Juggling Hanukkah and the American winter holidays always seems to me like the perfectreflection of the challenge of being Jewish in America: walking in two worlds, not totally in syncwith everything around me. This year, with Hanukkah coming on the heels of AmericanThanksgiving and still in this time of Covid reality and persistent questions about Read More
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Join Our Shmita Hive!
This Rosh haShanah 5782 marked the start of a seventh year sabbatical known as Shmitah. The tradition goes back to the covenant our ancestors made with The One as they first entered the land of Israel after wandering through the desert for 40 years. Shmitah is mentioned in the Torah multiple times. In Exodus, we Read More
At the Gates of 5782
From Erev Rosh haShanah 5782: “Whether you are a longtime member or visiting for the first time, we’re so glad you are here. My name is Jodi Kushins and I’m the current chair of this small but mighty kehilah. Our community prides itself on joyfully connecting our contemporary lives with the ancient teachings we have Read More
High Holiday Homecoming: Welcoming Spiritual Leader Alana Krivo-Kaufman
“We are at a moment of reckoning after a year in which the interconnected pandemics of COVID, of racism and state-violence and of climate catastrophe ask each of us individually and collectively — how will we meet this moment?”
Dvar Torah: Moses’ Urgent Message to the Israelites
Jacob de Wit painting from 1737, commissioned for the Amsterdam town hall. It depicts Moshe appointing the seventy judges. Our parsha today is Devarim, the first Torah portion in Deuteronomy. Moshe delivers a speech, or sermon, to the Israelites, knowing that he will die soon. When we first meet Moshe, he is a man of Read More
What does it mean to defund the police? by Debra Seltzer
What does it mean to defund the police? Paisha Thomas from Faith in Public Life opened her comments by asking us to consider the city budget as a moral document, and the fact that one-third of our city’s budget is allocated to policing. Other cities have begun the process of diverting some of those funds Read More
Passover and Liberation, Now and In Our Time by Debra Seltzer
In her recent workshop with our kehila, Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone shared these words from the poet Rumi: “Moses and Pharaoh are both within you. You need to look for these two adversaries within yourself.”. As we approach Passover, I call on all of us to wrestle deeply with what it means to have both Moses Read More
A Passover Journey with Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone
Tonight we’ll sleep beneath the full Snow Moon. True to its name, the first weeks of this lunar cycle were our snowiest this year. With hope in my heart and my mind on early spring planting at Over the Fence Urban Farm, I pray the next few weeks will be more mild. When the new Read More
Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM)
Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, m’shaneh habriyot .בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם מְשַנֶּה הַבְּרִיּוֹת February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM), and here is a prayer, which like all like all things about JDAIM, is perfect for the whole year. This is one of my very favorite Jewish prayers, and one Read More
Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month –
From the Columbus Jewish News: “Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, known as JDAIM, will be observed in Columbus this February with a pair of virtual events hosted by a group of Jewish congregations coming together to bring about better knowledge and acceptance for those with disabilities. On Feb. 7, families can come together to Read More