By Betzy Lynch in La Jolla, California
Friday marked the last day of the 2025–26 school year at Nierman Preschool. Alongside the bounce houses, dancing, music, food, and celebration was a beautiful ceremony honoring our oldest students as they prepared to move on to kindergarten.
What stayed with me long after the ceremony ended was the image of those promoting students gathered beneath a tallit, lovingly held aloft by their teachers, as Kaddish D’Rabbanan was recited over them. Around them stood parents and grandparents, siblings and friends, teachers and staff, all encircling these children with love, pride, and blessing.
It was a beautiful moment, and as I walked away, I realized it was something much more.
The prayer, masterfully sung by Jennifer Meltzer, asks for blessings upon the teachers, upon their students, and upon the students of their students. It reminds us that learning is not simply the transfer of knowledge. It is a relationship, a chain of connection, a sacred partnership between generations.
As I watched our children standing beneath that tallit, I found myself wiping away a few tears and thinking about all they have learned here and all they have taught us in return.
Our teachers have taught them letters and numbers, songs and stories, Jewish holidays and traditions. They have taught them how to be kind friends, curious learners, and caring members of a community. Yet these children have also taught us. They have reminded us to see the world with wonder, to ask questions without fear, and to find joy in the simplest moments.
None of this would be possible without the extraordinary Nierman Preschool faculty. Every day they create classrooms filled with warmth, learning, and belonging. The tallit held over our students was a powerful symbol, but in many ways it reflected what our teachers have been doing all along, creating a canopy of care beneath which children can grow, thrive, and discover who they are.
Fran Forman, Sr. Director of Early Childhood Education and I often reflect on how deeply grateful we are to the parents and grandparents who have entrusted us with what matters most to them. That trust is a sacred responsibility, and it is an honor to partner with families during these precious early years.
What makes this moment especially meaningful is that our promoting students come from many backgrounds. Some are Jewish. Some are of other faiths or no faith. Yet every one of them has spent these formative years immersed in a community shaped by Jewish values, Jewish wisdom, and Jewish life. They have celebrated Shabbat, connected with Israel, learned tzedakah, gratitude, and experienced the power of belonging.
As they move on to kindergarten, many will enter secular schools and encounter classmates from many different backgrounds. Wherever they go, they will carry a piece of this community with them.
Our Jewish students will carry their heritage forward with pride we fostered at the J and at home. Our students of other faiths will carry with them a lived understanding of Jewish life and Jewish people. All of them will carry lessons about kindness, responsibility, friendship, and respect. In a world that too often struggles with misunderstanding and division, they leave knowing that strong communities are built by the space we make for every soul.
In that sense, they leave not only as students, but as ambassadors. Through the friendships they build and the values they embody, they will help bring what they learned here into the wider world.
As the ceremony concluded, I found myself offering my own silent prayer: that our promoting families remember that Friday was not a graduation from our community, but a transition within it.
Our hope is that this is not the end of their journey with the JCC, but the beginning of a new chapter. We look forward to seeing these children and their families continue to grow through ATID, sports and swim lessons, summer camp, family programs, holiday celebrations, and the many experiences that help create a lifelong sense of belonging.
Because what we are building together is larger than a preschool. We are building a Jewish community that welcomes every kind of person. We are creating relationships that accompany families through childhood, adolescence, and beyond. We are helping children discover not only what they can learn, but where they belong.
As our students stepped out from beneath the tallit on Friday, they crossed an important threshold. But they did not leave the circle behind. They remain part of this community, and this community remains part of them.
May they continue to learn with curiosity and courage. May they continue to teach through kindness and friendship. And may they always know that beneath them, around them, and behind them stands a community cheering them on, grateful for who they are, and excited for all they will become.
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Betzy Lynch is CEO of the Lawrence Family JCC.