The Charlotte Jewish News - November 2013 - Page 19
Ed and Jill Newman are among
the 170 individuals andfamilies in
our community who have created
legacy gifts to support its future.
Please take the time to read their
story and thank them for their
generosity. It is our hope that you
will be inspired and encouraged to
think about how you can create
your own Jewish legacy.
By Jill Newman
Ed and I were high sehool
sweethearts. He lived in Iowa and
eame from a more eonservative
baekground. My family attended
the reform temple and lived aeross
the river in Moline, IL. We were
married in 1958. We both learned
at an early age the importanee of
Tzedakah from our religious
sehool teaehers and from our par
ents at home. Our move to Char
lotte in 1967, after years of
professional edueation and Army
life, rekindled our Judaism. We
beeame involved right away.
We wanted our ehildren to be-
eome familiar with their Jewish
baekground, have a Jewish eduea
tion, and have Jewish friends.
Judaism is threatened by assimila
tion and we felt it was important
that they establish a Jewish iden
tity. We led by example in the
same manner as others had done
for us and exposed our ehildren to
our Jewish eommunity through
our involvement.
We are very proud of the eom-
fort our ehildren and grandehil-
dren have with being Jewish. They
feel eomfort in their own religious
observanees. We both feel that our
presehools provide a foundation
that enables ehildren to explain to
their friends, at an early age, what
being Jewish is all about. All our
grandehildren attended Jewish
presehool.
The strength of our Jewish
eommunity has played an impor
tant part in our lives and those of
our ehildren and grandehildren.
Our Jewish organizations eomple-
ment one another. The Levine
Jewish Community Center pro
vides so many options and sup
ports the temple in serving the
needs of the eommunity. Our in
volvement with the Federation has
helped us both to fully appreeiate
that the needs of the Jewish people
must be met loeally and overseas.
Our family’s trip to Israel in
1978 for my younger son’s Bar
Mitzvah had a profound effeet on
us. It allowed us all to see the im
portanee of Israel, how mueh it
has aeeomplished, and why it is so
important that it sueeeeds and
thrives. We returned in 2006 and
were equally impressed and
proud. Israel, our loeal Jewish or
ganizations, and the edueation of
our youth are essential parts of our
Judaism.
Ed and I learned at an early age
the importanee of giving baek to
our soeiety and have tried to pass
on those lessons to our ehildren
and grandehildren. We eaeh have
a role to play and hope that by ere-
ating a permanent gift for our
eommunity we will inspire our
ehildren, grandehildren, and oth
ers to do the same. ^
Create
Ijou^ewisli
^ Le^ac^
a'
A rich man once came
to the maggid of
Koznitz.
"What are you in the
habit of eating?" the
maggid asked.
"I am modest in my
demands," the rich man
replied. "Bread and
salt, and a drink of
water are all I need."
"What are you thinking
of I" the rabbi reproved
him. "You must eat
roast meat and drink
mead, like all rich
people." And he did not
let the man go until he
had promised to do as
he said. Later the
Hasidim asked him the
reason for this odd
request.
"Not until he eats
meat," said the maggid,
"will he realize the
poor man needs bread.
As long as he himself
eats bread, he will
think the poor man can
live on stones."
—Martin Buber,
Tales of the Hasidim
celebrate!
celebrate!
Save the Date!
OPEN HOUSE
Friday, January 10,2014
9:30am
Charlotte Jewish
Preschool
LEARN • GROW • CONNECT
• Age 1 thru Pre-K
• Full or Half Day
• Located on Shalom Park
cjpkids.org
To enroll or schedule a tour, contact:
704-944-6777 • akalik@shalomcharlotte.org
CJP is a partnership of Temple Beth Ei, Tempie israei & Levine JCC