With a friend, I started a Tot Shabbat at Temple Sinai, and we hired Ellen Allard, who was here at Mount Zion recently. There were two Reform synagogues in the area, and I began to volunteer. These groups included kids from all walks of my life, but our first meeting place was at our temple, and it expanded from there. I started planning activities, and I started a friendly-visitor program, where we would take kids to visit a nursing home in Worcester. I started organizing play groups, and they became more elaborate over time. But then I began to realize that I wasn’t content to just be a mom. Toward the end of that period we had our first daughter Ariana, and shortly after that I quit my job to stay home with her. I worked in the high tech field for seven years, as a technical writer. And the jobs were there, so I was able to support myself immediately outside of college, and buy a car, and do all those things I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be an engineer, but I decided if I did technical writing and editing, that would be something that I really enjoyed, and I could still have a viable career. To do something that women don’t usually do. How did you end up going to Carnegie Mellon? My mother’s family is very small, and my dad is an only child. And I wanted to be part of this group that was larger than my small family. I just had a lot of questions, and I was tired of being the only Jew. I was the only Jew at my elementary and junior high school, and then at high school there was only one other Jew in my grade of 550 kids.ĭid something connect or trigger your interest? All of our Judaism arose within the walls of our house, and I really didn’t know any other Jewish people. So I like to say that I am from an interfaith marriage. My mom was raised as a secular Jew and my dad as an Orthodox Jew. Before that, we did all our Jewish celebrating and studying at home. When I was in the seventh grade I asked if I could please go to religious school, which led to my parents joining Temple Israel. I was raised at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, but actually I took a very circuitous route. Either that or I’m going to make it all up.Ĭan you tell me about your own Jewish education? We began after finally setting up my two recorders, though worried that neither seemed to have sufficient battery power left. This time, fortunately, it didn’t involve a call to my folks.
I have to admit, that sitting in the office of the Hebrew school principal at 5 pm on a Wednesday evening suddenly brought back vivid memories for me as well. Sue left her family and many good memories in Minnesota, and was eager to return again once the girls headed off to college and careers. Her immediate family has remained in Minnesota, including younger brother Michael, who is a poet and author, as well as her mother Barbara and her father, Professor Fred Amram, who together with his wife (and artist) Sandra Brick have been members of Mount Zion for some time.
OLLI TEMPLE PROFESSIONAL
Until recently, they had lived in or near central Massachusetts, where they raised their daughters Ariana and Zoe, and where Sue evolved from her degree – and early career – as a technical writer and editor, to an array of volunteer roles, and eventually to her current career as a professional Jewish educator. Having grown up in Richfield, MN, she graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, where she met her husband Jeff, who himself had grown up in Connecticut, and within the Reform movement. Sue joined our Leadership staff this year as Religious School Director. In addition, there are numerous informal learning opportunities for our young people in the Temple. Our religious school, adult learning program called MaZAL, and the resources of our library offer a variety of options. In both informal and formal settings, study is the cornerstone of our experience. Learn Mount Zion provides learning opportunities for both young and old alike.Throughout the years, we have interviewed members. Visitors welcome at our Shabbat Services.
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