Judy and I were counselors in Edah Gimel where Shacharit services took place in a circle. Our eyes met one day, and one thing led to another. She wore big sunglasses, but I guess I could see through them to the person behind. As it happened (and I am not terribly proud of this fact) I had arranged for my then girlfriend to come and work at camp, but on July 8 after spending an entire night sitting (that was all) by the lake and talking, I decided that my future was with Judy.

Judy was an undergrad at Buffalo and I was Columbia and JTS Rabbinical School bound. Judy was in the first graduating class of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. I went to an afternoon Hebrew School at Temple Adath Yeshurun in Syracuse. I grew up in a non-observant home, she in a very observant one. Only in the wonderful Jewish atmosphere of Ramah could our relationship have flourished.

Even after 36 plus years of love, I still believe it was bashert, as this poem Judy gave me shortly after we fell in love suggests:

Choice by Barbara Jones
He wondered just which girl he’d choose of all the many girls he knew;
which girl he’d pick at choosing time, say, maybe, in a year or two.
And while he wondered on this thing, this vital choice, he strolled
about – with Judy of the quiet eyes, with Judy, who had picked him out.