By Mike Rahimi, October 2013

I was raised in an Orthodox Shul in Queens. I thought nothing of the separation of men and women, that’s how it always was. I left Synagogue at 13, when I was told I became a man and could make my own decisions. It was WRT in Scarsdale and Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Ken Chasen, Angela Warnick-Buchdahl and Cantor Stephen Merkel who brought me back. Praying in a language my kids could understand, having a woman Rabbi/Cantor, accepting of all, straight, gay, Jew and Gentile. Love of our people and religion is predicated on being open to all people. Men are no better than women, gays are no better than straight, we should all be equal, that is what Westchester Reform Temple meant then and means now even with all different clergy carrying on the tradition. The late Cantor Merkel having a voice that could place him at the Metropolitan Opera also helped.

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