Studying Mishnah with some high school kids the other night, we segued all over the conceptual map as one often does with that age group. One encounters moments of utter seriousness and sincerity with total goofiness and distraction. No longer child yet not quite adult, they hover in a state of in-between-ness, proving […]
Last year at the this time, Arthur Hertzberg was still alive and for the second year in a row he had said to me (as I’m sure he had said to everyone he spoke to), “At my age, I want to put a tallis over my head and have a conversation with the Ribono Shel […]
And now for some really uplifting news, Yediot reports that, according to Lebanese offiials, among the 20,000 rockets that Sheikh Nasrallah boasted about during Friday’s rally in Beirut, several are being transferred to Palestinian bunkers on the Lebanese border.
This is just pure madness.
And yet, from the other side, there is the endless of frustration of […]
Today I really wanted to lay out an agenda for the congregation to wrestle with. Structurally, I wanted it to rest on the classic pillars of Jewish life: Torah, Avodah, Gemilut Hasadim.
I played on the paradigms of Isaac as a burned out Hebrew School refuge who never spoke to his father again after […]
Pardon my absence.
I’m working my arse off.
And my previous life of leisure as a community organizer and change agent afforded me that precious contemplative time each morning or evening at the laptop to reflect on this work of building Jewish community.
A word to the wise: the work is the work. George Mosse’s words […]
Saving Darfur: Who Is Responsible for Completing the Task?
September 18th, 2006
Yesterday, in our community teach-in at CBE, we prepared for the Save Darfur Now rally by studying our responsibility to save others. Afterwards, someone approached me and shared with me the first lesson she was taught in law school: “On day-one, we were lectured […]
Walking home late last night after my first Board Meeting at CBE, I saw the twin beams of light, rising up from Lower Manhattan and piercing the low clouds that hung in the sky. The cool, early Fall air was much clearer than the air on that same night five years ago, whose acrid […]
Today worlds collided (in a good way) and as ever, it’s good to point it out, put it under the microscope, try to figure out what it all means.
A young 13 year old became Bar Mitzvah–I suppose one would say it’s an everyday occurence in the life of a healthy congregation but there’s nothing pedestrian […]
It’s always an honor on occasion to share the work of people in our community. Jason Gitlin, a writer and board member of Brooklyn Jews, pens this op-ed in the Weekend Edition of Haaretz.
Jason articulates a vision for beginning to rethink how it is that American Jewry engages in a relationship with Israel. […]
A lot of people are joining the synagogue and they’re joining from that sought after demographic in the Jewish world. Young families, young couples, young singles.
Many of them say the same thing when they arrive, look around the space, and contemplate becoming participants in the community: the space feels good. While it’s […]