(The Times of Israel. Michael L. Feshbach).
Friends, I want to express my deep gratitude to you, and to your wonderful pastor, for the invitation to be with you this morning. Reverend Ney is certainly familiar with, and a friend of the Jewish community in this area, having davened out of a different siddur – I mean prayed out of a different prayerbook – over years of service as the accompanist at both my congregation, Beth Israel, in its original Atlantic City location and, later, at Emet Shalom, now part of Shirat Hayam synagogue in Ventnor. And then, of course, she also taught at the Hebrew Academy.
This is my second time in this special place. The first was last November, for the area interfaith Thanksgiving service. I used that occasion to thank Reverend Ney for her powerful words of support for the Jewish community at a service of solidarity held a few weeks prior, a gathering meant to bring comfort following the events of early October. What she said then was, and remains, deeply meaningful to me, and to many others.