Dispersed, threatened, hidden and reunited, but always a Jew. Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, but always a Jew. Zionist, Secularist, Yiddishist and Culturalist, but always a Jew. A people that have withstood much and traveled many journeys, have many stories to tell. Many of those stories are about the common bonds and values of being a Jew.
While the stories might start out differently, most end the same—especially when the story-teller is asked about their most cherished Jewish values. Regardless of the spoken language, the response is often Tzedakkah—charity, justice and righteousness or Tikkun Olam— repairing the world. This i s what means so much to Erik Miller and Samantha Golden, both members of the 2015 Super Sunday Cabinet.
Every year the Tidewater Jewish community gathers on Super Sunday to exhibit the belief in and support of these most shared and cherished Jewish values.
New young leaders of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater—some native, others new to the community—conduct Super Sunday on behalf of Jewish Tidewater. They grow and flourish Jewishly as they prepare the Tidewater Jewish community to do what it does best.
The committee wants to make certain that no Jew is starving in the recesses of the Former Soviet Union, or risks their lives as they seek a Jewish education at an ORT school in the Eastern Ukraine, or fails to receive a Jewish education because of a lack of funds, or cannot live out their days in their Tidewater home with dignity and surrounded by their community and loved ones.
Eliot Weinstein and Jeremy Krupnick, chairs of the 2015 Super Sunday Cabinet, are like previous chairs, exceptional young people who are passionate about their Judaism, love their community and simply want to create a day where Mitzvot are performed.
“Share Your Story,” this year’s theme, focuses on personal Judaic journeys; where each person has come from, and what values each want to express, nurture, develop and pass onto other generations.
To be a volunteer on Sunday, Jan. 25, visit www.jewishva.org/supersunday.
“In many communities people find it difficult to raise money to do good deeds, but in our community it is not so hard because first we have raised Jews to know what it means to be a Jew,” says Miles Leon, UJFT president.