May is American Jewish Heritage Month. Last week on Ozarks at Large, we heard from creators of a new work, "Dear Hearts: The Letters of Abigaill Levy-Franks," about letters from a Jewish woman in colonial New York to her son in London. It will be performed at Crystal Bridges Thursday night.
At the end of our conversation, I mentioned one of my first stories for this show — more than 35 years ago — was with the late Ralph Nesson about the then-dream of a permanent home for Temple Shalom of Northwest Arkansas, a dream realized.
And I asked about the importance of community.
Erin Cohen: So important. And I knew Ralph, what an amazing man and such a pillar of the Jewish community. And he was instrumental in building our community. And we did get our permanent home. And thankfully, he got to see it. He was there for many years. And that permanent building was built in 2009. I feel so many things about this because I've been part of the Jewish community here in Northwest Arkansas since the early '90s, and watching the community grow has just been fascinating and exciting. And knowing that we're growing, but we still have our base of the people who love it here and will continue to carry on the traditions of the Jewish community in Northwest Arkansas — it just means everything to us, to me as a member of Temple Shalom, to me as someone who works for the Jewish Federation of Arkansas.
Samantha Stinson: Yes, it means a lot. It is an absolute honor to serve the Temple Shalom community and to be trusted as the spiritual leader. I am not from Northwest Arkansas. Jonathan and I have lived in many different locations. Our synagogue in very upstate New York was also quite small. And then we also had the good fortune to live in the UK for a year, which has a very interesting Jewish population as well. And one of the things I love about Northwest Arkansas, not only in the Jewish community but in general, is the can-do attitude of everyone — that if you have a dream, if you want to make something happen, you pretty much can, but you're going to have to do it yourself. And that is the case for the Jewish community as well. And I'm also an elder millennial, and my generation is starting to step up and take on the more leadership-type positions. And it's a jarring realization that the scaffolding of Judaism and the Jewish community you've been in doesn't stay — or is not maintained — without the next generation stepping up. And, generation to generation — 'l'dor v'dor' in Hebrew — is a cornerstone of not only our religion, but our social and cultural ethos as Jews. And so it is really wonderful to have this idea and to meet these people, and to find the support, to be able to reach out to the correct channels, to have the community embrace Judaism as a culture worth exploring, worth displaying and celebrating. And that's why we're doing this during Jewish American Heritage Month in May. The Jewish community here, it is small, but it is strong, and really enthusiastic and really open.
Samantha Stinson is spiritual leader at Temple Shalom of Northwest Arkansas. She'll be performing the song cycle "Dear Hearts: The Letters of Abigaill Levy-Franks." We also heard from Erin Cohen, community engagement manager for the Jewish Federation of Arkansas. They were speaking in the Garner Performance Studio last week. The performance of the song cycle is Thursday evening at 6 at Crystal Bridges. No admission for the performance, but free ticket registration is required at crystalbridges.org.
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