On Sunday, June 13, the Bruriah and JEC Mesivta class of 1971 gathered on Zoom to celebrate our 50th reunion. We came from New Jersey, New York, Canada, Colorado, Houston, San Diego and, of course, Israel.

We planned this event ourselves. Some of us had not been in touch with others since high school. The class of ’71 had 19 boys and 21 girls graduate that year. Scouring the internet and other sources enabled classmates to find contact information for their peers. Other classmates, who had gone elsewhere for high school, were also invited. We had 40 classmates in attendance. What resulted was a three-hour event sharing memories of high school antics and fondly remembering rebbeim and teachers.

Following a meaningful dvar Torah, heartfelt memories were shared of three classmates, z”l, who had passed away during these 50 years.

As a single group, stories were shared about GO Shabbos, sports teams and other events. These led to yet other stories that were suddenly remembered.

Breakout rooms were established so the Bruriah girls and the Mesivta boys could share their individual stories and memories. The excitement was almost palpable with old friendships rekindled and laughter and tears were shared freely.

During the weeks prior to the reunion, the classmates had been uploading photos of “then” and “now” into a Google portal and those were synthesized into a video montage, which was the culmination of the event.

We felt a reunion would not be complete without recognizing the institution, so we decided to Give Back as we Looked Back. As of this writing $40,000 has been raised by the class of ’71 to support student programming and events at Bruriah and the RTMA.

The common sentiment expressed was that the experiences we had at The JEC were life influencing. Though occurring 50 or more years ago, it seemed to all of us like they were magically experienced yesterday.

By The Bruriah and JEC Mesivta class of 1971