Before presenting the eulogy that Pini Herman, the leader of the Movable Minyan, delivered on Sunday at Joey Luutz’s funeral, at Hillside Memorial Park, here is some background:
Mr. Herman said that Mr. Lutz joined the Movable Minyan at age 9 with his family and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah with the minyan.
He stayed active, leading service portions in the “Do It Ourselves” congregation, and he led High Holy Day Torah services when he was a high school senior.
Mr. Herman said that Mr. Lutz, while known as a light-hearted person, always took his being Jewish seriously in his perspective on life.
Mr. Herman said that Joey remained a Jewish activist. The Muslim Public Affairs Council, Los Angeles office, announced that it was also mourning Joey as a valued and respected participant in NewGround, a joint Muslim-Jewish dialogue co-founded by MPAC and the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
NewGround held a candlight vigil in honor of Joey last on Monday evening at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey.
The NewGround candlelight vigil was attended by more than 50 people including Jewish and Muslim NewGround participants, Joey’s past classmates and teachers from Culver City High School where he was a student and Joey’s students from Santa Monica High School.
Movable Minyan member Marcy Sookne, who was present at the beach fire ring gathering, said, “It was amazing. There were three generations there.
“So you had a student of Joey’s telling about looking forward to going to school because of Joey Lutz’s exciting English class, then Joey’s Culver High School teacher was recounting how he was excited and looked forward to going to teach because Joey was in the class, while his classmates recounted how they looked forward to sharing and experiencing things with Joey at school and in the community.”
Ms. Sookne said that the themes of Joey Lutz being inspirational, living in the moment and how he made everyone laugh came up repeatedly.
Because of the costs of the search for Joey and returning the body to Los Angeles, the family has requested that donations be made to “In Memory of Joey Lutz,” WaMu Bank account 0494-0000054121-5 at 10970 Jefferson Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230.
In addition to the Muslim Public Affairs Council memorial, a Facebook memorial page was opened by Mr. Lutz’s students.
Here is a characterization of the congregation, the Movable Minyan, provided by Mr. Herman:
“The Movable Minyan, is an independent congregation, a small Jewish community that remains personal enough to welcome and value each person who comes to pray with us. All of our services are led by us, the members. Who are we? We are a community of every age, women and men, singles and married couples, some with children. We are Jews who like to sing, pray, have a good lunch, tell a good story, catch up on news; Jews from all Jewish backgrounds and sometimes from no background at all who come together to create a participatory, musical setting where you can grow and be joyous in Jewish prayer and learning. A minyan is Jewish prayer quorum of ten.
Here is Mr. Herman’s eulogy:
“The Midrash (an interpretation of the Torah) says that when the Almighy was looking for a people who would accept the Torah, many nations were approached with the plan.
“This one said maybe. Another one said under this or that certain condition. And when the children of Israel were approached, the Almighty encountered an enthusiasm that was characteristic of Joey Lutz, as the Israelites said, ‘Naaseh v' Nishmah,’ (we will do and we will hear) — that is, you can tell us about the details afterwards.
“How is it that this little lay-led Movable Minyan congregation mounted its own version of a search and rescue and then global negotiations to honor and get Joey’s body back for a timely funeral in the Jewish tradition?
“It’s part of the Movable Minyan’s do-it-yourself tradition that Stuart, Joey’s father, amply demonstrated in his four years as the Minyan’s president, and now when he and Mickey, Joey’s younger brother, jumped on a plane to Central America just hours after being notified through a Facebook message to Mickey by a survivor caught in the same rip-tides that Joey was involved in an emergency situation.
“In all those desperate hours until Stuart and Mickey landed at LAX with Joey’s remains, there was the pull and conflict of whether we rely on the authorities, hoping that things will get done from the top down, or the do-it-yourself actions of doing the best we could, for Joey who we’ve known and enjoyed since he was 9 years old.
“When you are a community, there are producers and consumers.
“I like to think that Joey absorbed, and we as the Movable Minyan absorbed from him, his dad, Stuart, his Mom, Freda, and his younger sister, Shira, and brother, Mickey, the producer ethic that is so evident in the life of Joey and his family.
“During one of the High Holy Days when Joey was a student in high school, his dad led part of the service, his mom led and sang another part of the High Holiday liturgy, and Joey led still another part of the same service, stepping up into what was usually an adult role.
“The consumer role that is tradition of the typical temple congregant was not the way Joey was raised and lived out his tragically short life.
“As a Santa Monica High School English teacher Joey dangled and automatic A to any student who could produced a piece that got published in the L.A. Times. Even the description of Joey’s classroom, with a couch and posters, is reminiscent of the informal spaces that the Movable Minyan often meets and holds services in. Joey created Naase v’ Nishmah (let’s do and then we’ll discuss) places in other people’s lives, at his high school where he taught, at NewGround where just got together with Muslims and other Jews with no pre-conditions other than to be there and share, and with his close friends whom he would convince first to do and then enjoy and discuss the accomplishment.
“When we bury Joey, let’s take the shovels that you will find there and let us do Joey the honor of filling up his grave to ground level. Let’s do it ourselves and let the mortuary backhoe tractor sit idle in its infinitesimally reduced carbon footprint as our last physical homage to Joey's enthusiasm, do-it-yourself attitude and love of nature.”
