The Bat Mitzvah girl and Rabbi Lee Diamond
Lee Diamond z”l – The Jewish Soul of Jeanne
This latest piece by (Rabbi) Lee Diamond z”l is about a former student of his that went on to become successful professional sculptor.
But my dear and close friend Lee Diamond passed away last Wednesday shocking his family, friends and so many people he touched on his journey to develop, inspire and initiate educational institutions that teach Jewish education in Israel and abroad.
I have not been able to write much about my study companion, friend and brother. It is still too soon for me to unscramble all my emotions about his passing. In the meantime enjoy his wonderful words and Jeanne’s wonderful art work.
Jeanne: ” I am a former student of him and he so influenced my life that I sought him out and we had dinner on Monday night after forty years. And that inspired the poem.”
Have you ever met
A Jew Of the soul?
Not born a Jew
Nor raised a Jew
But fully aware
That somewhere,
Somehow, their inner
Soul would guide
Them to embrace
Their essence ?
40 years ago,
Jeanne Kidd
was 17 years old
Her heart guided her
To study Judaism in
Israel.
I hadThe honor
of guiding That soul
as her teacher.
She recalls the day that
She climbed from
King David’s City
And had her first glimpse
Of the Kotel In her spiritual
Life
She had come home
Physically and emotionally.
Jeanne’s Moment of
Return came
When she and her daughter
Joined Ruth the Moabitess formally Declaring to the Jewish People:
“Wither thou goest, we shall go.”
Her hands led her to create
Her soul in stone
And the work of her hands
Spoke In her spirit
She and her magnificent soul
And the work of her hands
Now stand proudly in Jerusalem in Mamila for all to see, touch and experience.
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains
For HELP
But HELP cometh
Not from mountains
But from the Lord”
(Psalms 121)
In Jeanne’s own words
Photography by Aline Frisch “Soul Photography” is the name of her business in Israel
