I am always moved during a Bar or Bat Mitzvah service during the sanctification when the Cantor and the congregation sing L'dor v'dor halleluyah. The child, the parents, and often a grandparent or, God-willing, four stand together in front of the ark.  This is a moment in the life of that family that will be engraved in their memories forever.

Memory. That is a part of The Temple's L'Dor V'dor project that I believe speaks to all of us, whatever our age. The project offers us a chance to recapture the shining moments of our lives and of the lives we remember. It asks us to go beyond the exciting research of discovering birth, marriage, and death dates, of finding out on which ship an ancestor traveled to this continent, of tracing their path to your own birthplace: It asks us to discover their stories, to try to find out the why and the wherefore, to write about their humor or passions or perhaps their tragedies.

We read in our prayer book that life is a journey, a sacred pilgrimage.  Our L'dor v'dor Project offers us the opportunity to celebrate the journeys of those who came before us and to connect with their lives and the choices they made in becoming who they were. It will lead to a fuller understanding of ourselves and our contemporary lives.

Enjoy your research and journey!

B'Shalom,

Gus Kuhn