Voices of WRJ: Noach
Having grown up in Atlanta, I found that Shabbat services in Fort Smith, AR, in the early 2000s were a completely different experience than anything I’d previously known. United Hebrew Congregation (UHC), once home to more than 100 families when my husband was growing up there, had dwindled to a small fraction of that. Services were held in the library/study because the group would have been lost in the sanctuary. Barely a minyan attended; services were led by one of the congregants and music was provided using recordings on a boom box. But the joy of Shabbat and spirit of community were strong, with the Oneg Shabbat doubling as a pot luck dinner and providing an opportunity for everyone to catch up and share the latest in their lives. There was no longer an active sisterhood, although it was remembered fondly as having been a vital arm of the congregation… and my mother-in-law, Isabel Marks, z”l, continued to use the WRJ Art Calendar as her primary means of organization and connection to WRJ long after the sisterhood had disbanded.