To the Editors: I have been attending Shabbat services since the end of last year when Rabbi Gadi invited me. And since I am not Jewish or looking to convert, I never would have thought that his invitation would change my life. But I love the services, and have found such a warm welcome that most Saturdays, that is where I want to be. And I never expected that the first time I saw him [...]
21 Av 5785/ August 15, 2025 Dear Chevra, In trying to get my thoughts together, many things are running through my head, not the last is our beloved synagogue. It is time for all of us to come together and move forward with faith, hope, and good will. We can start that process by coming to shul, be it in person or via ZOOM and help to make a Minyan so members can recite the [...]
As You Seek Enlightenment Through Introspection During The High Holy Days This Year, Consider Also The Wisdom Of The Zen Master It has been said — by whom is not clear — that Yom Kippur, a time of introspection and reflection, might be a shirttail relative of the ancient beliefs associated with Zen Buddhism which teaches enlightenment through meditation. So on Yom Kippur, as you follow the teachings of the ancient rabbis who ask [...]
The Book Circle will meet on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 3 p.m. in Andrew Levin Park to explore a father-son relationship as each looks differently at the battle for human rights in Palestine. In his personal memoir, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, Raja Shehadeh reveals the complexities of their relationship. It is, in essence, not only the story of the battle against various oppressors in the region, but also a [...]
The shul’s Tikkun Olam Initiative thanks the many congregants who donated to the School Supplies Drive for the children of CAST clients. We filled the red barrel three times, helping to give these students a great start to the new school year. The Common Ground garden continues to produce organic vegetables and herbs. Each weekday, crates of zucchini, beets, peppers, basil, beans, tomatoes, carrots, etc. are harvested and brought to the CAST food pantry and [...]
About 12 years ago, Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar began researching mezuzah traces — imprints left in the wood of Jewish homes before WWII. In pre-war Poland, mezuzahs were placed in a groove in the wood and covered with a metal plate. Czernek and Prugar capture the indentations with silicone, which they then use to create plaster molds. At their Mi Polin Judaica studio, they make bronze cast replicas of the original mezuzahs. On trips [...]
At the 2025 JCC Maccabi Games that took place last month at the University of Pittsburgh, 2,000 Jewish teens from around the world competed in events that included ice hockey, swimming, basketball, soccer and dance. According to the event’s organizers, the games are intended as a welcome reprieve from rising antisemitism. Founded in 1982 through the JCC Association of North America, the JCC Maccabi Games has become the largest Jewish youth sporting event in [...]
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis packed Tel Aviv on the night of August 17 — blocking several main roadways — for one of the largest rallies since the war against Hamas began. The protesters urged the government to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the hostages’ release. An estimated half a million joined the protest in Tel Aviv, and more than a million participated nationwide as rallies and strikes swept Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba [...]
Israeli actress Gal Gadot visited Hostage Square on Sunday, August 17, as tens of thousands of Israelis protested the government’s continued fighting in Gaza and demanded the release of the hostages. Gadot met with families — including former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz — to support calls for a deal to free the remaining captives. Jerusalem Post coverage
Tom Lehrer, the Harvard-trained mathematician whose wickedly iconoclastic songs made him a favorite satirist in the 1950s and ‘60s on college campuses and in all the Greenwich Villages of the country, died on August 9 at his home in Cambridge, MA. He was 97. Mr. Lehrer’s lyrics were clever, sometimes salacious, and almost always satirical. Accompanying himself on the piano, he performed in nightclubs, in concert, and on records that his admirers purchased originally by [...]
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