If you were at the Jewish Community Center on Sunday morning January 19, chances are you stopped and watched when you walked by the Children’s Place. Inside, Keneseth Israel’s Cantor Sharon Hordes was playing her guitar and singing Jewish songs to Louisville’s newest Jewish community members at the Shalom Baby musical morning. These happy sounds filled the hallways for all to hear.
Not only were the babies entranced by the cantor’s music, but many parents connected for the first time and forged new friendships both for their babies and themselves. In fact, four baby boys were born within six weeks of each other.
The babies heard Jewish songs and popular American baby songs sung in Hebrew.
Shalom Baby is a program sponsored by the JCC for families with babies 12 months or younger. Shalom Baby provides welcome baskets for newborns and their families and schedules family events approximately every 6 weeks. If you have or know of a newborn or newly adopted baby, please contact Jennifer Tuvlin at jtuvlin@jewishlouisville.org, so these new arrivals and their families can be properly welcomed to our community.
Shannon Benovitz is chair of Louisville’s Shalom Baby program.