An Honor from 6,000 Miles Away

An Honor from 6,000 Miles Away

Meryl Yourish has said on her blog that one of her jobs is teaching little Jews to be big Jews—in other words, teaching at her local religious school. I’ve been reading her descriptions of her classes for several years now, and more than once I’ve told her that I would love to be in her classroom.

Well, yesterday it happened.

I felt like saying hi to Meryl, so I sent her an IM. Turns out she was in class and online... and the next thing I knew, my living room in Jerusalem and her classroom in Richmond were linked through GoogleTalk!

Well, I’ve always said that the Internet is miraculous.

It was absolutely lovely. I heard her pupils’ voices and even got to sing one of my favorite songs with them: Uzi Hitman’s version of “Adon Olam.” By the time we said goodbye I was grinning from ear to ear and even a bit misty in the eyes.

Thank you, Meryl. What an honor.

(Can we do it again? I’ll go collect some more songs...)