Fort Worth visit has great Jewish worth

 By Sara Appel-Lennon

FORT WORTH, Texas–I watched my step-daughter, Erin, make 200 Christmas tree shaped cookies when I found myself saying aloud, “Etz a beautiful tree. How do you say tree in Hebrew? Etz”. Memories of conversational Hebrew lessons danced in my head from my summer camp counselor experience at Camp Tamarack in Brighton, Michigan. My talk of trees reminded me of the Jewish reference to the Torah as a tree of life. I then felt compelled to find a temple in Fort Worth, Texas to observe Sabbath and write about my experience for this article.

From the yellow pages I chose Ahavath Sholom. Walking toward the temple doors, I discovered it was a Conservative temple of 29 years. It is located next to a public library at 4050 South Hulen in Fort Worth, Texas. I had seen it two years ago when I visited Erin and her family. I remembered the large menorah on the lawn which was not yet displayed.

Upon entering the temple, the ark drew my attention because of a wooden carving of the tree of life. The Torah cover displayed a menorah with flickering candle lights, which shined brightly. I noticed that only two women wore prayer shawls, and I wasn’t sure whether a pink one served as a prayer shawl or a fashion scarf. Only men made an aliyah to the Torah although women did approach the bima to read, sing, or receive a blessing for a special occasion.

 This Shabbat morning Rabbi Alberto (Baruch) Zeilicovich recognized three birthdays and an anniversary. One congregant, Lou Barnett, celebrated his 91^st birthday; another celebrated his 85th, and Murray Cohn, a member of the Board of Directors celebrated his 45^th.  A Cuban couple gave an aliyah in honor of their 50^th wedding anniversary. After each honor the rabbi gave each person a blessing to reach 120 years.

Rabbi Zeilicovich spoke about the four matriarchs, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachael, and Leah. He asked if all four were pious women and noted that Rachael was envious of her sister, Leah since Leah bore children and Rachael did not. Rachael died in childbirth. Rabbi Zeilicovich asked why that would happen. Furthermore, Rachael told her husband, Jacob, that if he did not help produce for her a son, she would die.

The Rabbi pointed out that envy is destructive and prevents us from enjoying what we have. The Yiddish term which he used was groisse oigen translated as big eyes. He gave an example of having groisse oigen if he is envious of someone with a Ferrari.

The rabbi talked about a magician’s words, abra cadabra. Translated from Hebrew it means “so may it be done.” The rabbi said that words have energy and our words can become reality. Therefore he encouraged us to watch our words closely because our words may produce results much like those of Rachael’s.

Later, the rabbi kvelled as he told about some of the accomplishments of fellow congregants. One gentleman discovered the idea of business telemarketing and another developed eye droppers.

 After services, I attended the catered luncheon in honor of Barnett’s 91^st birthday. I approached Cohn, the director who celebrated his 45^th birthday. I mentioned that I noticed the temple announcement showed that the film Lemon Tree would be screening in the temple the following day. I shared that I saw the film and wrote a film review which I had published in my column. His eyes grew wide but not because of envy. Instead he asked if I would kick off their Jewish Film Festival by talking about the film before the screening. Cohn said that I was there by the hand of God. The timing truly was an example of  serendipity.

Thanks to my Toastmaster training, I felt delighted to give a speech.

On Sunday I addressed 75-100 people in the social hall prior to the film’s screening. I gave a brief summary of the film and I encouraged the audience to watch the film from a humanist not a political perspective. 

After a film discussion, I made some closing remarks about the film. I learned that one of the spectators had worked for Copley here in San Diego. She knew Don Harrison when she was single. Her name was Tobi Eiferman.

After my visit to Fort Worth, I returned home briefly before I departed for Cleveland, Ohio to visit my mom for Hanukkah. When I boarded the plane in Cleveland for my connecting flight to Dallas Fort Worth, I noticed the flight attendant wore an intriguing necklace which resembled a tree. When I asked her about it, she replied that it was the tree of life.

 Author’s note: Since pecan trees are plentiful in Fort Worth, Texas, I started a healthy habit of snacking on pecans. Care to join me?

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Appel-Lennon is a San Diego-based freelance writer. Her email: appels@jewishsightseeing.com