00:00:20 [Music]


MICKEY: Latrobe sits at the foothills of the Laurel Ridge Mountains. -- [Title Card: Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Population: 8,195, Jewish Population: 10]-- It’s a small city. It’s one square mile. It’s 45 miles East of Pittsburgh. You notice the outline of the store. Where the Dancers Workshop is, if it sign wasn’t there you’d still still Oxford Shop on there.. We wanted something that sounded,-- [Title Card: Mickey was one of the many Jewish merchants downtown.]-- uh, high class. You know, Oxford shop, high class.

[00:01:47] MICKEY: I want you to meet Rhonda Buckman, she’s the owner of the rug shop. She’s the last Jewish merchant in town.

RHONDA: You know the one really really cool thing I’m proud of? I was the first girl in this town to ever have a Bar Mitzvah.

MICKEY: Really? RHONDA: Yes
MICKEY: I didn’t know that. RHONDA: Yes
MICKEY: Wow


[Title Card: Beth Israel Congregation, founded in 1907]

[00:02:30] MICKEY RADMAN: This is my shul, this is my home. Beth Israel Congregation started way back in the early 1900s, and we’ve been a presence here in Latrobe since then. We understand that our time is relatively short. There are no Jews moving into the area. Most of our congregants are old. -- [Title card: Mickey Radman, member since 1958]
I’m considered one of the young ones and I’m 82 [chuckles]. -- So it falls on me to keep the books, to pay the bills. I used to make all the phone calls for the minyans on Saturday morning, but I don’t do that now. There are some Saturdays where we cannot get 10 people,-- [Title Card: Minyan: a community of 10 people traditionally required to hold a service.]-- and we do count women. We do count women. Some of these people are no longer available. Well, there’s the Balks. The Balks all live in Pittsburgh, so to travel here and back, it’s two-hour time.

[Title Card: Pittsburgh, 45 miles away from Latrobe]


[00:03:35] [Title card] The Balk family makes up 6 of the 10 people needed for minyan.


[Title card] David Balk, (member since 1955)


[00:03:46] ROSELYN BALK: David, 30 years ago, had a very serious operation. [Title Card] Roselyn Balk, (member since 1955)
It was colon cancer and in those days colon cancer was a death warrant, too, and thank goodness he made it through, and he’s davened ever since then.

[Title card] Daven: to recite the daily prayers


The fact that we almost lost him, 30 years later, he’s still here. He’s thanking God everyday for it.

[00:04:10] DAVE: He is my God, my living redeemer, rock of my pain in time of distress and with my spirit shall my body remain, the Lord is with me, I shall not fear.

[00:04:29] BRIAN BALK: Since my father and mother moved to Pittsburgh, I always drove to Latrobe for minyan on Friday night and Saturday morning. If my dad doesn’t go, we may not

have a minyan. If I don’t go, we may not have a minyan. We barely get more than 11 people at our services Saturday morning, and we all pitch in to make this shul viable, to give it life.

[Brian picking up his parents to go to shul] [00:05:09] [Title card] Ellie & Dalya Balk [Ellie and Dalya sing Kiddish] [Congregation joins singing]
[00:05:40] JEANETTE WOLFF: Back in 2005, when we had all been at the cemetery for the funeral of one of our members,--[Title Card: Jeanette Wolff, (member since 1990)]-- I wrote about my realization that there were far more of our members buried in the cemetery than what we had left alive. It’s very hard to think of a future without this shul and this congregation. I was in Pittsburgh on the second day of Rosh Hashanah and I saw Jews by the hundreds leaving services at synagogues there. Pittsburgh doesn’t need all these Jews, I pointed out to God, and we’re dying for lack of warm bodies. Come on, God, work with us. I was telling him all the great things that I would do for him and this shul if he would just let us have 10 of them. Well, they haven’t shown up yet and I suspect they probably aren’t coming. Yes, our congregation is dying, but we aren’t dead yet. We may hate what’s happening, but the worst thing we could do to Beth Israel and ourselves would be to abandon it while there’s still life.


[Transitional music]


[00:06:43] [Title card] Butte, Montana, Population: 33,854, Jewish Population:30


[00:06:52] NANCY OYER: I knew that I belonged out West in the mountains, I just fell in love with the area, and I came to feel more at home here than anywhere else. I know in my heart what the true essence of God is. I always say that there’s this force, this gentle force--

[Title card] Nancy Oyer, President of Temple B’Nai Israel, (member since 2003)

NANCY: --that wells up from the ground, and just gently anchors me by my ankles and I feel that in all of southwestern Montana. This town and mining are inextricably woven together.

[Music]


[Footage of mining]


[00:07:47] NANCY: I got my first work in Montana with a gold exploration company. It’s a great balance for me to have the mountains, the geology work and a Jewish community. So, I feel pretty lucky.

[00:08:07] [Title Card] Temple B’Nai Israel, founded in 1941


NANCY: The best part of being in Butte, Montana, is you get to be anything that you want to be, so I get to be a rabbi, but at the same time there’s a little stress level because I don’t have all the skills for it, and I don’t have the training, but, you know, I have the most forgiving audience and everyone always is very grateful.

[Nancy strumming guitar]


NANCY: As a little girl, I loved the temple. It was my home away from home and my Judaism is just woven into the fabric of who I am.

[Nancy leading service]


[00:8:52] GLEN RAFISH: We are Jews but each of us is unique. We stand apart and alone with differing feelings and insights. And yet we are not entirely alone and separate, for we are children of one people and one heritage----[Title card] Glen Rafish (member since 1974)

[Nancy playing guitar and singing]


GLEN: We’re very fortunate for Nancy because she has such a strong faith and it means so much to her. If it didn’t, she wouldn’t do what she does--but the catch is I benefit because I’m still able to come to the services, and it means something to me.

[00:9:30] NANCY: It’s sometimes only me singing, and at first it was lonely, but I just accept because they all say, we want to hear you sing, and, you know, some people aren’t comfortable singing or feel they don’t have a singing voice, although I believe everyone does.

[Nancy singing, leading congregation] [Title Card: How good and pleasant it is to sit in community together…]

[00:9:59] JANET CORNISH: For about 30 years, I served as--


[Title card] Janet Cornish, Former President of B’nai Israel, (member since 1978)


JANET: --the cantorial soloist and secretary and sometimes president of Congregation B’nai Israel.

[Guitar playing]


JANET: The happiest moments for me were always when I was singing. [Janet sings and plays guitar]
[00:10:20] JANET: If you want to see a play in Butte, Montana, you have to be in the play. If you want to have a Jewish community in Butte, Montana, you have to contribute your time and energy to making that happen. And while that’s extremely satisfying and meaningful, it’s also extremely exhausting after a period of time. After 30 years, I have to take a break.

[Nancy leading congregation in song]


[00:10:54] NANCY: In my mind I kind of knew I was going to be the next Janet. It just, it was destiny. She knew it and I knew it, but we never spoke it. And there was this moment where [chuckles] she handed me these boxes and I just felt the weight of all the boxes and all the years past and all the responsibility on my shoulders, and I looked across the threshold of the door and I could see the weight lifting off of her shoulders.

[Congregation saying Shabbat shalom] [Transitional music]
[00:11:30] [Title card] Laredo, Texas Population: 248,142 Jewish Population: 130


[Joshua chanting]
[Title card] Congregation Agudas Achim, Founded in 1936


[00:12:23] URI DRUKER: My experiences with Judaism--


[Title card] Uriel “Uri” Druker President of Agudas Achim, (member since 1978)


URI: --are from this congregation, because this is where I grew up and this is where I went. [Rabbi chanting]
URI: There’s definitely a connection with this place. I feel comfortable. [Rabbi chanting]
[Title card] Joshua Druker, Uri’s father


URI: You know, you’re amongst friends, and that’s the good thing about growing up in a really small community.

[Congregation singing shema]


[Rabbi chanting]


[00:13:10] URI: I became president of this place by default. You know, it was by default because, you know, there wasn’t a lot of people jumping to take on the role, so I guess I stepped up to the plate. Now I’m the adult that’s trying to keep things going and you don’t have many participants. Usually it’s just right over enough people to have a minyan.

[Transition] [Laredo Cemetery]
[00:13:57] IRVING GREENBLUM: There’s a lot of history here, a lot of Jews. I mean, you can see dates from 1800, you know, till now. You have one right here that died in 1932--

[Title card] Irving “Pancho” Greenblum,(member since 1960)]


IRVING: --Henry Fayena[sp?], I never even heard the name. I mean, I was three years old then.

[Music]


EVELYN: I miss the people that were always there. We always knew exactly which row we sat in and who sat around us.

URI: Who’s running the cemetery? EVELYN: Me.
[Title Card] Evelyn Selig (member since 1964) URI: You’re the--
EVELYN: There’s a committee but it’s not that active. It’s people that are helping to maintain the cemetery. This is a non-perpetual care cemetery and we need to convert it to perpetual care [Title: "Perpetual Care" - a fund that maintains a cemetery area forever] so that if the Jewish community disappears from Laredo, it can always be maintained. Because are many abandoned cemeteries that no one is taking care of.

[Uri looking at gravesite]

URI: Back when I was growing up we had a huge Jewish population. There was a very strong reform Jew presence and they had their own temple before. And at some point that temple got shut down.

[00:15:27] GARY JACOBS: So there were weddings and bar mitzvahs and then I guess at some point they had services more regular than the High Holidays, but, there weren’t enough active members -- [Title card] Gary Jacobs Former Board Member] --to support, you know, bringing the rabbi and paying the power bill and putting new air conditioning every few years and all that, so, decided to sell it.

[00:15:58] URI: You know, it’s just a building, at the end of the day. Really what matters is the memories and the things like that, but in a way it’s symbolic. You know, by leaving it just kind of abandoned, it just kind of, it sends a message. The day that we don’t have a synagogue in Laredo, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s done. As long as there’s Jews in Laredo, there needs to be a presence of our congregation.

[Transition]


[00:16:55] [Title card] Dothan, Alabama Population: 68,001 Jewish population: 143 [Title Card: The Howard Stern Show]
WOMAN: Now you’re always saying nobody wants the Jews…


STERN: No one wants the Jews. You can’t even put the Jews on the moon.


WOMAN: --Here is an Alabama town that is offering 50,000 dollars to get Jews to come live there.

STERN: Well they’re smart. I’ll tell you why…If you look at history, where the Jews go, great cultural things happen. You watch and see.

WOMAN: --The chairman of the Blumberg family relocation fund is looking for a few good Jews to move to his corner of the Bible Belt. –To relocate to Dothan, an overwhelmingly Christian town of 58,000—

STERN--You wait and see, this Dothan is going to be the cultural center of World. WOMAN: That calls itself the peanut capital of the world!
STERN: You wait and see. They’re gonna have more than peanuts there.


[00:17:44] [Title Card] Temple Emanu-el


RABBI LYNNE: I had never went to the South. It was never really on my radar. But what struck me about Dothan was they said, we have a problem with membership, but we are doing something to fix it.--[Title card] Rabbi Lynn Goldsmith (member since 2007)

[00:18:00] LARRY: I could see the numbers -- [Title card] Larry Blumberg, Founder of the Relocation Project (member since 1957) --and I can see the receipts from dues beginning to diminish each year, and if you sat down and did a five- or seven-year forecast looking out, it looked pretty bleak. And I just felt strongly that something had to be done, and that’s what I was trying to do here, is to give our community, our Jewish community an opportunity to grow into the future.

[Title Card: In 2008, businessman Larry Blumberg contributed $1 million to recruit Jewish families to Dothan.]

LARRY: I think Dothan is a great place to live. It’s just a very open, welcoming society. And I think people respond to that, particularly Jews.

[00:18:40] ROB: Jews offered 50,000 to move to Dothan; ‘Peanut Capital’ seeks American Jews; New York City Jews respond in droves to cash offer to move down south.

[Title card: Rob Goldsmith, Executive Director, Dothan Family Relocation Project]

ROB: When folks are drawn to us and want to join our community they’re looking for obviously a better quality of life, maybe a smaller town, a little Southern hospitality, a slower pace of life.

[Title Card: Temple Emanu-El Bowling Night]


[00:19:10] RABBI LYNN: You really have to go out of your way here to be a Jew. Obviously there needs to be something to serve Jews because there are Jews here. I mean, what happens to Jews in small communities where there is nothing to serve them. What happens to them? What happens to their kids? So if you don't have community, then you're like a Jewish monk, and we don't do well with Jewish monks, we need community.

[00:19:44] KENNY PRIDDLE: We moved here from New York. -- [Title Card: Lisa & Kenny Priddle, (relocated in 2011)] -- We have people from all over the country here, and we don’t know each other, so what a way to do it but bowling.

[Rob kisses]


KENNY PRIDDLE: This guy here [chuckles] . . . LISA PRIDDLE: Where’d he go?
ROB: Wha?


ESTABLISHING SHOT OF LAX


ROB: Terrence and Karen and Emily.


[Title card] Rob is visiting Los Angeles, CA to interview the Arensons, a potential relocation family.

This is a really nice family. And uh, sounds just like the kind of family we’re looking for. KAREN: Hi!

[Title card] Karen Arenson ROB: Hello!
[00:19:27] KAREN: Welcome! Nice to meet you.


ROB [vo]: Their Judaism is important to them, very important, and, they want to jump in and do stuff and they want what’s best for their daughter.

[Emily makes weird noises and rolls down the hill] [Title card] Emily Arenson Age 6
[00:20:46] TERENCE ARENSON: Emily means the world to me. She is the next generation of the Arensons. We found out ten weeks before Emily was born that a birthmother had chosen us.

KAREN: It felt— -- [Title card] Karen Arenson --amazing. I mean I can’t even put words to it to describe. Immediately it felt like that’s my baby. That’s my girl—and I was the first one to hold her.

[00:21:12] TERENCE: Ran into the hospital, walk into the room and was immediately handed a baby that was, you know, 45mins old.

KAREN: He looked at me and said, what do I do? And I said, you hold her and you love her. KAREN: When she was about a year old, we took Emily to the mikvah and had her converted. [Title Card: Mikvah: a ritual bath used for conversion to Judaism.]
TERENCE: We hoped that we would offer that child a wonderful Jewish home, but Los Angeles is completely different than any other place I have ever lived. It is expensive to join the synagogue. The fees and the education costs, they were all just ridiculously out of our financial reach.

[00:21:57] ROB: What you have in our town is, it’s a small, remote congregation.--[Title Card: The Arenson Residence, Los Angeles] -- It’s the only Jewish professional with a rabbi in 100- mile radius. It’s a house of worship and study and assembly and a JCC and all that wrapped up in one.

TERENCE: That, to me, is the dream of being included in one organization, one group, one community.

ROB: It’s not just about, you know, buying Jews with a blank check. The trick of the vetting process is to make sure it’s a good fit for you and for us. Then the biggie for me is employment and transferability of your professional position.

[Title: Terrence distributes Judaica for an online superstore.]


[00:22:43] TERENCE: Don’t, don’t tense up in a second, but I got an e-mail a couple days before Christmas saying, please let your entire staff go, we’re not going to use your services anymore--

ROB: Oh, great.


TERENCE: --I’m sorry, and I kind of like said, wow, okay. And I’m the owner of the company that distributes his merchandise. It’s not like I don’t have an income. I just have to solidify new relationships and build upon them again.

ROB: Okay. That’s a segue to my next question, which is employment for wife, item C. ROB: You have a great résumé.
KAREN: Thank you.


ROB: And I’ve shared it with some people in Dothan just to float your names and be proactive—

KAREN: I’m, if, yeah, I’m open to that, definitely.

[Transition]


act 2
[Title card] Butte


[00:23: 41] NANCY: Hi, Todd--


[Title Card: Like many small congregations, B’nai Israel has no full-time rabbi. They have hired a student Rabbi from Los Angeles to help with High Holidays.]

TODD: It’s nice to meet you. NANCY: Welcome to Butte.
TODD: Thanks. It’s great to be here. NANCY: How did it go--
[Title card] Hebrew Union Rabbinic student Todd Silverman traveled from in L.A. to help B’Nai Israel with Yom Kippur.

TODD: Everything was fine.


NANCY: Did you have to wake up- You went to bed pretty late and then you-- TODD: Last night I was up pretty late, yeah.
NANCY: Well Welcome!


NANCY [vo]: I did something radical and said look our biggest cost is student Rabbi at Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.

[00:24:04]TODD: This is beautiful.

NANCY: Welcome


NANCY [vo]: We cut that cost in half and only have a student Rabbi at Yom Kippur, then maybe we can last double the years as we’d last—maybe we can last 10 years instead of 5 years.

NANCY: Come on in.


NANCY [vo]: You have a huge responsibility when you’re trying to keep this little synagogue going.

[00:24:23] NANCY: The switch is actually in here.


TODD: Shana Tovah, everybody. Welcome to services— NANCY: Yeah, I think you have to be really closer to it.
TODD: Is that not coming? Is that not coming through— NANCY: --I don’t think I heard it.
TODD: Shana Tovah, everybody.— NANCY: --Oh it is. Yeah
TODD: Great.


NANCY: --But now this new thing with the fans. They want us to leave them on. TODD: Oh that’s true, let me try that out.
NANCY: Let me see what we can hear with the fans.


TODD: I’ll turn it up probably for services, do something like this.

NANCY: Let’s see how it sounds, say something. TODD: Um…Shana Tovah, everybody.
NANCY: I always like to double-triple lock it. It’s locked, right? TODD: Yeah.
NANCY: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven back here to make sure that door was locked.

[Music]


[00:25:04] NANCY: Oh, he painted my fence. Oh, my goodness [chuckles]. It was not white this morning. Just in time for Yom Kippur.

NANCY: So this is my system, which obviously I am a little behind. I’m color coordinated. You are blue. I’m orange, since that’s my favorite color. The congregation is yellow. So can I just change the document--

TODD: You can write, yeah, whatever you’d like-- NANCY: --so Todd Hebrew, and then--
TODD: Which one of these is me, by the way--


NANCY: You’re blue.


[00:25:43] TODD SILVERMAN: When I told people that I was going to Butte, Montana, every single person says, there’s Jews in Butte? Really, they have a Jewish community? Really, it’s still there? Really? And I admit, like I was one of them the first time.

[Lew and Bev sit on the steps of the synagogue. Lew sings “Latzo Mir”]

TODD: How dare I try to cut somebody else out of the worldwide Jewish community just for living in Butte?

[Title Card] Lewie and Beverly Rudolph (members since 1946) (Lew continues to sing)
[00:26:14] TODD: Lord of the universe, guide the lips of those who lead your people in worship, strengthen our faith and purify our thoughts and let your love draw a veil over all of our failings. So may our prayers ascend this day to the throne of your glory.

[Nancy playing flute]


[00:26:43] NANCY [vo]: My mom taught us that every day is valuable and to the end of your life you can still have a very spiritual, fulfilling life and bring community in and great lessons. When she passed, it was a turning point as far as my faith because I really leaned on my faith and got great comfort and support from Judaism.

[Nancy playing flute]


[00:27:26] NANCY: My mom passed away two years ago.


[Todd sings in Hebrew]


[Title Card: Yizkor: Memorial Service]


NANCY: It’s too hard for me to stand up there and really say all of the prayers for the departed. I couldn’t do that, because the grief was too present. It was too soon.

TODD: Yizkor, you will remember. Remembrance of what courses through our blood and our souls, what has shaped us into the people that we are today, and what will guide us into the future, no matter how long or short that future may be for us.

PAM: [off camera] Nancy Oyer remembers Roselle Oyer, Samuel Gluck, Sylvia Gluck, Harry Gluck, Aaron Grosman, Erving Landow, Marty Oyer, Myna Oyer and David Oyer.

(Nancy Singing) [Transition]
[Title Card] [Latrobe]


[at Beth Israel Congregation]


[00:29:09] MICKEY: Let’s get started. Ok. Ralph, uh, is here to explain to us about the building and what we can do, real-estate-wise.

RALPH: I don't have have to tell you a number of things. First of all, like all towns, -- [ Title Card: Ralph Scalise, Real- Estate Agent] -- Latrobe is a very difficult real estate, commercial market right now. There are a couple of small, new congregations out there, that are looking for a church, and this, that would be the ideal fit.

IRVING: If you get us a good deal, however you define good deal, I’d be in favor of ‘It’s time to move on.

DAVE: I'm not in favor of leasing, selling,--[Title Card: David Balk] -- or anything like that. I think that school, the shul, as long as we have the, have services once or twice a month in the shul, I think we just outta let it go. As is.

MICKEY: If we wait for the last second, for the last month, the last day, who’s going to be around to pursue it. Are you going to be around to pursue it, is David going to be around to pursue it, am I going to be around to pursue it, Mark? We don’t know.

JANETTE: We are within a year, correct me if I'm wrong, Brian, of Ellie being Bar Mitzvah'd. BRIAN : Bat Mitzvah'd. Yeah. Probably a year from now, A little over a year.
JANETTE: I would hate to see this child spend her whole life in this congregation, and be that close to her Bat Mitzvah here, and have us close and her not be able to do it.

BRIAN: Yeah.

JANETTE: You know, We have an obligation to a very real child that we have in our right now. IRVING: ...and I think you have a very valid point, that might be the boundary.
MICKEY: Well, I don't think we should set a date. RALPH: But to put Ralph to work, you almost have to.
MICKEY: Uh, no. Let's, as, as, [inaudible Janette] we'll give, we'll tell Ralph that that could be a possible date. But I don't want to set a date that, ok, that's the day we're gonna close the door.

RALPH: Maybe you guys just need to discuss it a little so that ya'll feel good about it, or as a good about.

[Transition]


[00:31:35] [Title Card: Balk Family Home, Pittsburgh] [Ellie practicing Hebrew]
[Title Card: Ellie Balk]


[00:31:48] ELLIE: Becoming a bat mitzvah is a big part of becoming a woman in the Jewish religion.

BRIAN: It’s a very touching thing when I hear her practicing her Hebrew. Right now, for her, it’s just toil and drudgery. -- [Title card : Brian Balk] --She might look back and say, wow, that was a pretty meaningful experience for me. I’m hoping, we’ll see.

[00:32:25] ELLIE: So for my bat mitzvah project, I decided to help kids in need because I love kids so much and I wanted to give them an opportunity to maybe, oh, look at this book, Fancy Nancy, to maybe, you know, have a chance to have their own book and clothes, which makes me really sad that kids might not be able to have that. So I will be donating all of these items to NCJW, a great organization for kids who don’t have those items. With Latrobe, unfortunately it’s closing, which makes me so sad because my dad has grown up there and we’ve grown up there, so I’m going to, I’m really sad to see it go, but it’s bittersweet.

[Transition]


[Title Card] ]Laredo] [Susie bathing child]
[Uri brushing child’s teeth]


[00:33:45] SUSIE DRUKER: I grew up Catholic, a very strong Catholic upbringing, so, I mean, we went to church pretty much every Sunday and I went through all the sacraments as far as like baptism and first holy communion. The only Jewish--

[Title card] Elisa Susanna “Susie” Druker


SUSIE: --person I knew in Laredo was my husband [chuckles].


URI: Me being the only Druker son to pass the Druker name, you can imagine the pressure that was upon me to, you know, keep the name and keep it Jewish.

SUSIE: We knew that we had this big difference as far as our religious upbringing.


URI: And I told her that I loved her so much that I would not require her to convert to marry her, but that I would never convert and that she just needed to understand that.

[00:34:40] SUSIE: And I said, well, I don’t think I can ever convert to Judaism. I thought, okay, well, I guess this is it, we’re not going to, I don’t know how we’re going to go around this.

[Music]


SUSIE: You know, it was a scary time then because I was younger and I didn’t want to, you know, I felt like I was upsetting my parents so much. I knew I wanted to be with Uri, but I didn’t know how we were going to figure everything out. And Uri’s grandmother, Adele,

[Title Card: Adele Drucker, 1922-2013]

I remember us having some conversations about like, you have love, she said, you have love, that means everything, don’t worry about everything else, it’ll figure it out, you’ll have babies and then your families won’t even remember and they’re going to love their grandkids and it won’t even be an issue anymore.

[00:35:39] SUSIE: I think she does it just to embarrass us. So that there’s-there’s embarrassing pictures of us in the bathroom.

[Title Card: Diana Farias, Susie’s Mom]


DIANA:--if you come here--I just managed to cut out all of the pictures that had gotten a little bit torn and what not. And so we got something to put them up and every year we add a little bit more and a little bit more.

SUSIE: And then Uri’s in here too… DIANA: He should be in there.
SUSIE: Yeah, I remember Uri being very excited when he was put up on the bathroom wall. He felt like he had... It took him a little while to make the wall.

DIANA: A tad bit. Yes, a little bit but he-he’s there... [SUSIE PHOTO SEQUENCE]
[00:36:12] DIANA: This is when she received the sacrament, the blessed Eucharist, the first holy communion at St. Patrick’s Church, April the 13th, 1986. Susie was baptized in the Catholic Church. And then she also made her first holy communion. She met a young man by the name of Uri, Uri. He was a very nice, very personable, very smart, very nice-looking young man and everything, but I didn’t really know anything about him. We had to think about it very seriously, my husband and I, because of his religion and our religion, you know.

It’s been all right. It hasn’t been a problem. It has not been a problem.

[00:36:56] SUSIE: Obviously during the time when I was, you know, converting and stuff, it was, very hard. I felt the rejection of my parents, ‘cause you wouldn’t talk to me. I wouldn’t you wouldn’t talk to me-

DIANA: Oh, because there wasn’t much to talk about then. I had to, to um, digest it all, bring it all in, you know, because you were seeing your side but you didn’t really have a chance to see what we were going through, too--

SUSIE: No, I think I, I think I did. DIANA: Not initially.
SUSIE: Mom, initially, you didn’t, I would call the house and you would hang up on me. Dad wouldn’t speak to me. I mean, it was--

DIANA: Well, I don’t remember hanging up, but I do remember that-- [Simultaneous discussion]
SUSIE: --no, then you would say, there’s nothing to talk about, there’s nothing I have to say to you, and you would hang up the phone, and it was like that for months.

DIANA: Well, because it was, it was healing, it was a healing time for us, Susie. One of these days, when, well, one of these days you’ll, you never know what life is going throw at you--

[00:38:05] SUSIE: After we got married, I didn’t know that I was going to go down this path. I thought, well, maybe we’ll just, I’ll, you know, practice Catholicism, Uri will practice Judaism and we’ll just make it work. And then when I became pregnant with our first son, I remember speaking to the priest and having that conversation with him, you know, I think we can make it work, we’ll raise them with both, and he said, don’t do that. He said, don’t do that. You’re— people have good intentions and they want to raise their children with both and they end up, the children end up being confused and not really identifying with either, and you end up not practicing either religion well.

It’s gonna be really difficult because there are not many Jewish kids their age and everyone around them and all their family is Catholic; all they hear about is Christmas. You know…

URI: You know, Christmas is everywhere and you can’t compete with it, so I don’t try to.


[Title Card: Susie and Uri’s son Ryan is taking part in the preschool’s annual Christmas pageant.]

[00:39:13] URI: It’s very bizarre, you know, going and my kid, they wanted him to have like a speaking part about where he’s talking about Baby Jesus and all of that, and, you know, so the compromise was, I go, look, you can participate but maybe he doesn’t have to say those lines, can you give him something a little less…

[Child reciting lines]


[00:39:57] [Title Card] Ryan Druker [Ryan crying]
[Transition]


[Title Card: Uri & Susie’s Home]


[00:40:26] SUSIE: Ryan, you want to sit over there with Daddy and help him? ARI: Some oil fell, daddy some oil fell.
URI: It’s okay, it’s okay.


SUSIE: That’s okay, we’ll clean it.


[Family lighting menorah candles and reciting prayer]

[00:41:05] RYAN: Baby Jesus


SUSIE: Who is Baby Jesus? Does anyone know. Ari? RYAN: NOOOOO.
SUSIE: Ryan?


RYAN: Nope. AAHHH! Baby Jesus. Baby Jesus Yeaaaagh! Pffffff


[Transition]


[Title Card] Dothan


[00:41:30] KAREN: What do you see, Em? A lot of land-- TERENCE: A lot of space, a lot of air.
KAREN: Don’t see a lot of houses. I see clean air, huh [chuckles]? TERENCE: No smog.
KAREN: Ooh, look at this, I think we’re getting close to our hotel.


ROB: This is yours. KAREN: Okay, thank you.
[00:41:47] ROB: This is yours. And the goal here is to, for us to put our best foot forward and just give you a good quality, you know, Dothan experience.

[Transition]


[00:42:00] VANITA SANSOM: I think it’s a great place to live--[Title card] Vanita Sansom Real- estate Agent

KAREN: How long have you lived here-- VANITA SANSOM: I’ve lived here for 37 years.
KAREN: Oh, that’s right, that’s right, I remember that.


VANITA SANSOM: So, and I raised my four children here. They’re all grown, but it’s an awesome place to raise children.

[Looking at a home]


TERENCE: Wow, I think this house is gorgeous. KAREN: Nice!
VANITA: Do you have furniture to fill those spaces. KAREN: No, we’ll have to figure that out. [Transition]
[at Highlands Elementary]


[00:42:32] PRINCIPAL DAVIS: Guys this is Emily and she’s in kindergarten too and hopefully she’s gonna come to school with us.

ROB: Hi Emily.


PRINCIPAL DAVIS: Wouldn’t that be cool? Could you tell her hello? You act all of a sudden scared.

[00:42:47] PRINCIPAL DAVIS: I truly think that the Jewish nation, of course, are God’s elected. I really do--[Title card] Principal Vicki Davis Highlands Elementary School --and Rabbi Lynne

and I have had several coffee conversations, where she has discussed her faith and her background and I have discussed my faith and my background, and it’s really ironic how closely all the religions kind of commingle, and I think that when you better understand someone’s background you can better appreciate them and maybe learn from that and grow. It might even change your faith, who knows.


[Transition]


[Congregation singing]


[00:43:35] LARRY BLUMBERG: Larry Blumberg.


TERENCE: Pleasure to meet you. Shabbat Shalom. LARRY: Nice to meet you too, I’ve heard a lot about you. ROB: This is Emily.
LARRY: Hey Emily. How are you? TERENCE: Mr. Larry, as we say in the South. [Oneg]
LEON MINSKY: I wanted to give you a little hot sauce. This is Leon’s Southern Charm. I’ve been making it 50 years.

[Transition]


[00:43:35] ROB: Gee relax.


[Title card] Rob has arranged for Karen to interview for an accounting job.

[Rob driving Karen to job interview]


ROB: You can plan all you want but we deal with the spontaneity of what happens with our families, and right now the job interview has very quickly come together for Karen. It’s such a linchpin for successfully moving a family here that we tore up the agenda for activities and she’s talking to some folks and I’m waiting, like I’m at the hospital waiting for the baby to be delivered. My hands are in my pockets so I don’t chew my nails, and I just wait and we just let the process unfold. But I’d like to think the longer the conversation, the better the outcome will be, so, always the optimist.

[Rob waiting]


[00:45:15] ROB: The longer it takes, the better it is [chuckles]. Aaaaaaagh. I love these people. We need, we need to move them here. All right . . .

[Karen comes out] ROB: So?
KAREN: It was great. She just wanted to talk to me. She said Denise likes to have a second opinion and she was just, much more talkative and more, you know, social--

ROB: More HR--


KAREN: --yeah, more HR, you know, we had a great talk and, you know. ROB: Okay, and?
KAREN: I mean, there was nothing official, but I’m sure, you know . . .


[00:45:55] ROB: You know, you just don’t know until the people are here and they can really sell themselves and to bring them this far, you want to do what’s right. But, you know, I’m not building widgets here, I’m I’m bringing families here.

[Transition]


[Title Card] Bozeman, Montana


[Title card] Nancy’s sister Toni is visiting from Portland, Oregon.


[Nancy and Toni greeting] [Nancy and Toni in car]
[00:46:30] TONI: I’m just so excited to see you.


NANCY: Yay. You’re the only one that comes to visit. No, I shouldn’t say that.


[Title card] They are driving 150 miles to Billings for the annual gathering of Montana Hadassah, a women’s Jewish organization.

[Nancy and Toni singing]


[Title card] Beth Aaron Temple, Billings, Montana


[00:46:54] NANCY: My mom and grandmothers were all in Hadassah. It’s an opportunity to get together with a bunch of Jewish women that you wouldn’t get to otherwise hang out with in Montana, and so you just have this connection way back.

[Women talking]


TONI: Oh let’s make a Nancy sandwich!


[00:47:19] WOMAN: I actually think that being a minority in an area like this really causes you to decide what’s important to you. You are in charge of what you learn, what you teach your children, what kind of home you have, and like I was the president of the congregation here.
Well, if I was in a suburb of Philadelphia, I’d never be the president of the congregation. I’d be rebelling against it.

[Laughter]


[Toni dancing while Nancy claps along] [Nighttime exterior of synagogue]
[Title card] The next morning…


[Title card] Struggling with an intense migraine, Nancy arrives late to Shabbat services.


[00:48:35] NANCY: Thanks for driving. [Toni and Nancy talking quietly]
TONI: Do you want to just go back to the hotel and then come back later? NANCY: Yeah, I don’t know, I’m just going to go get a drink.
TONI: Okay, go get your drink, okay. [Nancy leaving shul]
[00:49:10] TONI: So this morning Nancy really wanted to get here for services. Her faith is such an important part of her life.--[Title Card: Toni Curry, Nancy’s Sister] -- And there’s a helplessness around that when you can’t trust your body. I wish I could fix things for her.

[Music] [Transition]
[Title Card: Beth Israel Congregation, Latrobe]


[00:49:51] MICKEY: Hello.

ADAM REINHERZ: Hi.


MICKEY: I’m Mickey.


ADAM: Adam Reinherz from the Jewish Chronicle. MICKEY: Adam.
ADAM: Reinherz. MICKEY: Reinherz. ADAM: Yes, sir.
MICKEY: Oh, glad to meet you, Adam. ADAM: Pleasure to meet you as well. MICKEY: Okay, now, why are you here?
ADAM: I am here to cover this story. This is very exciting. MICKEY: Okay. You don’t mind if I don’t get excited.
ADAM: Well, it’s not exciting. It’s, it’s not exciting. That was the wrong word. I apologize.


MICKEY: No, no, don’t apologize--


ADAM: It’s interesting. It’s an interesting story, and I was hoping you could tell me more about it. I just got a blurb and I was told to come here and cover it and you know, maybe you can tell me more.

[00:50:32] MICKEY: Well, let’s get out of the hallway.

ADAM: Sure.


MICKEY: First of all, we are not closing.


ADAM: Okay, so this is good. Why don’t you tell me exactly what’s going on.


MICKEY: Now, what is happening is that our congregation has diminished to the point where we’re having difficulties having minyans. As long as we can have a minyan, this synagogue will be open. When we finally decide to close, I don’t want to have to wait until the very final minute to save the history of this congregation.

[00:51:21] MICKEY: Somebody has to have the history of the congregation, and that history is here. It’s in this room right now.

[Title Card: An archivist from Pittsburgh is cataloging Beth Israel’s records.] MICKEY: I’m curious just like you.
SUSAN MELNICK: Ooh, that looks, yeah, I don’t want to damage this-- MICKEY: Looks like part of a Torah. It is.
SUSAN: It is part of a Torah. MICKEY: It’s a page from a Torah.
SUSAN: I’m Susan Melnick. I’m the archivist for the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center and the mission of the -- [Title card: Susan Melnick] --Rauh Jewish Archives is to collect and preserve and make accessible the records that document the lives of Jews in western Pennsylvania. I was lucky enough to have someone on my advisory committee who actually grew up here, so.

[Title card: Debbie Firestone]

[00:52:09] MICKEY: Debbie knows a lot of history. She’s my--


DEBBIE: This was my Sunday School teacher, many years ago [chuckling]-- [Chuckling]
SUSAN: Ah, how nice--


MICKEY: Newspaper clippings, pictures . . .


SUSAN: And who would have done this? This looks like a Sisterhood project, doesn’t it? I mean--

DEBBIE: Did you do this? MICKEY: I did it--
SUSAN: Oh, you did it. Well, it has to be somebody who’s devoted to the congregation-- [Simultaneous discussion]
MICKEY: --I tried to keep all the stuff that I could find. [Looking at photos]
DEBBIE: That’s Mickey’s wife, right there, Janet.


MICKEY: Yeah.


SUSAN: Oh, really.


MICKEY: And Beverly and Joan--

DEBBIE: And Beverly and Joan, right, right.


SUSAN: Look how full the synagogue looks. Oh, my goodness, look how crowded it looks [chuckles].

[ARCHIVAL SEQUENCE]


YOUNG MICKEY: And I welcome everybody here this evening, it’s great to see a lot of faces that I haven’t seen in many, many, many years. Uh, Ruth and her family would like to donate a torah plate to the synagogue.

[Applause]


[00:53:21] SUSAN: What a record.


MICKEY: That’ll be something that you can take with you. [Boxing up items]
[Carrying boxes out]


[00:54:18] MICKEY: You know, it’s another step towards the closing of our shul. And you know, a couple years ago, this was unthinkable. And now it’s become a reality, and . . . [sighs]. It’s damn sad.

[Transition]


[Title Card: Laredo]


[00:55:03] URI: Dear friends, if we want to continue to have a place we can congregate and share in our heritage, traditions, education and Jewish identity, we must act now. I’m calling for community meetings so we can begin discussing options. We may not have a huge Jewish community in Laredo anymore, but there are certainly enough of us to be able to make our congregation feel like a special place we can all enjoy together.

[Transition]


[00:55:35] URI: Hey, guys. I appreciate you coming here. Our congregation recently has been losing membership, for many reasons, and I want ideas from everybody to see how we can increase participation, how we can get more people involved. What can we implement to get more people to come?

WOLFF HOFMAN: If you see who came to this meeting, you’ll see that these are the same people that often come to services on Friday and Saturday. I don’t know what you can do. I mean, this is like the young kids that said, you know, I’m going to be, ‘after my bar mitzvah I’m going to come every Saturday morning,’ where are they? I mean, they’re not coming, they’re not interested--

[Simultaneous discussion]


URI: Why do you think that is?` WOLFF HOFMAN: I don’t know.
[00:56:15] SUSIE: I mean, I have young children, but it’s very hard for me to be here at 8:00 on Saturday. I would come more, I think, if services were a little bit later, but I’m one of many. I know for the majority of the other people that come--

[Simultaneous discussion]


WOLFF HOFMAN: --you cannot come on Saturday morning for shul, you can come on Friday night. You know, there is options.

SUSIE: Yeah.


FRANK: I mean, it’s obvious we’re a shrinking community. We have very few young people with kids in the community. That’s part of it.

[00:56:41] JOSHUA DRUKER: Yeah, everybody has excuses. --[Title Card: Joshua Druker, Uri’s father] -- Everybody says, oh, this morning it’s hard to wake up, no, it’s so nice, I didn’t sleep well at night, oh, I have to go to the store, I have to open the store. Everybody’s supposed to have a commitment here to come and do it. But you cannot force anybody.

[Title Card: Rabbit Gabriel Frydman, Part-Time Rabbi]


[00:57:15] URI: Part of my motivation here is, you know, as long as I am here is to make the best of it, for my kids and family. But it’s a, it’s a big challenge.

URI: I had never felt it so, so empty, in the synagogue.It really felt like, smallest group I’ve ever experienced. Susie always says that there’s a lot of things she hasn’t experienced yet within Judaism. And there’s so much more she’s hungry to learn. Sometimes she tell me “I don’t even know all of the prayers. Like, there’s no where to learn that ,there are no classes, no education program here.” And unfortunately I’m not sure if she’s gonna find it here necessarily.

[Susie arriving at Torah study]


[Title card] Susie has joined a Torah study group led by recent converts to Judaism.


[Raul greets Susie at the door]


[00:58:25] SUSIE: It really is a trilingual congregation here because you’ve got Hebrew, English, Spanish.

ARNOLD [Translation]: Let’s begin with a review of what we’ll be reading this week; it’ll be the Parashah de Vayigash...

SUSIE: I mean, I speak Spanish. I can do conversational Spanish and everything, but interpreting the Torah I think just in general is a daunting task.

ARNOLD [Translation]: To answer these questions, we must first remember that one of God’s attributes is ‘justice’.

WOMAN: We’ve been reading this for several years, and everytime we learn something new. Even though it’s the same book, and it’s the same words, [inaudible talk]

SUSIE: I feel like you all have already surpassed to where I’m like, way at the beginning, but.


ARNOLD: I don’t want to pressure anybody, but you are in charge of teaching your children. In the Torah we have all the tools, to make this happen successfully. All wisdom come from above, honestly. And it’s great, but it’s hard. Because as one people, we are all judged.

[Music] [Havdalah rituals]
Susie is experiencing her first Havdalah, the ceremony that separates Shabbat from the upcoming week.

[They sing the prayer] ARNOLD: Then we take a drink. [Transition]
[Title Card] Los Angeles [Phone ringing on line] [01:01:07] KAREN: Hi, Mom.
NANCY: Hi, whatcha doing?


KAREN: Oh, good. Well, I’m calling, I’m on speakerphone, Terence is here. NANCY: Hi, Terence.

TERENCE: How are you?


KAREN: We have some good news for you—I’m not sure if you’ll think it’s good news but it’s good news for us and our family and I know that you’re supportive of us and our family, right?

NANCY: It sounds like you’re moving farther away. KAREN: We are.
NANCY: Where? KAREN: Alabama. NANCY: No way... KAREN: Way.
NANCY: You’re not moving there. KAREN: We are. It’s a really good place. NANCY: I’ll never see Emily or you guys... KAREN: You will see us, Mom.
NANCY: Alabama, what the hell is in Alabama?


KAREN: [Chuckles]


TERENCE: A really wonderful community--
KAREN: An awesome community that’s really good and-- TERENCE: A job for Karen.

KAREN: --a really good job for me and a really good school for Emily-- TERENCE: And a nice house.
KAREN: And a house, Mom, with a yard, a back yard, a front yard.


[01:01:40] NANCY: Well, I’m really, really happy for you but I’m upset for me, so.


KAREN: I know. I know you are.


NANCY: It’s just like, you’d be so far away from me. I mean, you know.


TERENCE: Right. But, you know, Nancy, it’s, you know, I don’t want to go into the details, but you know the struggles recently. Los Angeles, we just looked in the headlines today, it said it’s the toughest job market in the country and we’re literally out-priced.

NANCY: What did you get for a job?


KAREN: It’s a payroll manager for 3,000 employees. NANCY: For what company is that?
KAREN: It’s a franchisee. They have 110 Burger Kings. TERENCE: It’s such a wonderful fit.
NANCY: Alight, but it’s still hard on me. TERENCE: I know.
KAREN: I know. We know.


NANCY: I just, I’m just having a real hard time with it. You guys are all we have.

[Transition] [Arensons at beach] [Transition]
[Title card] Dothan


[01:03:44] MISSY: We’ve been here since 2003. We live right over here-- KAREN: Oh, cool--
[Simultaneous discussion] MISSY: So, yeah.
MISSY: This is Isabella and Anna-Claire. Isabella is eight. KAREN: Oh, okay.
TERENCE: And where do you go to school, Isabella? MISSY: The Highlands.
KAREN: Oh, that’s where Emily’s gonna go, starting Thursday.


MISSY: It’s a very, very sweet, sweet school--


KAREN: Yeah, we fell in love, I mean, we just fell in love with the school, the town. [01:04:20] MISSY: You could not get in a better neighborhood.
KAREN: We’re thrilled. We’re so excited.

MISSY: When you first move to town and it was just like that when we first moved here, is, you know, it’s like, where do you go to church, where does your husband work, and are you Alabama or Auburn, so--

KAREN: Yeah. We’re Jewish, so we go to Temple Emanu-El, so.


MISSY: But, you know, there is a great Jewish community here in Dothan--


TERENCE: Oh, yeah, that’s one of the reasons-- KAREN: Oh, yeah, that’s, we’ve met so many people. MISSY: That Larry um,
KAREN: Blumberg


MISSY: Blumberg, yes, he does a really, really good job at relocating, you know-- [Simultaneous discussion]
MISSY: --and bring them here. They had a, they just brought a physician in. She joined a little walking group with some mothers and they asked the same questions, where do you go to church--or have you picked a church and have you, and it was like, well, no. And then I think she finally said, well, we’re Jewish, and then I think somebody said that she got an e-mail that says, well, you cannot participate in our walking group anymore.

KAREN: Oh, are you kidding me?


MISSY: Yeah. So I was telling my husband because he works with the physicians in Ozark and I was like, people do that nowadays? Who does that? You know, that’s crazy--

KAREN: That’s ridiculous.

MISSY: Well, that is not how it is here in Dothan. So yeah, so anyway, well, I won’t keep you guys.

TERENCE: Thank you so much, nice meeting you. KAREN: Thank you so much for introducing yourself-- MISSY: Yeah, it was nice to meet you, so--
KAREN: Come over tomorrow after you get home from school and see if she wants to play. MISSY: Okay, that’d be good. Bye-bye.
[TItle card] Butte


[Title card] Nancy’s migraines have forced her to take medical leave.


[Nancy sitting in bed reading a pamphlet]


[01:06:04] NANCY: This little pamphlet, Deutero-Isaiah, the great comforter, it fell out of my mom’s, some of the prayer books that I inherited from her, and I looked and it has her name at the bottom, Roselle, in her own handwriting, and it’s very comforting and like other people, all the Jews, have gone through difficult times before, but there’s a purpose to it and this talks about that. Now I wonder if my mom read this and if it comforted her. It’s comforting me.

[01:06:55] GLEN: When I found out Nancy was sick, I felt very bad. I don’t think I realized to the degree of how she didn’t feel good. Nancy’s the one who keeps everything going. She’s the organizer, she’s the leader. So what, --[Title Card: Glenn Rafish] -- yeah, who’s going to step up?

[Title card] Janet Cornish has agreed to help lead Rosh Hashanah services while Nancy is sick.


PAM: Janet Cornish has been such an anchor, such a cornerstone to our community for decades.

JANET: Hello, everybody. Happy New Year. How are you?


PAM: This was a beautiful gesture on her part to step up and help out this season.


[Title Card] : Pam Rudolph, Former President and Board Member, B’Nai Israel Congregation.] [Janet singing and playing guitar]
[01:07:43] JANET: Whenever you are officiating at a service, you get some of your energy from the people who are in the congregation, and it’s harder perhaps to generate the kind of energy you might need when you only have a few people.

[Janet singing and playing guitar, asks congregation to join her]


JANET: What I mourn is the loss of the Jewish community in Butte as a whole, that as people grew old and passed away and their children moved to other communities, we’ve lost that thread. I’m curious as to what will happen in the future.

[Shofar is blown]


[Title Card: Shofar: a biblical instrument made of a ram’s horn. [End of service]
[01:08:35] JANET: Thank you.


DAVID: See you. Have a good one. Thank you for coming. Thanks for setting everything up for us.

JANET: You bet.


DAVID: Janet, thank you, I’ll see you next week.

JANET: No, I won’t be here. DAVID: Oh, won’t you?
JANET: Nh-nuh.


MAN: Okay. Thank you. JANET: You’re welcome. [Janet leaves the Temple] [Transition]
[David and Ellie singing]


[Title card: From Generation to Generation we’ll speak of your greatness. Forever and ever the praise from our lips will never end until the end of days. From generation to generation…]

[01:10:06] ELLIE: Oh my God, and aunt Ellen, and you, Uncle Harold. Oh that’s so nice.


ROZ: All my kids were Bar Mitzvahed here and my grandchildren's the last. It’s ending with my family.

[Transition]


ELLIE: On page 8 let us all read Psalm 98 in unison.


[congregation reciting] Oh sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and holy might have brought him victory.

[01:10:42] JEANETTE: Ellie, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that one of the last things this congregation will do is to participate in your bat mitzvah. This happy event and your young, beautiful self are proof to all of us that there is still joy in this world and hope for the future. We

have watched you and Dalya grow from being tiny babies who were named here to being the lovely young ladies that you are today. We listened to your laughter and giggles as you played in the playroom during services and thought that we couldn’t hear you. We listened as you talked about your activities, your hopes, your dreams. We listened as you mastered speaking Hebrew, and we have loved you dearly. Let the memory of Beth Israel shine through in everything you do. If you can do that, our building will be gone, our Torahs will be gone, but our memory will live on and on. May God bless you and keep you, Ellie and Dalya. I hope that we here at Beth Israel have given just a little bit of the joy to you that you have given to us.

[Transition]


[Title card] Nancy is returning to Butte after recovering with family in Chicago. [Transition]
[01:11:47] NANCY: It’s just frustrating to not be able to show up. It just shed light on the fragility of our congregation and how we are hanging on by a thread, because if one or two key people are not able to be there, it’s really challenging to keep things going, so we need to plan for the future.

[Transition]


[01:12:19] NANCY: After I’m done being president, we’re going to have less activities at the synagogue and our face is going to be the Internet, our face, our presence. So we need a beautiful presence that reflects the beautiful building that we want to save. It’s not looking good, we’re dwindling in membership, we can’t keep ourself afloat and so, yeah I’m sure there’s part of denial. Because who would want to give this amazing place up? I don’t think anyone’s ready and it’s a hard fact to face, death, on any level.

[Transition]


[Family at Shabbat service]


[Rabbi Lynne welcomes everyone]

[01:13:12] RABBI LYNNE: Shabbat Shalom, welcome to Er-Shabbat services at Temple Emanu-El. Karen’s parents are here visiting us so I want to welcome everybody here. May the door of the synagogue be wide enough to receive all who hunger for love, all who are lonely for friendship--

[congregation continues]


KAREN: As these Shabbat candles give light to all who behold them, so may we by our lives give light to all who behold us. As their brightness reminds us of the generations of Israel who have kindled light, so may we in our own day be among those who kindle light.

[Congregation sings]


[Shabbat shalom exchanged among congregation] [Transition]
[01:14:49] KAREN: The Rabbi being as outgoing as she is and being, she does a lot of outreach and she does a lot of interfaith stuff. So people are, you know, people know the Jewish community, so it’s been an easy transition.

NANCY: Yeah, easier for you than me because of the distance. How many families has that program managed to get here?

TERENCE: I think there’s a total of, are there 12 or 14 families now? Maybe there’s six more families to come--

KAREN: We were we number, we were number nine, I think.


TERENCE: Nine. And so, we’re very grateful that a guy like Mr. Blumberg was out there-- NANCY: Yeah, no kidding.

TERENCE: --who recognized there’s a need and


NANCY: You made a good move. Wish it’d been closer but you did make a good move. Well, you’re my girl. You know that.

KAREN: I know. [Transition]
[Title card] Downtown Laredo


LES: I was fortunate enough to be President/Co- President for close to fifteen years in the congregation.


LES [translation]: Are you being helped my friend? CUSTOMER [translation]: Yes.
[01:15:55] LES: Unfortunately, if you don’t look at it as running a business, --[Title Card: Les Norton, Former President of Congregation Agudas Achim] -- sooner or later, like any retail store, if you run out of money, you run out of the ability to operate your business.

URI: I remember growing up during a time, you know, you were a very large figure, for me, at least, you know, for being the president of the shul and keeping everybody, you know, keeping it going. And what, I mean, what’s the secret? I mean, how do I [chuckling], how do I get people to get it going again, get people involved again, and what are your thoughts on that?

LES: You can talk to 10 people and get 11 different opinions about how to do it. URI: That’s pretty much the Jewish way [chuckles].
LES: Personally, I think the best way, a good way to start would be to try to see, for example, the Reform congregation in San Antonio, in Dallas, I highly recommend Dallas. I mean, they’ve

got one of the best school systems in the country as far as schools associated with a temple. When you’re sitting in a synagogue with 2,000, 2,500 people, you can hear a pin drop. You have sermons that are about, you know, relevant, current-event things so that when the Rabbi is finished with the sermon you go, wait a minute, keep going,

[01:17:13] URI: Okay, you know, those are the things I would like, and I don’t blame you at all or, you know, judge anything that you want to be a part of that in Dallas, but for here, what we do have, I mean, there are people still interested in it, but not a lot of people wanting to do anything about it. I need people like you that care. Are you committed to help me do that?

LES: You know, the problem that, you know, I think that you have is the fact that, you know, whether we like it, you’re hamstrung. You know, here in Laredo, I mean it’s a sad state of affairs, but sooner or later you’re going to have to face reality, what can you do?

[Uri leaving store] [Transition]
[Title card] San Antonio, Texas, Two-and-a-half hours north of Laredo


[01:18:31] SUSIE: We’ve talked about, you know, eventually moving to San Antonio


URI: San Antonio represents an opportunity from a standpoint of exploring our Jewishness. ARI: WOAH! It looks awesome!
[Family entering building and greetings]


ARI: Woah,They’re making arts and crafts! Are those the lil kids? [Family at pool]
[01:19:15] MAN: You gave it a good effort in Laredo, it’s just, it’s tough, you know, when you don’t have the population--

URI: Yeah, it’s, yeah, it is. It is.


MAN: This really feels like home. So much so that I don’t even --[Title Card: [Title card] Howie Nestel, Former Laredo resident] -- think much about Laredo anymore. When I go there, and I’ve been there, in the last month two times, it really feels like a foreign land to me, you know what I mean. It doesn’t, I forgot growing up there and living there and stuff because this is really where my home and my community are.

[Kids playing in pool] [Transition]
[Title card] Congregation Agudas Achim, San Antonio


[01:19:58] RABBI ABRAHAM: Hi, guys. Hi, good. I’m Rabbi Abraham . . . [Introductions]
RABBI GREENBURG: Rabbi Greenburg . . .


RABBI ABRAHAM: Have you been to San Antonio before? URI: Oh, I used to live here. I went to law school here.
RABBI ABRAHAM: Okay, oh, okay. And so are you thinking now of coming back or--


URI: We are. We are.


[01:20:19] URI: The population there, I mean, although we love everybody and I’ve known them since I was a young boy and we feel very comfortable there, but--

RABBI ABRAHAM: Right.

URI: --you know.


RABBI ABRAHAM: No, I understand. So down here is our chapel. We get about 60 to 70 on a Friday night and we’ll get about 80 to 100 on a Saturday morning that’s not like a bar mitzvah Saturday morning, which then gets a few hundred, but even 80 to 100 is, I mean, compared to at least like what I grew up with, that’s a lot, right?

SUSIE: That’s a lot--


[Simultaneous discussion & laughter] URI: We shoot for a minyan--
RABBI ABRAHAM: Right, right, no, I understand.


[01:21:02] SUSIE: It would be hard to leave because so many people have. And that’s why the numbers shrink and that’s why things don’t get better. I don’t want us to be that number, you know, just another family that left. It’s easy to leave and go to something that’s already well run and very well established and there’s a lot of people. It’s harder to stay and make it work.

[Uri and Susie walking in sanctuary] [01:21:55] URI: Well, what do you think? SUSIE: What do you think, hon?
URI: Well, I think it’s a very beautiful place.


SUSIE: I’m just amazed at being at both places, how much extra, like extra things there are for-
-


URI: For the kids.


SUSIE: --for the kids. It’s beautiful.

RYAN: Hi, Mommy. SUSIE: Hi, baby.
[01:22:18] SUSIE: So what do you think?


URI: I like it. More importantly, what do you think?


[Chuckling]


SUSIE: No, I mean, I love it. What’s not to like? I mean, there’s just so much for the kids and for me…

[Transition]


[Title card] Dothan


[01:23:14] KAREN: After living in Los Angeles for eight years and seeing all the sukkahs going up all around us and not being able to have our own sukkah, here we are, in Alabama, and we are having our first official sukkah housewarming party. --[Title card] Sukkah: a “hut”n commemorating how the Jews lived in the desert while awaiting the 10 commandments

[Rabbi Lynne helps Emily to recite lines]


RABBI LYNNE: Now we turn this the other way, now shake it in front three times. Keep them together, three times. And then towards your mom, okay, and then behind you, way behind you, there you go, then the left--

KAREN: To the left.


RABBI LYNNE: --three times, and then up, one, two, three, and then down, one, two, three. Good job. Excellent job.

[Discussion]


[01:24:15] RABBI LYNNE: Better not mess around with me right now. I have the hammer. [Discussion, Rabbi Lynne getting everyone’s attention.]
RABBI LYNNE: If I could have everyone’s attention, um obviously I don’t have a mic, but if I could have everybody’s attention. It takes hands to build a house but only hearts can build a home. This beautiful saying reminds us that a house is a building, that it’ a place where we dwell, but a home is created by the deeds done within its four walls and by the relationships that exist behind the closed doors. We Jews add an extra layer onto that definition of home by making our home a Jewish home.

We place this mezuzah at the door post of this house to remind the Arenson’s and everybody who enters here that this house is a Jewish house, where loving God is a part of the lives of the people who live here.

[Hanging mezuzah]


RABBI LYNNE: And congratulations. Mazel tov. KAREN: Thank you, thank you.
[Group singing] [Transition]
[Title card] Long Beach Island, New Jersey, 350 miles from Latrobe


[01:25:47] MICKEY: When Don contacted me, I was so relieved because I didn’t know what I was going to do with the Torahs. When he called and said, Mick, you’re selling Torahs, boy, we’re interested, and that was just a great day, a super day for me. There’s a different feeling between giving something to a stranger, that’s charity. Giving something to a friend, that’s a gift.

[Title card] Don Pripstein, Friend of Mickey’s since 1970]


DON: We’re building this bigger building and we expect to grow, let’s make room for five Torahs. I’ve been talking obviously with Mickey and I know that Beth Israel is not going to be around for much longer, I said, let me first check with him. And we, you know, we looked at them and it’s done.

JANET: A toast to the Torahs--


[Toasting l’chaim] [Transition] [Shofar played]
[Title Card] Rabbi Michael S. Jay, of Long Beach Island [Cheering & applause]
[01:27:05] RABBI: My friends, we are here on a holy, beautiful, wonderful mission. The Torah scrolls from the congregation in Latrobe have found a new home. They will not be without a home for one second. Mickey and Janet, your congregation is connected with our congregation forever. Kol HaKavod, to you goes the honor.

MICKEY: Thank you.


JANET: Thank you.
[Music and singing and dancing] [Taking Torahs back to synagogue]

[Congregation B’Nai Israel has embarked on a “legacy” plan to preserve their building.]

[Uri has set up a law office in San Antonio as the family contemplates a move. ] [Karen was bat mitzvahed by Rabbi Lynne on February 27th, 2016.]