Temple Sinai will honor Rena Citron for 21 years of service as the Newington synagogue’s director of education on Sunday, May 14 at 7 p.m.. The celebratory evening, which will be held at the shul, will also feature comedian Rabbi Bob Alper.
“It’s a thankless job in so many ways, so I’m happy that we have an opportunity to thank her after so many years of amazing service to our congregation,” says Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett.

Rena Citron

Citron, who lives in West Hartford, spent the summer after college sophomore year in Israel and went back after graduating in December 1974. She lived and worked for four years on Kibbutz Gesher in the Jordan Valley, first as a volunteer in the Sherut La’Am (national service) work-study program. While there, she met her future husband, Michael, who had left New York in 1967 to serve in the Israeli military during the Six Day War.
The couple was married in 1975 by Rena’s childhood rabbi, Philip Lazowski, at Congregation Beth Shalom in Hartford. They returned to the kibbutz, where their first daughter was born a year later.
The Citrons came back to West Hartford in 1978 to be closer to family. Over the next 12 years, Rena worked as a Hebrew-school teacher at Temple Beth Ahm in Windsor and The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford, and had two more children. She was hired as co-director of the Temple Sinai religious school in 1990, and a year later was its sole director.
She also developed a second career, working at the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center (now known as the Mandell JCC) from 1989 to 1999 as program assistant with senior adults. During that time, she earned her Masters degree in gerontology and human development, and has worked as a full-time care manager at Connecticut Community Care since 1999.
“Both jobs complement each other,” Citron says. “I bring Jewish ethics into my practice working with the adults, and use the wisdom of the seniors in my job at the temple.” Citron says that her dual training helps her address challenges experienced by members of the “sandwich generation” in both her professions, those adults caring for both their children and elderly parents.
Citron also teaches the confirmation class, and helps design adult and family education programs, along with the synagogue’s education committee. Temple Sinai has many interfaith families among its members, Citron says, and a number of the younger parents ask to learn how to create and conduct a Jewish home. “I’m always so thrilled that they’ve chosen to come to our temple and give their kids a Jewish education,” she says.
Family and parent education programs strive to make Judaism relevant in a busy schedule, and to involve the adults and families in the shul beyond dropping off students at the religious school. Formal education is coupled with informal interactive presentations like the Anti-Defamation League’s “Confronting Anti-Semitism” program and HartBeat Ensemble educational theater projects. The religious school also designs a monthly Friday-night family service with student participation.
“My philosophy is that if you set a comfortable tone and create a welcoming place, it sets the stage for learning and the kids and families will come and learn,” Citron says.
“Rena is is such a gem, such an asset to our congregation. She really has a love for Judaism, for the temple, for  education and learning, and for the children. She’s wonderful with the kids and the parents, and is a compassionate person who really understands people. She is tremendously supportive of the teachers, and always finds us the best educators. We see eye-to-eye on Jewish values and the importance of Judaism in the lives of our kids. Rena has made religious school something positive, which wasn’t always the case in the past. She understands kids’ needs, and offers a hands-on approach to education that presents Judaism and religious school as different from public school. It’s more than facts; it’s living a life and living Judaism. Rena made that happen, through developing family education, involving parents, and connecting the religious school to the general temple community.”
The school has become an intergenerational place in other ways, Citron says, where current teachers are former Temple Sinai students, post-Confirmation teens now volunteer as teachers’ assistants, and at least one kindergartener is the child of a former student. Every year, Temple Sinai graduates who go off to college pick up teaching jobs at area Hebrew schools.
Citron walks the walk at home as well, says her daughter, Elizabeth, 27. “My mom is always the person in our extended family who keeps the traditions,”  she says. “She hosts Passover every year, celebrates all the holidays, and we always see that and can count on her to keep them going. You don’t always see people carrying on their traditions the way their parents and grandparents did, but I take a lot from her in terms of carrying on the traditions. I learn more and more every year and when I’m a mom and a grandmother, I hope I can do what she does.”
Citron sees her work and family life as just a small contribution to Jewish continuity. “Some people make big ripples in the world,” she says. “But I’m making little ripples. That’s good too.”
For more information on the evening honoring Rena Citron and featuring comedian Rabbi Bob Alper call (860) 561-1055 or visit www.ct015.urj.net