Welcome to Temple Ahavat Achim

Adam Farber and Sara Roizen

“Wasn’t four hours of services enough?”
“I’m soooo hungry.”
“I’d rather be in school!”

Those were just a few of the thoughts going through my head early afternoons standing outside TAA with my sisters three days every fall.  At precisely 1:00PM - just as Rabbi Geller promised - mom and dad would be catching up with what seemed like every single member of the congregation on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  At least we knew exactly what to expect.  After all, we had been doing it for as long as I could remember.

Before I was born, mom and dad came to Gloucester to open our store.  Little did they know, just one block away they would find a community uniquely qualified to become their spiritual, religious, cultural and social home.  As kids, we were dragged along - as kids are to anything their parents find important.  And slowly TAA became ingrained in us, too.  Not only that, but my parents brought along both sets of grandparents, and so three generations of Farbers and Rosenblatts were joining together to practice our Judaism at TAA.

For decades, Rabbi Geller lead us.  As a kid, his presence, knowledge and kindness were as close as I could imagine to someone like Moses. (Although, Moses it seems was not known for his punctuality like our dear Rabbi - 40 years of wandering and all...)  My favorite part of that tiresome shmoozing after High Holiday services was the moment I always had with the Rabbi - shaking his hand and him not just knowing my name, but knowing my story.  He knew everyone’s story.  In fact, everyone visiting outside the synagogue those days knew everyone else’s story.  It was truly a community that gathered people.

And that is what has brought me back - with my wife and boys - to rejoin this community I grew up in.  We’ve been gone for a long time.  I’m not particularly observant or even interested in all the rituals at this point in my religious experience.  But somehow it feels like just the right place for us.  Just as my family traveled from the Swampscott/Marblehead Jewish mecca (with five congregations within a mile of our home) to attend TAA, so too will Sara and I bring Rohin and Kai to be a part of this very unique community.

And for us, the TAA of today feels even more perfect.  With Rabbi Lewis leading us, it is a welcoming place, meeting everyone just where they are.  The diversity of the extended Cape Ann Jewish community has never been greater, and the religious and social offerings at TAA reflect that.  “Come as you are” seems to be the mantra, and that is just right for us.