Shalom Chevrei, I hope the summer is going well. I’m off to OSRUI for a couple of weeks and look forward to writing to you from camp. With the news replete with extreme ideas and zealous people, the Torah reflects the power of the human spirit to return to its best moral self—with a little help from God. Recently in parashat Balak, the Moabite King Balak aspires to bully our migrating ancestors and sends the sorcerer Bila’am to curse them. To counter, God sends an angel with a fiery sword and a talking donkey, and Bila’am comes to his senses, realizing the Balak is wrong about the Jews. Bila’am blesses them instead, seeing the better in them than the worse: Mah tovu ohalekha Ya’akov mi
Happy Monday friends, Today is my very favorite day of the year. I have a tradition of talking to my mom throughout the day, asking her "am I here yet? What was happening now?" I eventually arrived around 10:30pm on July 15, 1986. I was so premature I didn't make it to my own naming, which held at Or Torah in Skokie- a congregation that my family had no connection with. They were around the corner from where I grew up- that was enough, at the time. Many of you have heard me talk about the fact that my family was not a part of a congregation when I was growing up. My Jewish journey was wholly centered around traditions in the home, an excellent early childhood program at Mayer Kaplan JCC (of
As part of our celebration of 140 years as a congregation, we are offering first-year membership for $140. This is the first of many aspects of our celebration in what promises to be an exciting year including a large storytelling event over Sukkot, Legacy Weekend in the spring and ensuring that it’s easy for people to say YES to Emanuel Congregation. We are offering these lower dues this year for three main reasons. The first is as a celebration. There aren’t many synagogues in North America with our legacy and we think 140 years is something to celebrate with our current community and those who choose to join us this year. The second is that we want to lower barriers for anyone cons
Shalom Chevrei: I’m delighted to report to you that Cantor Friedman and I had an amazing journey to Israel. What a blessing it was to accompany over 30 people on our adventure. We celebrated three amazing B’nai Mitzvah—Emma Bornstein, Ethan Niser, and Charlotte Rose Ferraro—just a stone’s throw from the Western Wall. We enjoyed Shabbat hospitality with Kehillat ha-D’ror in Jerusalem. We bicycled in Tel Aviv and rafted on the Jordan River. We prepared food boxes for the hungry in Yaffo, and we generally found inspiration throughout our magical tour in our sacred land. We’re especially grateful to our guides Asaf Solomon and Yael Roumani for showing us the way and thankful to our tour
Greetings from the URJ’s 6 Points Creative Arts Academy! My past week has been filled with instruments playing in the hallways, Jewish classics harmonized like I’ve never heard before, and the most art-filled Shabbat I’ve ever experienced. For the past week, kids from across the country have gathered in Westchester, Pennsylvania to focus on their majors of dance, visual art, theater, culinary arts, and creative writing while being fully immersed in Judaism. To blend Judaism and the arts, the Creative Arts Academy focuses on the five values of Creativity (Yetzirah), Curiosity (Sakranut), Collaboration (Shiluv), Craftsmanship (M’lacha) and Grit (Ometz Lev). Each one plays a special role in
