As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to begin tonight at sundown, I have been reflecting on something I’ve noticed throughout the past year.

People are coming back to our JCC.

For one reason or another, people who were once part of our JCC stepped away. Some moved or entered a different stage of life, while for others, the JCC may not always have met them where they were. Now, some are returning after a few years, while others are walking back through our doors for the first time in more than a decade.

Recently, I sat down with a couple who decided to rejoin the JCC after being away for a few years as life pulled them in different directions. The wife grew up at our JCC and brought along one of her best friends, a friendship that began right here at the J many years ago. Her friend later sent her own children through JCC preschool, afterschool care and camp, and during our conversation, she shared something that has stayed with me.

“On the way to the J today, the drive felt so familiar. I was reminded of those early morning car rides with my young son years ago.”

Those drives probably did not feel particularly meaningful at the time. Like so many parents pulling into our parking lot today, she was likely focused on getting her son where he needed to be and getting on with the rest of her day. Years later, that familiar drive brought her back to a chapter of her life that had long since passed.

Places have a remarkable way of transporting us to another time. Walking through a familiar door can bring us back, for just a moment, to ourselves at another stage of life. We are not only remembering what happened there. Sometimes we are remembering who we were there.

As I reflect on the past year and look toward a new one, I keep thinking about what it means to find our way back. We often describe the Jewish New Year as a time for new beginnings, but the High Holiday season is also deeply rooted in return. One of its central concepts is teshuvah, a Hebrew word often translated as repentance, but whose literal meaning is “return.” It calls us to reflect on where we have been and find our way back to our values, our relationships, our traditions and what matters most.

As the years pass, parts of who we are can grow quieter. Not lost, just harder to hear. Sometimes it takes something familiar to remind us of who we were and what is still there.

I believe one of the great gifts of our JCC is its ability to hold pieces of who we were while making room for who we are becoming.

Our JCC has changed over the years, and it should. We have a responsibility to keep listening, growing and meeting people where they are today. Even as we change, I hope that when someone walks back through our doors after years away, there is something here that still feels like theirs.

As we prepare to welcome 5787, I am especially grateful for those who have found their way back to us this year and for everyone who continues to make the J part of their story. I hope the new year gives each of us an opportunity to reconnect with something that matters, whether it is a relationship, a tradition, a community that grounds us or a part of ourselves we may have lost touch with along the way.

For me, one of the most meaningful gifts of Rosh Hashanah is the reminder that a new year does not always ask us to become someone new. Sometimes it asks us to remember who we are and find our way back.

For those who have found their way back to the J, I am so glad you are here. For those who have been with us all along, I am grateful you continue to make the J part of your lives. And for all of us, I hope our JCC will always be a place that feels like ours to return to.

Shanah Tovah (happy new year),

Sam Dubrinsky
Chief Executive Officer

We cannot let this day pass without acknowledging the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. As we reflect on the meaning of return during Rosh Hashanah, we also remember the nearly 3,000 people whose ability to return home, to their loved ones and to the lives they were building was violently stolen from them. May their memories always be for a blessing.