Memories of Devora by Karen Nicolayevsky

Thank you for sending out your message. I would love to share a story with you about Devora. My name is Karen Nicolayevsky and I am a teacher at Beth Yeshurun. Before I began teaching, I was just the parent of Max and Jenny who started attending Beth Yeshum Day School. During that time, I decided to take Devora's judaic class for parents on Tuesday's from 2-3pm before the kids got out of school. It was a great decision to attend because I got the opportunity to meet a wonderful woman. She taught us so much about Judaism. She was very open to discussion about herself and the way she lived her life as an orthodox Jew. We always had so many questions for her since none of us (the parents) had any idea about being orthodox.

We were discussing how people can be choose to live a good life or a bad life. We asked Devora what was the worst thing she ever did in her life. We thought she might say she got drunk or did drugs or smoked or stole, but it was none of those things.

Devora told us the worst thing she ever did was put baby powder between her mattress and box spring and then she started jumping on the bed and her whole room was filled with powder.

We were all hysterical laughing and so was Devora. When she told the story to us, it must have brought back the memory for her because she was laughing so hard she almost cried.
I will never forget that story because it showed us just how committed she was to living a beautiful, clean and happy life.
She embraced me as a parent and a teacher at Beth Yeshurun and made me feel special and at home. I thank my lucky stars that she crossed my path and I got to know her in my special way.

With all my love and hopes for comfort,

Karen Nicolayevsky