When we moved into our house, my wife started picking through my box of Talmud Torah documents. On my “About Me” profile from the first day of kindergarten was written “When I grow up I want to be a… teacher.” After kindergarten, I went on to write Jewish songs, make Jewish board games- all
the classic Jewish TT experiences, including going to Israel with my classmates at the end of grade 9. That Israel experience left me wanting more, and thirty years after that day in kindergarten, I am in my 13th year teaching at TT.

Earlier this year, the kindergarten assistant who wrote that down for me was teaching in the classroom next to mine. I take pride in this community offering Jewish experiences from Cradle to Grave and I
teach my students about them. I’m also lucky to have had many of these experiences and to continue sharing them with my family and Jewish network.

For example, my two-year-old son enjoys PJ Library books and programs, and he is named after my Dad’s best friend, whom he met in BBYO. He’s also named after my grandmother, who volunteered with my grandfather at the JCC in the ’80s when he was the director there. Noam is currently distracting me by showing off a craft he made with his teacher at Talmud Torah’s Early Learning Centre, whose three children were my students over the last seven years. No less than six of Noam’s classmates’ parents were in TT or BBYO with me. I have taken up residence in Toronto and Tel Aviv along the way, but my roots are deep in Edmonton’s Jewish community, giving me great cause to work every day, trying to help the next generation grow deep roots as well. So where am I now? Not far from where I was then! Just instead of seeing Shabbat Shalom on the chalkboard, I’m writing it on the Smartboard.