Kehillah in Shaker Heights

We are inherently social beings, looking to connect.
Judaism gives us infinite ways to do exactly that.

My spouse and I moved to Shaker Heights, OH at the beginning of the pandemic. It was hard to meet new people because of social distancing. I was Zoomed out and needed to find ways to live in the tangible, physical world. I wanted community. I wanted Jewish life. And I figured other people wanted these things too.

During the month of Elul, anyone walking by our house, whether they were Jewish or not, was invited to participate in Elul in Shaker. They could take two pieces of paper and a marker out of a bin Iaying in front of our house, write something they were not proud of, and place it in the lantern hanging on the left. On the other piece of paper, they could write something they were proud of or hoped to do better in the future, and place that note in the lantern hanging on the right.

Every Saturday night, I would empty the lanterns and lead a socially distanced havdallah with anyone who showed up on our front lawn. There, I would read through the notes. The notes with regrets were placed directly into a recycling bucket, and the notes with pride and hopes were saved. They were hung up on our front lawn sukkah, representing the hopes that our community, our kehillah, holds for the near future.

During Chanukah, Kehillah in Shaker created light in the darkest part of the year as children and adults wrote or drew on luminary bags about what brings them light. The bags were hung up on the bushes outside of our house. The lights got brighter and brighter each night as more and more people shared the lights of their lives with others.

On Passover, people were invited to share with one another about how the past year has been for them on the deconstructed seder plate on our front lawn. From the charoset, the sweetness, that has held us together through the year, to the karpas, the tears that we have shed, our whole selves were welcome into the Kehillah in Shaker seder space. People wrote their experiences on tags and tied them to different sections of the seder plate.

The pandemic asked so much of us. It damaged our bodies. It tore us apart from one another. But through Kehillah in Shaker, I was grateful to connect with others in meaningful and tangible ways.

Now that things have stabilized and people have returned to sharing communal space, the intense need for projects like Kehillah in Shaker has subsided. My hope is that the special community that I find myself in and other communities across the country continue to find pathways toward togetherness, to build kehillah in meaningful, tangible ways that uplift and support people.

Thank you to all who participated in creating Kehillah in Shaker.