As we reflect on the past year and look to the coming year, we acknowledge this is a time for renewal and commitment to our community and to our traditions. As our New Year 5786 develops, let’s build a stronger tomorrow together. This is also a time to remember our shared responsibilities to our shul community. Your presence at services and programs and simchas helps to sustain our sacred community. Your gift now will ensure [...]
Careful readers of the Page 1 Calendar in this issue will have noticed two unusual entries under the listings for “Guest Rabbis and Shabbat Events.” Shabbat services will adhere to the expected order of prayer with appropriate spiritual teaching. But in addition... On Dec. 6, Rabbi Jaymee Alpert will lead the regular service, then invite participants to the community room to introduce NBS, Neshama Body and Soul, “a workout that combines exercise, Jewish prayer and [...]
Inspired by history and a trove of love letters, The Rabbi’s Suitcase, by Robert Kehlmann, recounts how, in the early 1880s, a battered steamship, overcrowded with Orthodox Jewish travelers makes a treacherous journey from Lithuania to Jerusalem. On board, a 12-year-old mystic named Yosef is entranced with wild-haired Chana. Their story is told against a backdrop of Ottoman rule, the privations of WWI, and British Mandate uprisings. The Book Circle meets monthly to discuss [...]
Art historian and writer Joyce Beckenstein headed the program at the shul on Sunday, Nov. 9, when an overflow crowd of about 75 artists, collectors and patrons gathered in the community room for brunch and an Art Talk with the intriguing title — “What Makes A Work Of Art Work?” With a curated slide show, moving from the classics forward, the speaker showed how we can look at a work of art, but not truly [...]
Our Synagogue Is Cited In The Acknowledgments I met Andrea Strongwater about 20 years ago in a summer writing class at Cornell University. She was wildly energetic about her many pursuits — art, history, writing, painting, and anything having to do with Cornell. I, on the other hand, was quiet writer, elevating my own family’s stories into essays, while a mere visitor to the campus courtesy of my husband, an alum. I admired her [...]
Every year around this time, a handwritten sign goes viral on social media, and appears taped to the windows of many of New York’s Chinese restaurants: “The Chinese Rest. Assoc. of the United States would like to extend our thanks to The Jewish People. We do not completely understand your dietary customs... But we are proud and grateful that your GOD insist you eat our food on Christmas.” Although it’s not prescribed in Jewish texts [...]
The Toledo Museum of Art had been searching for an object that embodied the connectivity of the pre-modern era. The cup calls attention to the largely forgotten Medieval Jewish community of eastern Khorasan, modern-day Afghanistan. The artifact is wide, flat and often mistaken for a bowl, but according to the curators, that was the shape of wine goblets at the time. This month, the Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Art Acquired a 12th Century Afghan Kiddish [...]
Ben Cohen, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder accused parent company Unilever of blocking a proposed ice conviction became a defining cream flavor promoting solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, calling it a “corporate attack on free speech” and part of what he described as widespread “butt kissing” of President Donald Trump.
Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy and son of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, is running to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler, currently serving New York’s 12th district on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Schlossberg, 32, is making Jewish security a central pillar of his campaign, pledging to introduce legislation to double federal funding for security upgrades at synagogues and other Jewish institutions. Schlossberg, raised Catholic, also identifies as Jewish and “occasionally” goes to services [...]
Melanie Shiraz represented Israel at the 2025 Miss Universe Competition held on Nov. 21 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was revealed later that her costume had been stolen shortly before the competition, and she had to quickly make a new one.
Get Social