Spring Revelation

Spring is a time of revelation in the Jewish community. Coming out of Passover, the next festival on the Jewish calendar is Shavuot. Shavuot is 49 days from the second night of Passover and celebrates the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Shavuot reminds me of my time in Israel. As a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I spent part of Passover in Egypt in the Sinai Desert with a group of friends. We spent the week on the beach, swimming, fishing, and doing our best to observe Passover while in EGYPT. One morning we hiked what is thought to be Mount Sinai to arrive at sunset. It was a cold and somewhat spooky spiritual experience. When we left Sinai, the only way to get back was to jump in a cab. Our cab driver’s name? Musa (Arabic pronunciation of Moses). 

A Shavuot tradition is studying late into the night. That Shavuot, I studied until dawn with friends, and we hiked down to the Kotel plaza for services with thousands of other people at the Wailing Wall. It was a night I will never forget.

The Mittleman Jewish Community has our own, only slightly less auspicious revelation in May. On May 12th, we will host the MJCC’s Community Celebration. We will honor our 2021 Glickman Award Winners, this year honoring “Harry’s Heroes” who have made great contributions as scholars and changemakers in community service. We will honor a new inductee into the Oregon Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, celebrate graduating members of the Stingrays swim team, and congratulate our 21 for ‘21 winner. We will also honor and celebrate the life of Arlene Schnitzer z”l, who will be named our second winner of the MJCC’s annual Pillar of Excellence Award. At the end of the evening we will play trivia with Mystery Dave of Mystery Trip. If you played trivia with the JCC last year, you will remember Dave. We will have two rounds of MJCC trivia, one round of Portland trivia and two rounds of general trivia. Prizes will be awarded, and sponsorships are still available for the Community Celebration. More information at oregonjcc.org/celebration