In Other News...

This last Yom Kippur, we held a full service at Midreshet Ben-Gurion, the central hub of my community, which is the larger Ramat Hanagev Regional Council. Our Hazan was orthodox, originally from the settlement of Tkoa, home to one of the most renowned peace activists in Israel, Rabbi Menachem Fruman, of blessed memory. Our Kol Nidrei was performed by a female singer from the Mitze Ramon music school, and we...Read more...

Roxanne Bailin and Sara-Jane Cohen accepted Bridge Houses's Landlord of the Year Award at Ready to Work's 2019 graduation. The award recognizes the year-old partnership between our congregation and Bridge House to end homelessness by combining existing housing stock, public and private rental subsidies, and case management to help successful Ready to Work graduates find permanent homes.

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Few of us like to think about finance. Money matters can be intimidating, depressing, and the source of conflict. As a result, many people and organizations try to avoid the whole issue. They can’t. We all evaluate options for big and small financial matters every day. If we do not think them through, we are much more likely to make poor choices, which will make us even more uncomfortable in the...Read more...

The high holidays are a time of personal and communal reckoning. These are the sins we have committed, we recite. Before the beginning of Yom Kippur, even before Kol Nidrei, the prayer leader or shaliach tzibbur recites “with the consent of God … we allow ourselves to pray with transgressors.” We are in this together.

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We send kids to summer camp to have fun, make Jewish friends, embark on new experiences and to develop a sense of independence. In Moshavah, our chanichim (campers) choose to go on overnight wilderness trips – hiking, canoeing, biking, or rock climbing. During their travels, they covered miles on the water and on the trail. We witnessed them pushing themselves with a good sense of humor and constant support of one...Read more...

It had been four months after I had made Aliyah to Israel when I first met the informal leader of SpaceIL,  Yonatan Weintraub, at the Ilan Ramon Space Conference in Herzliya in January 2011. A mutual friend introduced me to Yonatan, as he felt that after my 30-year career in various leadership positions in the U.S. space program, I could help SpaceIL win the Google Lunar X Prize. At that time, more than 10 teams had formed to...Read more...

Katherine Schwartz has been educating our students and adults, alike, for the past 21 years. She has brought creativity, inspiration, and vitality to our school, youth programs and adult learners. For more than two decades, she has provided meaningful leadership, served as our director when needed, been a mentor to colleagues around the country and so much more.
 
This year is Katherine’s 25th year...Read more...

I had this devious plan, that by waiting until 52 to become Bar Mitzvah, I could get away with a small, quiet, low-key service, and spare myself the pressure and anxiety we put the kids through. But my plan didn’t work. And maybe that’s a good thing. Because now I get to experience exactly what the kids do, when they’re asked to share something deeply meaningful, but not yet fully understood, with an overwhelming number of people. And...Read more...

...Congregation Har HaShem, a Reform synagogue in Colorado, has a long history of providing temporary shelter to the homeless in its community. Like Christ Church, Har HaShem also has two houses on its property, but its partnership includes not only a non-profit agency but also a commercial property manager, with the intent to demonstrate a viable affordable housing model to for-profit landlords in Boulder.

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Kol Sasson joins Rabbi Greene and Holli Berman on the bima to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day, singing Olam Chesed Yibaneh, We Will Build This World From Love.

My phone rang one spring afternoon during the first year I served as the rabbi in Dothan, AL. You will have to imagine the Southern accent that greeted me when I answered.

“Rabbah, this is Leon. I’m going to Montgomery to get some Passover food Barbra and I need. I thought I would pick up the supplies for the seder for the congregation. Do you want to come with me?”

That...Read more...