Our connection to Schara Tzedeck runs long and deep. My wife Karly’s grandparents, Isadore and Bella Bogner joined Schara Tzedeck in the mid 1940’s following the birth of their only son Leon. They were soon joined by Isadore’s brother Anschel and his wife Sylvia from Poland. Anschel bore witness to the murder of his first wife and 2 children at the hands of the SS and Polish collaborators. The pain they brought with them would obviously never be healed but together they found community at Schara Tzedeck. A kehilla filled with greeners and Shoah survivors working tirelessly to build community and Torah at the end of the Jewish earth. Leon spent many a Shabbos running around on the roof of the shul causing no end of trouble but he also joined the junior choir and spent much of his youth following his bar mitzvah at Schara Tzedeck.

Leon and my mother-in-law were married in my hometown of Winnipeg but joined our shul where my beautiful wife Karly attended services for Yom Tovim and Shabbos sitting in the front row of the balcony, where she continues to sit today with our daughters, with her mom, Auntie Fay Shafron, her Auntie Silvia and Babba Bella.

My connection with Schara Tzedeck is obviously shorter having been transplanted from Winnipeg via North Carolina in 2005. I was raised in a Jewish home filled with tradition and tremendous Ahavat Yisroel. My maternal babba was an immigrant from Romania. Leaving in 1930 never to see her 6 siblings ever again. My maternal Zaida was born on the Lipton Jewish colony in 1911. Together they raised my mother in a small town Saskatchewan with a very small Jewish community with few resources but one that always valued and invested whatever they had in Talmud Torah. They raised my mother Karen there before realizing the prospects for a Jewish partner were not good and sent her off to Winnipeg to continue her studies where they shortly followed.

My paternal Grandmother fled Vienna via Prague to London with her mother following the Anschluss. In London, she met my Zaida who was a tank squadron Captain in the Fort Garry Horse Mechanized Regiment. He was quick to register to go overseas as he wrote to his worried parents as a Yid he had no other choice. He was wounded twice losing his eye in the battle of Capriquet. He came home a broken man and sadly died when I was but 7. Needless to say the kavod I hold for him is beyond expression. They raised my Father Peter with that same commitment to Klal Yisroel with my dad flying out in Jun 1967 to Eretz Yisroel to serve her in any way he could.

Walking into Schara Tzedeck was a new experience for me. I was raised in a Conservative shul without a mechitzah. I was not sure it was for me but over time I was overwhelmed by the traditions, the warmth and the Torah. The way fathers and sons would huddle under their tallisim during the Birkat haCohanim. The incredible warmth and ruach of Kaballat Shabbat. I had never witnessed TRUE community Torah Judaism.

Karly and I are so grateful to be a part of such an incredible place with such a truly inspirational, warm and brilliant Rabbi. Our daughters Isabella and Carsyn both had their Bat Mitzvah in our Shul and with Blessings, our son Ty (Baruch ben Avraham v’Giborah) will be called to the Torah May 21 and join us at the foot of Sinai. Karly and I have no doubt that the many celebrations, Shabbos dinners, classes and chaggim in the shul have also left indelible impressions on our children and we pray that one day they will also share their families Letter in a Scroll.

On a personal level, Rav Andy has unequivocally changed my life allowing me a deeper and more meaningful connection with my faith and Torah. I will be forever in his debt.