A recent visitor in shul, looking slightly bemused, asked me, “Is Kesher an international organization?” I answered, “Yes and no.” We are a shul, but additionally we have “members” all over the world, many of whom have lived here and some who just attend a few times a year.

All of these thousands of Kesherites share something more than just having walked through the doors and davened here; they have been impacted by the idea of Kesher Israel: what it teaches, what it stands for and what it does just by being what it is. Let me explain.

I was just in Israel for several weeks and while there I met with Kesher East, the Kesher Israel alumni group in Israel which consists of about 60 people who share a WhatsApp group there. A well-known international media correspondent from the group, who went to Kesher before I came to Washington, reached out to me and wanted to arrange a gathering of Kesher East with me while I was there.

Approximately 20 of us spent a wonderful morning touring the Old City with one of the Kesherites, who is a tour guide, and then we had lunch in the German Colony. They wanted to be with each other, be with Sara and me, and hear about what is going on at Kesher. I told them about the community, new staff we have hired and new people who have come, and I brought them up to speed on the building expansion and upgrade project.

To my surprise, they hung on my every word, asked questions and were moved and excited to hear about the shul and its growth, especially about the building project. Though many of them went to Kesher decades ago, they still feel it is their own, are profoundly invested in its development and recalled how they all used to hope one day the shul could buy the house next door and expand.

One person in the group sent me a note after the gathering, saying how great it was to meet and how excited she is about the renovation and addition to the shul. She wrote, “May you be blessed to continue with ever-growing strength to bring light, Torah and goodness to the shul and to Washington and have it spread all over the world. I feel very strengthened in my connection to the synagogue through knowing you and your wife and seeing all your plans and activities.”

Why is there an alumni group in Israel of people who went to Kesher 20, 30, or 40 years ago, some of whom overlapped at Kesher but many who did not? What is the meaning of this Kesher connection phenomenon, which has similar iterations in other places Kesherites live, such as New York and the Washington suburbs? Why do these Jews all over the world feel a connection to each other and to the small shul back in Georgetown?

One well-known scholar and Kesher alum who was at the gathering commented that Kesher is a kind of oasis and touchstone. It is located downtown in the capital of the United States, a crossroads and a place people come because they want to bring themselves and their talents, their ideals and vision, to the larger world. But this kind of venture in Washington runs the risk of devolving into a self-involved, power-laden, political undertaking. Kesher, he observed, is an oasis in the midst of it all where we come to be in the face of something much larger than us, something unifying which dwarfs us all, God, Torah, prayer and Jewish community. This is one of the reasons that people all over the world call Kesher home. May we all feel honored and lucky to be a part of it.