Rabbi Paskind’s Column May – June 2026

Strengthening Linda Lerman’s Legacy In Our Community

When a member of the community dies, the loss affects that person’s family as well as the entire community. Events they loved aren’t the same, their presence at morning minyan or Shabbat services is sorely missed. Their voice and their laugh and their smile… we miss it all.

This is certainly true of Linda Lerman zichra livracha, of blessed memory, whose third yahrzeit falls on June 1 this year. Linda was a dear and valued member of our community who was present in the sanctuary, at meetings, at classes, and was just coming into Jewish communal leadership as Vice Chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County when she learned she was sick.

Her husband, Rabbi Jeffery Silberman, has chosen to honor and build Linda’s legacy through a gift to our Congregation Beth El, directed toward engaging us all in the work of chesed, acts of lovingkindness, and tzedek, justice, that Linda held so dear. Our inaugural Linda Lerman Tzedek Shabbaton: Confronting Hunger Together will take place the weekend of May 29, 30, and 31 (that’s the weekend after Memorial Day–we checked!), and our entire community is invited.

Among many areas Linda was passionate about was food insecurity, and that will be our focus at this Shabbaton. We will learn throughout Shabbat with leaders in the field from MAZON: The Jewish Response to Hunger, Connecticut Foodshare, and of course from our local Schoke Jewish Family Service. And on Sunday, we will all come back for a community-wide mega-collection of non-perishable items that we will donate to Linda’s beloved (former) Norwalk Community College, which runs a vital food pantry for students and the wider community.

I can only imagine how excited Linda z”l would be if she knew what we were working on. I am so excited for our community to strengthen her legacy through this learning and doing together.

A Shabbaton is always something major to put together, and especially something we’ve never done before. Our team started with Jeffery Silberman, and Phyllis Weisberg and Sylvia Schulman representing our Social Action Committee, and it has grown to include many more members of our Beth El community. If you’d like to join the planning, please let me know.

Please mark your calendar and take this opportunity to register for the Shabbat dinner, Shabbat morning, and Sunday morning events of the inaugural Linda Lerman Tzedek Shabbaton: Confronting Hunger Together.

I look forward to learning and making a difference with you then.

Rabbi Ita Paskind