely connected.
by Abba Bar-Adon