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Fast Company: Why you should make the library a model for your business

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Keaton and Leo B’nai Mitzvah

June 21, 2025

Keaton and Leo – today is a special day in your lives. You officially become an adult member of the Jewish community. As part of the ceremony, I have the honor of placing this prayer shawl, this tallit, on your shoulders. It is your great grandpa Jack’s tallit. Wrapping you in it is deeply personal and emotional for me, as great grandpa Jack has always been my role model. Our family tree now totals 37. Of these, 21 are here today. And it would have been 24 but for Uncle Ronnie’s, Aunt Elaine’s, and Alli’s flight cancellation, and then Alli’s coming down with COVID. I want you to look around the room and find the 21 Shapiro family members that are here. Take your time. Then I want you to visualize those that are not here. Again, take your time. What binds all of us as a family is my parents’ legacy. For great grandma Ethel and great grandpa Jack family was more than shared genes and a shared home. It was a place of love without conditions. It was shared history, shared burdens, and shared joys that have now been passed down to your generation. But family is only part of your great grandparents’ legacy that is relevant today. They believed strongly in remembering and honoring our Jewish roots and heritage, Keaton and Leo – you know the essence of your great grandparents’ story. For those of you who are non-family members, indulge me for a couple of minutes to summarize my parents’ legacy. Their story is a familiar one to many, if not most of you – immigrate to the United States from eastern Europe in the early 1900s to escape the programs, and live what was then the American dream. They had a clear purpose to provide a better opportunity for their three children – Ira, Ronnie and me.

Mom and dad married in 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. They migrated to the Washington, DC area in 1936, at the height of the great depression, with little more than hope and determination. They owned and operated a mom-and-pop grocery store. The five of us lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment over the store. We were the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. The store was open 7 days a week, from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. The only days the store was closed was on the Jewish High Holidays, to honor our faith, to signal proudly to the community that we were Jewish, and to make sure Ira, Ronnie and I knew our roots. They taught the three of us, by word and by deed, that family comes first, that dignity belongs to everyone, and that our Jewish roots matter. They loved unconditionally. They treated their daughters-in- law as equal to their sons. And they lived to enjoy what mom labelled their investment in their children – their eight grandchildren. Ira captured them best in his toast to them on the occasion of their 50 th wedding anniversary – as individuals they were awesome, but as a couple, they were dynamite. As I mouth these words, I feel my parents’ presence. They, and Ira, are here in spirit. I can see the broad smiles on their faces as they are looking down on you with admiration and pride. To circle back to the underlying message in wrapping you in great grandpa Jack’s tallit. It is more than fabric. It’s a thread that binds generations – from my father to me, from me to your dad, and now to you. As I wrap you in it, feel its warmth as you are surrounded by family and friends. You are part of something enduring – a legacy that shaped our family and continues in each of you. So proud of you both. Love you. Mazel tov

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Mt Bachelor

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Revok

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