Community Bulletin Board
Random Reads
The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück, Lynne Olson
The true story of how an intrepid band of Frenchwomen resisted the Nazis in Hitler’s all-female concentration camp. They risked death for any infraction, but that did not stop them from defying the SS at every turn.
A Fool’s Kabbalah, Steve Stern
In the ruins of postwar Europe, the world’s leading expert on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism goes on a hair-raising journey to recover sacred books stolen by the Nazis or hidden by the Jews themselves in secret places throughout the ravaged continent.
Sons and Daughters, Chaim Grade
This novel provides a glimpse of a way of life that is no longer — the rich Yiddish culture of Poland and Lithuania that the Holocaust would eradicate — by one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent writers of Yiddish fiction. It illuminates the clash between the secular world and the life bound by religious duty.
CTI Election Process 2026
The election of officers and members at large for the year beginning July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 will be held in June. Click here to view the document outlining the election process.
Letter from Veronica Kaliski
To the editors: I thought our members would like to know about a program at the Floyd Memorial Library, sponsored by the Friends of the Library and Dolly Parton. The program, titled the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, sends free, age-appropriate books to Greenport, East Marion, and Orient kids, who are 5 years old and younger.
If any of our members know of youngsters who would benefit from this program, please encourage parents to complete an application, available at the library, or on the Dolly Parton Imagination Library website.
Thank you. —Veronica Kaliski
A Letter To The Congregation From CAST
Thank you for supporting our Toy Drive. Your generosity brings so much joy and peace to families in our community this Christmas. Because of you, children will have beautiful gifts to unwrap this holiday season. We are so grateful.
Letter to GEM
The following letter to the editors was sent to the members of
GEM (Greenport Ecumenical Ministries), and is reprinted here, with permission:
Dear GEMs,
On behalf of Congregation Tifereth Israel and myself, I extend our heartfelt condolences to our Catholic brothers and sisters on the passing of His Holiness, Pope Francis. His papacy has accompanied me through most of my rabbinic journey, and when I think of the role of the pope through a rabbinic lens, I think of Pope Francis. He embodied for me the vital and often challenging dialogue between tradition and progress, between conservatism and liberalism — a tension felt across the globe and within all faiths.
In these “interesting times” we live in, being a spiritual leader is no easy task; to lead the global Catholic Church with humility and compassion is a profound responsibility, and one that Pope Francis bore with dignity. I was privileged to attend a 2016 Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican through Project Genesis, seated just three rows from the tabernacle. Though I did not understand a word he said in the two-and-a-half-hour liturgy, the experience was beyond language. Surrounded by a sea of faithful, I felt as if I were witnessing a moment as close as possible to ancient times in Jerusalem, when the High Priest presided over offerings in the Holy Temple.
Sitting with my yarmulke among a million Catholics, I was deeply aware of how remarkable this moment was — an encounter that would have been unthinkable just a half-century ago.
My interfaith work with Don and Fr. Roy, as well as our growing friendship with the GEM community, continues to affirm the bridges we’ve built and the hope we share. Pope Francis, with his spirit of inclusion and emphasis on shared humanity, continued making such moments possible.
May his memory be a blessing, and may he rest in peace.
Gadi
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