They're BA-ACK
by Amy Schwartz Kimlat
Samantha Berger Goodowens
Community Beginnings
“Orlando was a much smaller town when I left,” says Samantha. “People still used the expression ‘up on the Interstate.’ If you had to get ‘up on the Interstate,’ you must be going far. The Jewish community was a lot closer, and all of the synagogues were on Lee Road. Temple Israel, Ohev Shalom, and Congregation of Liberal Judaism [now CRJ] were within walking distance, and on the High Holidays people used to walk between them.”
Samantha fondly recalls her summer camp days at the JCC in the 1970s and 80s, including what she described as the “bee-infested plane” on the property, the Maccabiad (also known as color war), and screaming boker tov (good morning) so loud that Marvin [Friedman] could hear it in his office.
Ready... Action!
Samantha left Orlando in 1992 to work on a feature film shooting in Miami, which thrilled her because “most of my friends in USY were from that area, and I had always wanted to move there,” she says. “My mother purchased a giant jug of laundry detergent from Costco and said, ‘This should last until you come home.’ I remember thinking that this must be some magic soap, because I’m never coming back.”
The Winds of Change
Samantha rose high in the film business and started a family, but then Hurricane Katrina hit. The four-week loss of power and a horrifying season of hurricanes motivated Samantha to move back to Orlando, near her other family members, for good.
“Since returning to town, we had a daughter, and we have raised both children here and, as we hoped, the cousins are very close,” Samantha says. “There’s something to be said for being committed to a multi-generational story in the same hometown.”
Lander Gold
All the Activities
For Lander Gold, growing up in Orlando meant lots of activities, within and outside of the Jewish community.
“My life consisted of family, camp at the JCC, volleyball, Disney, and in my high-school days, BBYO!” Lander recalls.
Getting Active Nationally
After Lander graduated from the University of Florida in 2007, he journeyed to Washington, D.C., where he embarked on a career of national Jewish communal service.
While working for BBYO’s international office, Lander helped build a new and still-thriving fundraising mechanism for the teen organization called the Friends & Alumni Network, or FAN. He went on to reshape the fundraising operation for the AEPi Foundation, which supports Alpha Epsilon Pi, the international Jewish fraternity. Lander then revitalized fundraising for Moishe House, a nonprofit organization that establishes homes throughout the world which serve as hubs for young Jewish adults. He’ll celebrate his seventh anniversary with the organization in September.
Other highlights from Lander’s time away include earning his MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business while working full-time and attending President Obama’s second Inaugural Ball. “But above any other,” Lander says, “it was meeting Kari [Lebowitz], dating Kari, getting to move in with Kari, and ultimately, marrying the love of my life!”
A Golden Opportunity to Come Home
“When I left Orlando, I swore I would never return to Florida, but hindsight is 20/20,” Lander explains. “When it was time to start thinking of building our family, everyone I spoke to said the greatest blessing in their lives was living close to grandparents – and those who didn’t live close wish they did – and who wouldn’t want to live close to the legendary Penny and Barry Gold?”
The Golds’ 2018 move to Central Florida made perfect sense. Not only does Lander’s family live in Orlando, but Kari’s family lives in Boca Raton. Plus, both of their jobs were supportive of a remote working arrangement.
“Orlando, while being a rapidly growing community, still has the culture of a small town,” says Lander. “There are countless games of ‘Jewish Geography’ that usually end after one or two connections. Getting to bring [our daughter] Henley to preschool at the JCC, where I spent almost every day of my childhood, is so much fun, too.”
Jacqui Drazen McGrail
Community as a Family Value
Growing up, Jacqui’s family was very involved in the Jewish community. She attended the Hebrew Day School (now JAO) through sixth grade, became a bat mitzvah alongside her sister at Congregation Ohev Shalom in 2003, was active as a high schooler in both USY and BBYO, and attended a Jewish sleepaway camp.
“My parents exemplified the Jewish values of tikkun olam and tzedakah by donating to and volunteering with various Jewish organizations,” says Jacqui. “This really modeled how I wanted to give back to the community. Now, both my sister and I work as Jewish professionals.”
Finding Purpose at the Federation
After graduating from Florida State University and working for several years in the hospitality and events industry, Jacqui and her husband James moved to Savannah, Georgia, where she worked as the community programming director at the Savannah Jewish Federation & Jewish Educational Alliance.
“While I have always been proud to be Jewish,” says Jacqui, “my work at the Savannah Jewish Federation reiterated to me just how much I value my Judaism and how passionate I am to work and give back to the Jewish community,”
Bringing Her Skills Home
Today, the McGrails live in Clermont, midway between her job as development manager at Central Florida Hillel and his job as a jeweler in the Villages.
“Moving to Orlando to live closer to family and work in the very same Jewish community that gave me so much while growing up just made sense,” Jacqui says. “My husband is very supportive, and together we want our children to grow up and attend the same JCC and synagogue as I did.”
Jacqui feels grateful for the opportunity to work for Hillel within Orlando’s Jewish community.
“I get to see young adults explore their Judaism for the first time on their own with their peer community,” says Jacqui. “I also get the opportunity to develop relationships with community members and build on existing relationships with individuals I have known since I was young.”
Seth Hyman
The JCC as a Second Home
For Seth, his childhood was centered at the JCC. He was in one of the JCC’s early nursery-school classes (as it was then called) when it was in a small house on the current Maitland campus. He attended summer camp there every year, and Seth’s mother, Bette, was a teacher and administrator for the school in the late 1980s.
Pursuing Justice
After attending Emory University in Atlanta, Seth went on to live in Boston, San Francisco (where he attended law school), and Brooklyn. After 20 years living outside of Florida, Seth returned to help make his community safer as an assistant state attorney for Orange County. Now through his own law firm, Seth is focused on helping “people who have been wrongly accused of crimes – and there are many.”
Community Calls
A running thread in Seth’s life is his passion for community. While he was living in San Francisco, Seth was part of an egalitarian non-denominational group called the Mission Minyan, which began as a group of friends getting together in an apartment for lay-led Friday night services and a meal. This eventually grew into hundreds of people and a twice-a-month Shabbat meal-matching program. When Seth lived in Brooklyn, he was involved in the beginnings of what would become Lab/Shul, also a creative take on Jewish worship based on traditional practice.
Today, Seth brings this same passion to Orlando’s Jewish community, where he has been involved with the Jewish Community Relations Council and serves on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando.
Seth believes that individual responsibility and creativity are keys to the ongoing success of Orlando’s Jewish community.
“How do we keep the closeness that many people want in a Jewish community while we’re spread so far apart and in this world of social distancing?” Seth asks. “It’s an effort that every Jewish person in Orlando needs to make. Keeping this community strong takes effort. Here in Orlando, we have creative people who are looking for ways to be connected to each other. There are many great organizations and people that are working to make that happen. But for our Jewish community to thrive, it takes participation by each and every one of us.”
Lori Kirchgassner Bloom
Rooted in Education
Growing up in Orlando, Lori was active in both the NFTY (GORFTY) youth group through the Congregation of Reform Judaism and the Beit Hamidrash Hebrew High program. After attending the University of South Florida, Lori taught at CRJ’s religious school and back at Beit Hamidrash. She also worked professionally for Hillel at Rollins College.
Big City Life
Although she was immersed and enmeshed in Jewish life in Orlando, Lori was curious about living in “a big city with a strong Jewish identity,” she says. She ultimately chose to move to Chicago.
While in the Windy City, Lori taught in the Montesorri method in Chicago’s public magnet schools for more than a decade. She used her training to focus on teaching the whole child. Students learned to center themselves with yoga, care for chickens, and plan their own field trips.
Lori’s stay in Chicago also brought into her life her husband, Adam, as well as their two children, Benji and Sadie Rose. The kids were guided in their early Jewish experiences at JBaby Chicago and Anshe Emet Synagogue.
A Serendipitous Return
While the recent decision to leave Chicago was a tough one for Lori and her family, she knew Orlando was going to offer her children the quality of life she wanted for them.
“The timing could not be more perfect knowing what we know now,” says Lori, who began teaching with Florida Virtual School this fall. “We’ve made the most of our quarantine and this pandemic by spending lots of time in the pool and in our backyard, going on countless long drives, and exploring nearly every neighborhood around Orlando. We’ve also been able to watch the relationship between my children and my parents grow and flourish. That’s been beautiful to see.”