September 11, 2026
Shanah Tovah 5787
Dear Friends,
The New Year invites us to wonder about what might be possible. For me, the Jewish New Year is not a break from what came before. It is a bridge.
A bridge connects two places. It allows us to move forward without losing our connection to where we have been. But bridges do something else. They bring us into relationships with people and places on the other side. And connection matters because it shapes and reshapes our understanding.
The great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber built much of his thinking around this idea. In I and Thou, he wrote: “All real life is meeting.”
For Buber, we come to understand ourselves through genuine encounters with others. By allowing another person to change, even slightly, how we understand the world.
That’s Rosh Hashanah.
Buber believed that we understood ourselves through our connection to others. I believe that we understand our community through the stories and experiences we share.
Tradition teaches us that we are connected across generations. Across different ways of "doing Jewish.” In our connection to each other, there is an inheritance. And a responsibility to build something for those who will follow in our path.
Rosh Hashanah places us right in the middle of that bridge.
We look backward and ask what we have learned. We look around and ask who is standing with us. And we look forward and ask what we might build together.
I have been thinking about that as we introduce something new here in our community: J Long Beach.
It is a new look. And a new way of telling our story. For generations, we have built Jewish community in Long Beach. We created a Federation to care for one another and strengthen Jewish life. We built the Alpert Jewish Community Center as a place to gather, learn, celebrate, and belong. We established a Community Foundation to sustain our community for generations to come.
J Long Beach strengthens the connections between the many parts of Jewish life in our community. Because when we see those connections, our understanding changes.
The Alpert JCC is not simply a building. It can be the beginning of a family’s relationship with our Jewish community.
Camp Komaroff is not simply summer programming. It can be where a child begins to understand what it feels like to belong to something larger than themselves.
The Federation is not simply fundraising. It is an expression of our responsibility for one another.
And our Community Foundation is not simply about what we leave behind. It is a bridge between what we value today and the Jewish community we hope will exist tomorrow.
These things are connected, and so are we.
Perhaps that is what Buber meant when he reminded us that “all real life is meeting.”
Community is not simply about being in the same place. It is about what happens when we truly encounter one another.
Rosh Hashanah reminds us that renewal does not require leaving our history behind.
We carry it across the bridge with us. We honor those who built before us by continuing their work. And we create something worthy of those who will cross the bridge after us.
As we enter 5787, I hope you will help us continue building a bridge to Jewish life.
A gift to our Annual Community Campaign is an investment in connection. It sustains the Alpert JCC as a gathering place for Jewish life. And it helps ensure that what generations before us built will be here for generations to come.
If this community has been meaningful to you, I hope you will consider making a gift as we begin the new year.
May we enter 5787 connected to where we have been. Open to those we meet along the way. And ready to build what comes next.
Shabbat Shalom and Shanah Tovah,
Erik Ludwig, PhD
Chief Executive Officer