Once a month Congregation B’nai Israel participates in Sunday Supper, an interfaith effort with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church to provide a free meal to anyone who wants one. Our guests are served a full meal and also take home groceries thanks to our volunteers and extended community. This program started in July 2010 and is an interfaith…
Torah and Tidbits Torah: This Shabbat the Torah reading is Ahrei Mot, which we also read on Yom Kippur. Among the topics are the multiple sin offerings that culminated in sending the scapegoat bearing the people’s sins to die in the desert. In our tradition, Yom Kippur is a moment to reassess our past and…
Dear Friends, Our Pesech seders are a celebration of our collective identity. The following are some resources to help you prepare and to enrich your gathering of family and friends. 1.The Order of the Haggadah, a Program. When we read through the Haggadah its structure is unclear, which is ironic since the word “seder” means…
We are down to the final months of our significant transition of passing the torch from our treasured Preschool Director Lisa Heller to our incoming Director Sharon Alkin. Lisa Heller has been the beacon and driving force of the Preschool at Congregation B’nai Israel for twenty years. Lisa, with the help of many of our…
As many of you know, I have been the Child Development Center Preschool Director for 20 years. Those years have been filled with amazing memories and experiences with the children, staff and synagogue. During those years, I have developed lifetime relationships with other Jewish early childhood community leaders and I have applied my skills to…
Linda and I spent twelve days in Israel. We combined participation on a biennial Rabbinic Mission of Israel Bonds and visits with our daughter, Anna, who is spending a semester at Tel Aviv University. The following are some brief observations. Daily life: In the NYTimes this morning, there is only one report on Israel: two…
The fourth grade class and their parents gathered to learn about Torah and to make Yadi’im, the special pointers used to read from the Torah scroll. With support from the Daniel Zembrosky Youth in Art Fund, we worked with Gary Rosenthal’s Hiddur Mitzvah program to make Yadi’im from glass tiles that will be fused together to…