Author: Erwin Esther Posner

This was our fourth year at the Midwest Aguda Pesach program in Aurora, OH. I posted a review after attending each year we attended the program and tried to point out new things we experienced. As usual the food this year was both delicious and plentiful and the activities within our hotel, The Bertram Inn, were varied, interesting and met needs of attendees at all age levels. And the sites available to visit in the Cleveland area are first class. As usual the planning of Rabbi Kushner and his staff was amazing in its detail. During chol hamoed we visited the famous Frank Lloyd house called Falling Water in Mill Run, PA. It was a 3 hour ride from the hotel which required buying tickets for the tour that would allow us to have breakfast before leaving the hotel, pack a box lunch to take along and return to the hotel in time for dinner. It was all worth it as Falling Water is one of the gems of architectural works in America. On the last day of chol hamoed we toured the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, OH. This was a beautiful natural world of preserved flora and was less than 30 minutes from our hotel. This year, in addition to all of those things cited above, one in our party experienced a medical emergency during chol hamoed. Rabbi Kushner directed us to a nearby urgent care center where the nurse practitioner suggested that her facility had limited ability to determine the cause of the problem. She suggested we go to a satellite emergency room of the world renowned Cleveland Clinic which was just a mile away in the nearby suburb of Twinsburg, Ohio which we did. It took most of the day to get tested and to get the results of these tests at the Cleveland Clinic. We returned to The Bertram Inn just before mincha time , erev the last days of the chag. Rabbi Kushner met us as we returned to the program and the first thing he asked was, “What do you need and how can I help?” We had some limiting restrictions and Rabbi Kushner immediately accommodated our needs. Others in the hotel who had heard of our problem were concerned and also offered help. Fortunately, in the end our problems were resolved. Our return to the hotel and to the program was like coming home. The management of the program, the staff as well as our fellow comrades from the program became our welcoming extended family. We are grateful to Hashem for the positive medical results and to Rabbi Kushner, his crew and to all of the guests in our extended family for making our Pesach experience a blessing of happiness and freedom. Erwin and Esther Posner