Esti Zenati’s “Memory And Meaning”

This past year has been truly challenging for me. Being a single mom and having to work full time from home, while supervising my daughter’s virtual school and just making sure she’s ok while I’m busy with work, has been the most challenging thing I’ve had to deal with in the past few years. And to top it all, missing my family in Israel so much and not being able to see them has been incredibly tough.

Despite all the challenges, I’m grateful that my 6-year-old daughter, Jazz, and I got to share some special moments together and learn new things, it’s been amazing seeing her growing into a mature young lady. We’ve had some pretty interesting conversations that I never thought we’d get to have at this stage in her life. We explored nature, got to go to some places we’ve never been to around Maryland, she got to sing and play her guitar on our balcony for all of our neighbors to see during quarantine, we painted rocks and papers, and even got to move to a new apartment in a new city.

Through it all, Beth El has been incredibly supportive and understanding, working with our magnificent team has truly made things a little easier during such a strange time. It’s been truly inspiring seeing our entire community, from young to old, adjust overnight from in-person activities to an all-virtual world.

The world has been through a lot in the past year, enough to make us all learn a thing or two. I can speak for myself when I say that I hope we only grow and learn from it and become better versions of ourselves. This has been an experience neither one of us will ever forget.

I look forward to better times, when we all go back to some kind of normal, visit and hug our families, our kids go back to school in-person full time, and we all go back to Beth El and enjoy some time talking to each other and sharing our experiences in-person.