Makes My World Bigger and Bigger

Henri GoettelJudaism has always been an important part of Henri Goettel’s life. She grew up in Baltimore’s Jewish community, attending Hebrew school and experiencing her parents’ active synagogue involvement. Her avid curiosity about all things Jewish persisted through her all-girls high school experience and into adulthood. She explains it this way: “As you get older and mature, you realize that some of the things that you were taught as a child were just the first chapter in a very big book, and there was more to learn.”

For the first decade of her marriage, Henri’s Judaism receded into the background, but when Melton opened its program in Kansas City, her enduring curiosity impelled her to join one of the very first two-year cohorts, taught by Rabbi Amy Wallk Katz. Since, she has taken every Melton class offered in Kansas City, where she resides. 

Because of Melton, Henri began re-incorporating more Jewish behaviors, traditions, food, and values into her home life. Her husband, David, supported her journey. Now, “if I’m away from the house on Friday during the day, when I come home, there’s a white tablecloth on the table and the candles are out, because of things he’s learned over the years. I credit that to the gifts Melton has given me over the decades.” With the grounding she has gained from Melton, Henri often finds herself a source of Jewish information in a religiously mixed family, workplace, and city, filling in missing pieces and correcting misperceptions.

When Melton began offering travel seminars, Henri eagerly signed up. She has studied in Israel and Europe; next on her list are Dubai and Argentina. As she sees more, “the world keeps getting bigger and bigger.” Henri deeply values the relationships she has built through Melton. Her Melton friends from both local classes and travel programs “are truly lifelong friends. We’ve known each other at a certain depth that it makes it possible to talk about all kinds of stuff.” Rabbi Amy Wallk Katz, Henri’s “first influence as a Melton teacher,” has been her “close friend for many, many years now,” and Haim Aronovitz, the Director of Melton Travel Seminars, “has grown to be far more than a teacher to me in the years that I’ve known him.”

Henri has placed Melton at the top of her donation list for years, along with the college she graduated from, because “it has had and continues to have that much of an impact on my life.” So, when she thought about her long-term plans, Melton was an obvious choice. “I see it as a way of saying thank you for everything I’ve gotten and know that I will continue to get. I don’t know of another source of adult Jewish learning that is as well-crafted in its breadth and keeps coming up with opportunities for people who would otherwise say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all.’”