Oct 1st 2007, 00:00

Forty years ago a man had a dream. It was to create a center of learning and community for Jews in North Orange County. He found a beautiful location on a hill above Fullerton looking south off to the ocean. Over the years his congregation expanded. They converted the building located there and installed pre-owned, temporary classrooms above the main building to house the school until a real facility could be built. One priority after another postponed the project, and yet thousands of our children emerged from those humble, worn out rooms, some of whom became rabbis, cantors, educators, and Jewish communal leaders …. a wonderful testimony to the man and his colleagues at Temple Beth Tikvah.

But now my friends, those rooms are beyond repair, and they are an embarrassment to us. It is time to grab that dream and turn it into a legacy for our children and grandchildren. Project Legacy was born through the efforts of Lila and Stan Pesner. Project Legacy is their name for our effort to build the bricks and mortar for our dream.

It is appropriate and meaningful to name the results of our efforts for the man and his life partner who have kept the dream alive all these years. The Asa Center for Lifelong Jewish Learning is not a building, a campus or even a classroom. It is a concept, an idea, a means to help us create a legacy for the Jewish People, one small community at a time.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to talk to a Legacy committee member about the project and The Asa Center, one of us will be contacting you shortly to make an appointment. We have received some very generous commitments already, but we do need your help to make this dream a reality.

As previously announced, on January 13th we plan to honor Elaine and Haim for their years of commitment to our community and to the dream that will become our legacy. At the end of that evening we expect to be able to announce that we have in hand sufficient fund commitments to complete our project. With G-d’s help, we will.