I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and give you my hopes for the next two years. Probably the first thing that you should know is that I am a Jew by Choice. I have been told that I am the first Jew by Choice that has had the honor to be Continue Reading »
Not ever-dying. Ever-evolving, ever-adapting, and ever-reforming In 1948, the Jewish thinker Simon Rawidowicz wrote a paper entitled: “Israel, the Ever-dying People”.[1] In the aftermath of the Holocaust, one might have thought that he was talking about the fact that we as a community have faced challenges from the outside who have sought to destroy kill Continue Reading »
By Janet Polansky Chestnut Hill, MA My grandfather’s story as i know it comes from bits and pieces that my mother told me over the years. I was close to my grandfather but only experienced him as an old man, he was our Zayde. He died at the age of 76 when I was six Continue Reading »
Board of Trustees Meeting Drash: Sh’mini By Sasha Tulgan, Early Learning Center Trustee This week we read Sh’mini (the Eighth Day). To briefly summarize this portion, Aaron and his sons follow Moses’s instructions and offer sacrifices so G-d will forgive the people. Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, offer “alien fire” to G-d and Continue Reading »
Board of Trustees Meeting Drash- February 2022 Beth Cohen, Trustee for New Membership This week’s Torah Portion, P’kudei, concludes the book of Exodus. The last two chapters are a summary of the instructions regarding the details of building the tabernacle, which was the portable sanctuary that the Israelites carried with them through the Wilderness. At Continue Reading »
I wanted nothing more in the world than to be a mother. Our daughter Liat Odeleya’s name means “Thank God You Are Mine” in a riff on the Hebrew. Jeff and I bless the heavens that she and her older brother Gavi are ours. Their births healed the Gavi-and-Liat shaped holes in our hearts that Continue Reading »
People will often say that we Jews have a blessing or a prayer for every occasion – and they’d be right. Whatever happens there is a blessing to be said, praising and thanking God. When a person survives a near death experience, they recite Birkat Gomel. God is thanked for rewarding the undeserving with goodness, Continue Reading »