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Terry and Rebecca met in December of 1996 at a Chanukah party put on by the Progressive Chavurah of greater Boston at Temple Beth Israel in Waltham, Massachusetts.
They were playing a party game led by Lauren Rose where several tables of participants competed against each other by coming up with and singing songs
that had a particular word. (When a group could not come up with a song, they lost. The game continued until only one group was left.)
They were doing songs that contained the words “blue” and “white”, which of course meant that the game was going on forever. Terry stood up and
sang a song in Mandarin Chinese that he learned in Taiwan that mentions a blue stream, though of course he did not expect anyone to know Chinese.
Little did he suspect that to one side sat a woman who knew some Mandarin and to the other side sat Rebecca, who spoke Cantonese.
Rebecca, while intrigued by Terry, began seeing another guy whom she met at the same party. However, they kept in touch by phone.
It was in May 1997 that they got to know each other more on a trip to a Yiddish weekend workshop in Fairfield, Connecticut, the Mame Loshn ‘97 Yiddish Festival.
Rebecca suggested to Terry that he might like to study his ancestral language, which his parents spoke but had never taught the children, using it as a kind of secret code language (an experience shared by millions
of other immigrants, no doubt).
They car-pooled to the Yiddish weekend, Terry started on the road to rediscovering his roots, Rebecca got to know Terry, and the rest is history!
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