As I write this post/article, I have just received word that Scott Yollis’ father passed away. He’s not alone: in March, other men in the congregation have lost fathers or fathers-in-law, including Mike Doner and Rabbi Lutz. It is also just after my father’s birthday; he passed away in 2004. Fathers play important roles in our lives: they pass down values, they serve as examples, they teach us how to lead. Our congregation is blessed with many active fathers, including the men of MoTAS and the fathers in our religious school.

One problem we have, however, is a generational divide between the fathers in the congregation. Although we all share the same goal — leadership in our family and leadership for the congregation — we feel we have little in common. The older dads form the core constituency of MoTAS. The younger dads are involved in the ECEC and activities like “Dad’s Night Out”. When we should be cross-pollinating our similar experiences, we separate and think we have little in common.

MoTAS would like to change that. First, we invite the younger dads to come to our Sunday morning meetings (timed to be during religious school), our MoTAS Seder, and our upcoming outing to see the Lancaster Jethawks — affordable, family-friendly baseball. We also want to work with the dad’s group in the ECEC — providing umbrella publicity, and working together to promote fund raisers for our groups and the congregation. If this is something you would like to help with, please contact me at president@tasnorthridge-motas.org .