Learn more about Rabbi Judy Schindler's experience concerning her participation in Friday Friends and Temple Beth El's partnership with St. Paul Baptist Church.

Rabbi Judy Schindler's Experience as a Friday Friend

Ben Sira taught that the one who finds a faithful friend finds a treasure.

Through my experience with Friday Friends, I didn't just connect to someone of a different faith, from a different background, who works in a part of the city I had visited only one time, I made a faithful friend. For the truth is, my Friday Friend, Dr. Joan Parrot, Executive Minister of University Park Baptist Church and I are far more similar than we are different. We are preachers, we are teachers, and we are women who share a passion for social justice. And now, we share even more than that, we share a deep friendship.

Without being inspired by the Friday Friends program, I would have no doubt occasionally shared a panel with Dr. Parrot and learned from her wisdom. But with Friday Friends, connecting monthly was a commitment we made to one another.

As a result of Friday Friends, I have a wise woman in my life, with whom I feel safe enough to bounce around ideas about race and religion. And I have a wise woman in my life, to help me figure out my own personal path.

As a result of Friday Friends, I've learned that it's a good idea to go up to someone completely different from myself and say, "Let's have lunch."

As a result of Friday Friends, I have made an abundance of connections with those from different backgrounds.

As a result of Friday Friends, I've eaten a little more and gained a pound or two of weight along with gaining several more pounds of perspective.

This program has inspired me not only to connect bridges from one preacher to another but from one community to another. This past Martin Luther King holiday, my Temple, Beth El, made a connection with Pastor Moss and St. Paul Baptist Church. Each year, on MLK weekend, we reach out to another African American church. They come to us for services and we, in return, visit them.

But once a year is not enough to build bridges of understanding and to build relationships. And so this year, in visiting his church I invited the members of St. Paul Baptist Church to partner with Beth El in the Friday Friends program. I shared the following:

"Senator Hillary Clinton, in approaching Martin Luther King's birthday remarked that it was a president who signed the laws enacting Civil Rights. Others were deeply offended saying that the credit should be given not to the President but the Preacher, the late Dr. King himself. But in an editorial by Leonard Pitts, I came to realize that it's not the president who signs the law, nor the preacher who inspires with his words, but it is the people who create the change on the ground who are deserving of the credit.

Charlotte sadly has racial divisions. It is not just up to the leaders of our city to respond to the deep rooted divisions, it is up to all of us.

Change happens not only through the political process and through the pews, it happens with the people.

Just as members of St. Paul Baptist who desire a Friday Friend, will be matched with members of Beth El, I hope all of you will do the same - if you haven't already."

Just last week, my new assistant Rabbi who is deeply thoughtful and reflective said, "I'd like a Friday Friend." He saw the tremendous benefits I have reaped from the program and wanted to buy in.

Having a Friday Friend doesn't take money. It doesn't take connections. It simply takes courage to take a step. To set a date. To build a relationship through which you will broaden your horizons, and lift your life.