When I moved to San Francisco this summer, I had to rebuild my life from scratch: I brought only two suitcases with me from home, and I didn’t have any friends in the area. Putting together my apartment seemed like the more manageable (if not the more urgent) project of the two, so I browsed Facebook marketplace for furniture. When I found a rug I liked, the owner kindly offered to drop it off because (of course) I didn’t have a car to come pick it up. I shared my phone number so she could text me upon her arrival. Oh, 617, she said, noticing the area code. Are you from Boston?

It turned out that she had grown up in Wellesley and, most importantly, at TBE! Natasha was one of the first b’mitzvah in our new building!

I don’t think the term b’shert is typically used to refer to a rug, but I have to think our friendship was meant to be. Natasha has become my first friend in San Francisco, and I can credit her not just for decorating my apartment, but for making it feel like home. I was so happy to have someone to exchange greetings with on Rosh Hashanah, as she and I both watched TBE services remotely, while her family in Wellesley attended in person. On Yom Kippur, we broke the fast together, and this photo of us is in front of the chanukiyah in Union Square!

I miss walking through the doors at TBE—for years, every time I’ve walked in, I’ve remarked that it feels like all my friends are here—but I’m feeling very lucky to have a piece of the TBE community out here in San Francisco.