Keaton and Leo B’nai Mitzvah
June 21, 2025
Keaton and Leo – today is a special day in your lives. You
officially become an adult member of the Jewish community.
As part of the ceremony, I have the honor of placing this
prayer shawl, this tallit, on your shoulders. It is your great
grandpa Jack’s tallit.
Wrapping you in it is deeply personal and emotional for me,
as great grandpa Jack has always been my role model.
Our family tree now totals 37. Of these, 21 are here today.
And it would have been 24 but for Uncle Ronnie’s, Aunt
Elaine’s, and Alli’s flight cancellation, and then Alli’s coming
down with COVID.
I want you to look around the room and find the 21 Shapiro
family members that are here. Take your time. Then I want
you to visualize those that are not here. Again, take your
time.
What binds all of us as a family is my parents’ legacy. For
great grandma Ethel and great grandpa Jack family was
more than shared genes and a shared home.
It was a place of love without conditions. It was shared
history, shared burdens, and shared joys that have now been
passed down to your generation.
But family is only part of your great grandparents’ legacy that
is relevant today. They believed strongly in remembering and
honoring our Jewish roots and heritage,
Keaton and Leo – you know the essence of your great
grandparents’ story. For those of you who are non-family
members, indulge me for a couple of minutes to summarize
my parents’ legacy.
Their story is a familiar one to many, if not most of you –
immigrate to the United States from eastern Europe in the
early 1900s to escape the programs, and live what was then
the American dream. They had a clear purpose to provide a
better opportunity for their three children – Ira, Ronnie and
me.
Mom and dad married in 1933 in Newark, New Jersey. They
migrated to the Washington, DC area in 1936, at the height
of the great depression, with little more than hope and
determination.
They owned and operated a mom-and-pop grocery store.
The five of us lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment over the
store. We were the only Jewish family in the neighborhood.
The store was open 7 days a week, from 7:00 am to 9:00
pm. The only days the store was closed was on the Jewish
High Holidays, to honor our faith, to signal proudly to the
community that we were Jewish, and to make sure Ira,
Ronnie and I knew our roots.
They taught the three of us, by word and by deed, that family
comes first, that dignity belongs to everyone, and that our
Jewish roots matter.
They loved unconditionally. They treated their daughters-in-
law as equal to their sons. And they lived to enjoy what mom
labelled their investment in their children – their eight
grandchildren.
Ira captured them best in his toast to them on the occasion
of their 50 th wedding anniversary – as individuals they were
awesome, but as a couple, they were dynamite.
As I mouth these words, I feel my parents’ presence. They,
and Ira, are here in spirit. I can see the broad smiles on their
faces as they are looking down on you with admiration and
pride.
To circle back to the underlying message in wrapping you in
great grandpa Jack’s tallit. It is more than fabric. It’s a thread
that binds generations – from my father to me, from me to
your dad, and now to you.
As I wrap you in it, feel its warmth as you are surrounded by
family and friends. You are part of something enduring – a
legacy that shaped our family and continues in each of you.
So proud of you both. Love you. Mazel tov
