Kesher Israel Memories & Testimonials

Whether you are a long-time member, a new member, or a former member, your memories of the time you spent at Kesher Israel is important to us! If you are interested in sharing your memories with us, email the Centennial committee with your write-up and we'll share it with the Kesher community.

A Personal Perspective on Kesher Israel 100: First Words

by David Epstein

I have the distinction, along with a handful of others who remain regular attendees to this day –Lewis Kest, Alfred Moses, Allan Mendelsohn -- to have davened at Kesher Israel for about one-half of its existence as a congregation.  I first stumbled into Kesher Israel somewhere in 1961-1962 after completing my military service, moving to Washington, and finding an apartment in Georgetown.  Fifteen men were often the entire weekly Shabbat minyan. No women were present. It was sad.

Kesher Israel was either clueless or resilient. It is the only DC synagogue that stayed at its founding location, organized in Georgetown circa 1911, moving to this site in the 1920’s and constructing this building around 1931.   Each of the other synagogues in DC of every denomination moved with its congregants to more distant parts of the District of Columbia or to the Maryland suburbs. 

Go anywhere in the world, when you meet a person with the common bond of Kesher Israel, you will find a face that lights up.  Why?  The obvious ones: the commitment to hospitality, the intimacy of the space for davening, the daily minyanim, the quality of the Torah discussions, the learning, the friendships formed.  More than that, almost all that happens at Kesher Israel is because of volunteers, from replacing light bulbs to Kiddush to Shabbatons to People’s Pulpit to Purim Shpiel.  Each of us is a stakeholder.

What is important about the mere passage of years, one or one hundred?  It depends.  Accumulated years do matter in getting a driver’s license, voting, or applying for social security benefits.  An individual’s birthday, a wedding anniversary or a class reunion may be used as the hook on which to place fleeting attention on an individual, a couple or a group.

As Jews, we experience the passage of time as intrinsically important. The weekly Shabbat, the annual cycle of holy days and festivals.   Each year we go anew from slavery to freedom as a core experience.

The Kesher Israel Centennial is not a religious event. We can use the occasion to discuss, consider our history, celebrate, and fundraise.  The Centennial Year will include a series of discussions on Judaism, especially Modern Orthodoxy, a concept introduced to this congregation by Rabbi Freundel, whose towering intellect has been part of our congregation for more than two decades.  The entire Centennial enterprise is being moved forward through the committed leadership of our co-chairs, Elanit Jakabovics and Mark Isakowitz.

History is elusive. We consider ourselves as an historic people, but Professor Yosef Yerushalmi has noted that we Jews do a lot of “remembering,” but this is not the same as history in the academic use of the term.  Kesher Israel at 100 does lend itself to some large themes.  The social history of a Jewish community against the background of its times in this Capital City and the United States: a congregation founded by Yiddish-speaking Eastern European immigrants, its withering, and then its revival, at the same location and always true to the same traditional Jewish religious commitment of the founders. The evolution into to a home for professionals, scientists, opinion shapers, academics, authors, political leadership, Jews from across the globe, and just regular folks.   We also reflect the influx of young Jews who were shaped by strong Jewish educational institutions.  Another theme could be based upon biographical history of the personalities of the three long-term Rabbis and how each shaped the congregation in his time.  Or, we could look to memorable or dominant personalities in the life of this congregation; the presence of and the changing role of women in an Orthodox congregation; the interplay of ideas and events with Jewish life and observance, including the role of the existence of the State of Israel.

And then, there is a part of our history that only an Hassidic master could tell:  the life of the most gentle of men, who suffered the grief of his wife’s death, the Rebbetzin, at the pre-huppah reception for the wedding of their only daughter.  After five years of consuming loneliness, he, our Rabbi for 34 years, died a violent death in the study of his own home at the hands of an unknown assailant.  One speculation was that the generous spirit of the Rabbi may have caused him to welcome into his home the very person who entered with evil purpose. 

How do we create a history that makes the member who joined last year feel that he or she is now a part of our history? My view is that we invite, encourage and cajole current and past members to write about an aspect of their experience at Kesher Israel.  We can then create a web-based, pardon the pun, mosaic history. A “WikiKesher.” Will our history be real or mythic?   To my view, the submissions should be positive, even uplifting, sharing an insight, an anecdote.  It will not be comprehensive, as no purpose is served by visiting areas of strife or dissatisfaction.  Give it a try, whether you have been here for fifty years or five.  

And finally, there is the obligation that we owe to those who will inhabit this space in the next 100 years.  We daven in this superb intimate space because of largely anonymous donors of more than 80 years ago.  We know that the recent refurbishment was triggered by the generosity of Milton Gottesman, of blessed memory.   You will note that there are few plaques recognizing donors. We have concluded, time and again, that a donor’s satisfaction should come from knowing that the congregation will remain where it is and flourish as a centerpiece of traditional Jewish life, generation to generation.  

The distinguished American author, Herman Wouk, who attended here regularly for many years, once wrote to me when I served as President: "As for Kesher Israel, it's the nearest thing to 'my shule' I've ever had, or am likely to have, whether I'm in Washington or not; and its renaissance as a star congregation of young modern Jewry gives me satisfaction and encouragement. If it happens here, it can happen everywhere."