A Moving Testament of Faith, Unity, and Family

As our season here at Ocean Reef begins to draw to a close, and many of us prepare to return to our summer homes or set out on our travels, there is always a natural temptation to begin winding down. Yet sometimes, just when the season appears to be quieting, something deeply meaningful reminds us why this community matters so very much.

A few days ago, I asked fellow board member and dear friend Bobby Schostak to lead our service. As is often the case late in the season, attendance was modest. But what the gathering may have lacked in numbers, it more than made up for in heart. Bobby offered reflections that were personal, heartfelt, and profoundly moving. His words were not simply about family history. They were about memory, gratitude, belonging, and the sacred importance of Jewish community.

I was so touched by what he shared that I asked his permission to offer his remarks to our broader community. I do so with gratitude, because his story is not only his own. In many ways, it is the story of how Jewish life is built everywhere: through memory, through perseverance, through those who came before us, and through those willing to carry that legacy forward.

Here, in Bobby’s own words, is his story:

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When Nancy and I first came to ORC, like many of the newer Jewish members, we arrived first as guests. Over time, things evolved, and eventually you find your way to buying a condo, a house, a boat dock, or otherwise putting down roots here.

Not really knowing much about the Jewish component of Ocean Reef Club, we slowly became aware of the foundation that had been laid here by Jewish members over many years. To name only a few: Pat Eisenberg, Gert Mann, and Carol Roaman.

Like synagogues across the United States, Jewish families who immigrated to America at the turn of the last century, or after World War II, often formed houses of worship with fellow landsmen. There might be “the Hungarian shul,” the German temple, or the Sephardic synagogue, each with its own customs and traditions.

Here at Ocean Reef, our congregation is likely made up of people whose roots come not only from around the United States, but also from Eastern Europe and elsewhere. My paternal grandfather came to the United States in 1903, leaving Ukraine because of the Russian pogroms. He came with his Orthodox mother and eight brothers and sisters. His father, my great-grandfather, was an Orthodox rabbi who had a pulpit and communal responsibilities. He stayed behind, as the story was told to us generations later, “to wrap up his affairs and come later,” which he did.

My great-grandmother, with very little except what she carried on her back and in a few suitcases, came with nine children through Ellis Island and ultimately made her way to Milwaukee, for reasons no one knows for sure, before the family later ended up in Detroit, Michigan.

A bit of family trivia: while attending a small high school in Milwaukee, my grandfather appeared in a class picture alongside his girlfriend, a young woman named Golda Meyerson, who later went from Milwaukee to Palestine in 1921, became Golda Meir, and eventually served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974.

My grandfather, a true pre-1948 Zionist, went on to rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati to become a Reform rabbi. He eventually left that path, but he was one of a few families from Detroit who founded Temple Israel in Detroit. That same temple, some 85 years later, was attacked last month by a Hezbollah terrorist.

I share all of this because, as Jews, it is important that we have a place like this congregation.

Nancy and I are grateful that those who came before us laid this foundation, and that the next generation of Ocean Reef Jewish members has allowed us to be part of this congregation.

A place for friends, a place for broader community interaction, as we saw at our Seder and for Yahrzeit and Kaddish and most importantly a place for Shabbat.

We as Jews have a place here and a role to play. We need to step up, build on what was made possible by others, and make certain this community is here for the next generation.

Congregation Ocean Reef was founded as a community that any Jew here can call home.

Shabbat Shalom!
Nancy and Bobby Schostak

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Thank you, Nancy and Bobby, for sharing such a beautiful, joyful, and deeply moving reflection.

What Bobby gave us was more than a family story. He gave us a reminder. Jewish life does not simply happen on its own. It is built — lovingly, faithfully, and sometimes stubbornly — by those who show up, who care, who remember, and who understand that community is one of G-d’s great blessings.

At Ocean Reef, we are the beneficiaries of that devotion. Others came before us and laid the foundation. Now it falls to us, with gratitude and with joy, to strengthen it for those who will come after us. That is how a congregation endures. That is how faith becomes community, and community becomes family.

And perhaps that is one of the quiet miracles of this place. What may begin as a visit, a winter stay, or a seasonal retreat, somehow becomes home. Not by accident, but through shared prayer, shared memory, shared responsibility, and the simple grace of being together.

May we never take that for granted.

Please share your family stories so we can share your experiences here as family and community

Shabbat Shalom,
Dr Michael L Weiss Ph.D., HCCP
President, Congregation Ocean Reef