Shalom Dear Friends,
As all of you know, Aliza and I are leaving Beth Jacob. It is with mixed emotions that our time in Los Angeles comes to an end. For over seven years Beth Jacob has been our home, its members our family, and its community our neighbors. Our lives gained meaning by having you in our home, sharing our smachot with your family, being there for you in your pain, and knowing we could turn to you in our challenging moments. We’ve been honored to participate in the many exciting Beth Jacob programs, Shabbat Fungroups, CPR training, weekly chesed programs with Hillel, summer sports camp, the summer kollel, teen minyan, giving bar and bat mitzvah classes and Pro-Israel activism, especially the Pro-Israel teens. Mistakes in judgment on my part make it necessary to leave. We were greatly appreciative and humbled by Beth Jacob’s offer to continue, it is for the best of our family and Beth Jacob for us to move on.
We’re excited to start anew. We’ll be moving to Boca Raton, Florida in the coming weeks to work as the youth and teen director in the Boca Raton Synagogue, as well as becoming the Torah Sheba’al Peh chair at Hillel of North Miami Beach. We’re looking forward to getting to know a new community, and lending our talents to its youth and community at large.
Aliza and I look forward to hearing of Beth Jacob’s future success. Jonny “Cool” Ravanshenas will be a great youth director and has the talent to bring Beth Jacob’s Fungroups to even greater heights. When I wrote the history page for the Beth Jacob website I began to recognize the great history of Beth Jacob. It is an 85 year old institution that has led Jewry across America, and its leadership, success, and blessing should continue. Over the last seven years it was our greatest privilege to be a part of that leadership and to give our all to Beth Jacob, its staff, executive board, general board and membership. We wish Rabbis Topp, Mandel and Posy the greatest mazal in further advancing our community.
We want to stay in touch with you; out of sight doesn’t have to be out of mind, and especially shouldn’t be out of heart. We’ll always have you in our hearts and prayers, and we hope you will have our family in yours. If you find yourself in Southern Florida, please be in touch, we’d love to see you.
We love you all dearly,
With Blessings of Torah and Simcha,
Rabbi Uri and Aliza Pilichowski
