Our Transition

FROM THE RIVERWAY PROJECT TO FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

By Maura and Aidan Ackerman

Diversity

We started attending the Riverway Project in early 2013 and knew that we had finally found a Jewish community that felt like home. What a breath of fresh air, to meet and mingle with other Jews in their 20s and 30s in a fun, relaxed environment with great music and Rabbi Soffer’s wonderful adaptations of Torah portions to current events. We met many friends through the Riverway Project, including several couples who met and became engaged around the same time we did. I remember one couple who received wedding blessings the month before we did, and at a subsequent Riverway Project event, we traded wedding stories and showed off our rings. We felt blessed to have found this caring community of people we could connect with and wanted to give back in some way. Thus began our stint as members of the Riverway Project Leadership Team, where we were able to provide input in shaping the future of the program. Our favorite accomplishment as members of the Leadership Team was definitely the Open Bar Mitzvah – an event celebrating Riverway’s 13th anniversary that brought together several generations of Riverway Project participants. We even brewed the beer (aptly titled “Beer Mitzvah”) as part of a Shavuot class we co-taught. Shortly after our one-year wedding anniversary, Maura became pregnant and we knew that our chapter as Riverway Project attendees would soon come to a close. We were sad to say goodbye, and we couldn’t imagine leaving. However, when one door closes another truly does open, this time in the form of Temple Israel’s Families with Young Children Tot Rock Shabbat program. This monthly, family-oriented Friday night dinner and kid-friendly service is perfect for our little family of three and a welcome way of introducing our daughter, Izzie, to Judaism.

We began by attending with her as a newborn at under 3 weeks old – more for us than for her – as it was a chance to meet other Jewish families. It’s been a joy to watch Izzie begin to learn about Judaism, first just in awe of the sounds of the prayers and songs and gradually beginning to bounce, then clap, and now just starting to running around with the older children. We can’t imagine a better fit for our new life.

True, we often leave Tot Rock Shabbat and see some of our old friends just heading into a Riverway Project wine and cheese social hour, and we see our previous selves reflected in them. Just possibly, they see their futures reflected in us.

To learn more about The Riverway Project, visit www.tisrael.org/riverway-project, and to learn more about Families with Young Children, visit www.tisrael.org/families-with-young-children