By Laura Seymour

Dear Families,

By the time you read this, we will have commemorated Yom HaShoah, the remembrance of the Holocaust; Yom HaZikaron, the day we remember all those who have died defending Israel; and perhaps even Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.

All of these special “yoms” are new days in the Jewish calendar. We often forget that there are only six Torah holidays, and most of our other holidays are based on historical events. It is a unique challenge to add new days. All our special days have rituals that we have been doing forever — so how do you create new days and new rituals? This is actually why Judaism continues to flourish — we find new meanings and create ways to remember and share.

This year, the J will celebrate on Sunday, May 4, at our wonderful outdoor pool with the Tsofim, our Israeli Scouts. We hope to see many of you there! (Register at https://www.jccdallas.org/events/israel-independence-day-pool-party.) More than ever, we need to be together and celebrate Israel.

We are still “counting” our way to Shavuot. The practice is observed from the night of the second seder until the eve of Shavuot. We are counting the days on which the omer offering of the new barley crop was brought to the Temple — this connects the Exodus from Egypt to the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Tradition teaches that the Israelites were told that the Torah would be given to them 50 days after the Exodus. They were so eager about it that they began to count the days, saying, “Now we have one day less to wait for the giving of the Torah.” The Torah text for this is Leviticus 23:15-16.

Although this period has been a sad time because of the many massacres in Jewish history — both in the distant past and in modern times — we continue to look forward. Learn more about the happy and sad times. As long as we are sharing together, we can celebrate. Create your own family rituals and join with others — now is the time to learn and grow in Jewish knowledge and experiences.

Laura Seymour is Jewish experiential learning director and camp director emeritus at the Aaron Family JCC.