WHO INFLUENCED YOU?

 I have been thinking....I do not believe in resurrection and hold that once I am gone, I am gone forever. So, why not acknowledge those who have influenced you and made you who you are? Tell them while you are around.They will then know that their lives mattered.

So, I will start:

Three people had tremendous influence on me:

1. 1. My High School French teacher. I those days, I was bothered by the fact that I was not getting taller, and told my teacher. She said something that stayed with me all my life: Height is measured from the shoulders up!!! Haha, I said, I will never be tall, but I can develop my mind. And that is what I tried to do.
2. Dr. Isaac Jerushalmi. He was my neighbor in Istanbul, my teacher in Turkey and my teacher in Paris. It was he who told me that I should become a Rabbi, and I did.
3. Rabbi Gittelsohn of Temple Israel in Boston, validated my theological inquiries and helped me become a proud religious naturalist. I owe him my long-awaited theological perspective with which I am at peace.

So, who influenced you? Don't wait for the eulogy. Tell him/her!!!

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

Boston, USA