By Amy Wolff Sorter

We’re coming to the time of year of school ending, summer vacations and a general laid-back attitude (at least until mid-July, when we’re reminded that fall events, ranging from the High Holy Days to the start of school is just around the corner).
But before that, we observe the festival of Shavuot (beginning at sundown Saturday), which commemorates our receipt of the Torah from God and with it, the laws forming the basis of Judaism as we know it today.
Some 3,324 years after we gathered at Mount Sinai to hear the Ten Commandments for the first time, there are plenty of locations throughout Tarrant County to listen to those commandments again.
Given that Shavuot falls this year on Memorial Day weekend, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the start of summer than through a reminder of how we became the Jewish people. I wish everyone out there a good holiday and festival, however you spend it.
While you are in synagogue listening to the Ten Commandments or at a Tikkun Leil Shavuot study session the night before (or even if your holiday is more personal), please pray for our veterans and their families. Those veterans, their families and their sacrifices are a huge reason why we can observe as we do without fear of persecution.

Mazel tov to Emily April Allen …

… who graduated from University of Southern California on May 11, having earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and creative writing.
Emily is the daughter of Richard Allen (a professor at TCU) and Sheri Allen (cantor with Congregation Beth Shalom in Arlington), and her proud mother sent me a list of the new graduate’s accomplishments.
There are many to list: Emily was a member of the Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society and Phi Beta Kappa, was recognized as a USC Renaissance Scholar and received USC’s Order of the Laurel and Palm, which recognizes less than one percent of the graduating class for outstanding leadership in various areas of university life.
Next stop for Emily is Nashville, where she has a job as office manager with Abintra Montessori School. Emily’s plans include graduate school — and here’s to her doing as well there as she did in undergraduate school.

News from the Klein household

I heard recently from fellow writer Joseph Klein, a long-time Tarrant County resident. I’ve mentioned Joe before — he’s published stories about his life growing up in Pittsgrove Township, N.J., in that area’s newspaper, the Elmer Times.
Joe and Hannah relocated from Bedford to southwest Fort Worth where, as he puts it, “the proximity to shopping, medical, Beth-El and Jewish things in general could not be better if one had written a script.” Congratulations on a positive step, Joe and Hannah, and may your new home bring you much nachas.

Under the category of one person’s trash being another’s treasure

Sculptor Rebecca Low treated Daytimers participants on May 16 to renditions of her own work through a computer-graphics presentation entitled “Trash to Treasure.”

Many of her works came from scrap metal and other “found” objects, and Barbara Rubin writes that, through her presentation, “She challenged the audience to see different possibilities in ordinary objects.”
Mary Frances Antweil, who brought guests Pat Davis, Gail Granek, Henrietta Krumholtz, Carole Rogers and Roz Rosenthal, presented Low with her own “trash,” namely, a broken lamp and clock, a large brass planter and a copper plate. It’ll be interesting to see what Rebecca does with those.
Speaking of guests, Larry and Mary Goodman brought Mary’s mother, Jeanette Shoklee, along for the fun.
The next Daytimers event will be an ice cream social, scheduled to take place Wednesday, June 13 at Beth-El Congregation, 4900 Briarhaven Rd.

Person of the Year postponed

Due to circumstances beyond its control, B’nai B’rith’s Isadore Garsek Lodge had to postpone its annual Person of the Year event from June 3 to a date in the near future, still to be confirmed, according to Harry Kahn, one of the organizers.

Nudge of the week …

… goes to me. Yet again. Anyone in Tarrant County celebrating anything (birthday, wedding/wedding anniversaries or graduation) please let me know. And send bar/bat mitzvahs to use on our simchas page. My email address hasn’t changed: awsorter@yahoo.com. I want to be deluged with happenings.