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As we head toward this first Shabbat of 2020 I, like you, am struggling to adjust to our new reality of violent anti-Semitism within the United States. Like you, I have been reading, thinking, worrying, and reflecting. And while I am deeply thankful to our president Duke Helfand and to our security committee that never rests and never stops working, I think we'd agree that the questions in the air go beyond "how do we secure our...Read more...

Fasting on Yom Kippur is an essential part of our experience of the day. it contributes emotionally and spiritually to the day’s sense of uniqueness, and to our capacity to imagine the process of cleansing and expiation.

At the same time though, fasting can present a major challenge to people who are not physically well, turning a day of religious exultation into a day of dread, or possibly even a day of risk. The Halacha of course...Read more...

A few weeks ago, I found myself researching the life of Lawrence Fogelberg. I discovered that he was a band leader, who conducted the bands and taught music at Woodruff High School in Peoria, Ill. in the 40’s and 50’s, and then at Pekin Community High School until his retirement in 1976. He also directed the Pekin Municipal Band, which played “Sunday in the Park” concerts every summer near the Mineral Springs Park Pavilion. He died in...Read more...

Dear Friends:

Please join me in thanking our friends who represented us so well in Phoenix on Wednesday (their names are below). Together we greeted dozens of families who had just been released from up to 3 weeks of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention. In detention, they slept on cold concrete floors while awaiting word of what would happen to them next, after trekking for weeks through Central America and Mexico. We...Read more...

The tragedy was still sinking in when I did what I often do after mass shootings: I got to work. I figured that between my husband’s family in Pittsburgh and the small Jewish world, I may be able to offer some connections that would help the reporting.

I did not have a direct line to any of the 11 victims, each of them old enough to be my parent or grandparent. But as I started to talk with their friends and families Sunday morning,...Read more...

Twice in the last 4 months, I was surprised at my own happiness. This sounds a little crazy, but it is honest.  As the last boxes from Pesach were being stored away, Sari and I began our countdown toward the wedding of a child, and the arrival of a grandchild. And it was around then that I began struggling – really struggling - with feelings of dread which were completely tangled up with the more normal feelings of excitement and...Read more...

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said - “Life’s most persistent and nagging question is, what are you doing for others?”

I find it auspiciously fitting that we are gathered here today, on MLK Day, for our annual dinner.  Many of the values represented by the life and legacy of Dr. King - moral courage; boundless compassion; dignity for all; and selfless service - are values that our...Read more...

By Rav Yosef Kanefsky

I’ve never been particularly good at threading a needle, in the actual physical sense. I’m not sure how much better I am at it in the figurative sense, but I am obligated this morning to try my best. To offer words and ideas, that we ALL find meaningful, applicable and true; Thoughts that comfort and encourage all of us who are in need of comfort and encouragement; and thoughts that challenge each and every...Read more...