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36
December 20 • 201.
Emily Schwartz lights the candles at her home in Deerfield, Ill.
Emily Schwartz
Special to the Jewish News
T
his year, I've had an incred-
ible Chanukah experience
with my family even though
we live nowhere near each other. It
all started with the realization that
it's possible to have multiple people
on video chat. This sparked an idea
to get my extended family together
for the holiday.
Emily's parents, Toni and Mickey
I'm in Chicago now My parents,
Schwartz,
join in from Birmingham.
Mickey and Toni Schwartz, live in
Birmingham. My dad is a physician
at Botsford Hospital in Farmington
on the computer. It's Chanukah time!"
Hills, and Toni spends most of her
(He said this like we've been doing it
time with Hadassah. My sister, Elissa,
this way for years.)
I was still 20 minutes from home,
is about to graduate from Michigan
State University I have a step-brother
so I pulled into a gas station parking
in Cincinnati, step-sister-in-law in
lot and loaded the Google+ app. A few
moments later, I could see my family
Florida and step-sister with her beau-
tiful family in Tulsa. My cousins are
from all over the country on my phone.
spread out everywhere from New York
I sat in my car and sang along to the
to Pittsburgh to California. But, with a
blessings as I watched them light the
little time-zone coordination, we were
candles. How amazing is our technol-
all coming together for the first night of ogy that we can just stop, wherever we
are, for a few minutes of sacred family
Chanukah.
time.
We found a time that worked best
for everyone, set up all the candles and
The realization that this is possible
has revolutionized my family's sense
easily got onto a multi-household video
call. It felt like we were all in the same
of togetherness. It's hard to be so far
room! After lots of excited hellos and
apart. Talking on the phone helps, but
funny faces, we all sang the blessings
seeing faces is so much more powerful.
and songs, and then shared stories.
We love seeing each other this way, and
Sometimes it was hard to hear because
now plan to do it for every holiday that
we were all talking over each other,
we can't be physically together.
but that's no different from when we're
Emily Schwartz, 25, grew up in
actually in the same room.
Birmingham. She now serves as director of
When it was time to hang up, we all
youth engagement at Congregation B'nai
knew we had just experienced some-
Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, Ill.
thing special, and we wanted to do it
Emily attended Temple Beth El Religious
again. We set up times for the next
School, where she was the youth group
seven nights and invited even more
family members.
president. After graduating from George
Washington University, she volunteered in
On the third night, I was driving
home from dinner with a friend when
Israel on the 10-month OTZMA fellowship
through the Jewish Federation of
I got a call from my dad, who said,
Metropolitan Detroit.
"Where are you? I've been calling you
❑