Double Black Hole Found in Marin

By Susan Esther Barnes

This evening I attended an event at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum (more on that in a following post, I suspect). During that event Karen Kushner of the Jewish Welcome Network spoke about her efforts to help synagogues draw people on the periphery into their inner circle.

The imagery I created from the language she used caused me to think of Rabbi Michael Lezak as the black hole of our synagogue community. Anyone who wanders close enough to his Event Horizon is drawn inexorably in until they are so enmeshed in the community it seems they can never get out.

The accuracy of this black hole analogy is evidenced by the numerous stories I have heard, and continue to hear, from core supporters of our synagogue. They often start with something along the lines of "I wasn't that involved here, and then Rabbi Lezak..."

Meanwhile, Rabbi Noa Kushner, daughter of the above-mentioned Karen Kushner, has been spending much of her time building NITA, a community of people in Marin County who are not affiliated with a synagogue but who want to "do Jewish stuff." From all accounts, Rabbi Kushner is drawing into her own Event Horizon a number of people committed to building the NITA community.

It just so happens Rabbi Lezak is married to Rabbi Kushner, possibly making them the first double black hole discovered in this part of the universe.