By Rhodondo Jeraman
On February 11th, 2020, Cohort 6 of the Nachshon Project had the honor and privilege of hearing from Avram Infeld following our Beit Midrash classes. His extensive knowledge on establishing and progressing Jewry within North America was only matched with his comedic humor. Throughout his lecture we talked about key principles that he felt were slowly tearing the Jewish community apart and his solution to the problem. As he spoke, he used the metaphor of a five-legged table as being much stronger than a three or four-legged table. Avram Infeld related this idea to the Jewish people and how by using five main points, the Jewish generations could be once more unified regardless of religious denomination or religiousness. Five main points he heavily stressed was the idea of a shared Jewish memory, family, the importance of Mt.Sinai, the land and state of Israel, and the Hebrew language. Through these ideas, if we could only manage to agree on at least three of the five, we would always have at least one thing in common. While managing to relate to the Parsha of the week in the book of Exodus, Avram Infeld also spoke about how the Jewish people have never been successful with one leader. Whether it be King David, Moshe, Aaron, or Joshua. Jewish leadership has always been most successful with a team with a clear goal and vision. Like Moses, we too need a team when trying to plan events or develop a project. Only through collaboration and cooperation between different people geared toward a specific role can the best results be expected. Crucial but necessary therefore is the need of a team that can help balance the workload and give feedback. Overall, Avram Infeld's wise words truly made a mark on me as I’m sure it did with the rest of my cohort. Truly an inspirational night of learning and growing!
