Sarah Dekelbaum


			Washington Hebrew Congregation



		Dear Sarah: We simply and humbly want to say thank you for over twenty years of dedication to Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Religious School and Early Childhood Center. Through your creativity, our children have come to love Jewish learning. You always gave to our children your soul self in every possible way: a visit with Shlomi; dressing up as Queen Esther, Moses, the prophet Micha or a pre-teen Bat Mitzvah student smacking her chewing gum with the best of them; or you portraying the Judge Devorah or the heroine Hannah Senesh. Through all, you introduced our children to a dynamic dimension of Judaism. It was not only your personal thespian talents that carried the day, it was your innovative and cutting edge approach, using clips of movies to cascade our children through Jewish history or pitting them against each other in a round of “Jewpardy.” For twenty years, fifth graders have been standing under the chupa as you sang the bride down with “Sunrise, Sunset.” Sunrise, sunset…each phase in life has a beginning and each reaches a moment when it is time to watch the sun set, knowing your life’s work has made a real difference. Sarah, your birth made history, as you were the first child born in a Displaced Persons camp, both your parents survivors of the Holocaust. Your father was a distinguished cantor and you grew up steeped in tradition. With that background, you committed yourself to making Judaism joyous for young and old, and we have benefited from your choice. You are a unique treasure to our congregation and the Jewish community, and it is hard to imagine our school without you. But your legacy will stay with us, as myriads of your creative programs permeate our schools’ curriculum and thousands of our children have created a place for being Jewish in their hearts because of your labor of love. You have also been the one who has taken the child everyone said would never every be able to stand and become a Bar Mitzvah and proved that wrong. Most were told they would never be able to even read Hebrew and yet each stood proudly on the bimah with such self-respect and self-esteem for you gave them that gift by believing in them. Each of us wants to learn and each of us has been given by God that capacity; it just takes the right teacher to find the way to that learning and you, Sarah, have been the right teacher to so many, able to reach in to every soul with love and caring. I hope you know what amazing impact you have had on our children and families. We have watched your family grow, we have shared with you and Norman the happy and the sad moments of life and felt blessed simply to know you both. I know this decision is not easy for you, and that health and the opportunity to share life with that delicious grandson of yours in Texas are the only things that could get you to retire and stop sharing your love of Judaism with our teachers, students and rabbis. Sarah we want you and Norman to join us on Friday February 27^th for a special blessing and Sabbath where we will honor you and try to do the impossible, to simply thank you for being you “the teacher’s teacher.” I have worked by your side for these years and can say I am a better rabbi for it. Respectfully and humbly, M. Bruce Lustig