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Rabbi Linda's Blog:
Rabbi's Note

January 2025

As we turn to a new year on the Gregorian, standard calendar, we read the penultimate Torah portion in the book of Genesis. For the Jewish people, our new year of deep introspection and shifting of direction comes in the Autumn, at Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. But living in two civilizations, at a minimum, we are primed to accept the invitation to look both inward and forward as December turns to January. So what does the Torah portion in this week of New Year's Eve offer us at this time?

The last four portions in the book of Genesis focus on Joseph, favored by his father and despised by his brothers, going through extreme ups and downs. In this week's Torah portion, he has been rescued from prison and he is now the second most powerful person in Egypt...

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Tot Shabbat is Going Strong

Since last fall we’ve met on the 2nd Friday of every month for Tot Shabbat, a program where we come together with young families to color, play, tell stories, schmooze, eat, sing, and celebrate Shabbat together as a community. Over the past 6 months we’ve had 30 families participate, with about 5‐7 families per month.

Many thanks to our volunteers and our rabbinic interns, who make it all possible: Jackie Gelman, Lynn Cashell, Lev DePaolo, Elaine Feldman, Alisa Herman‐Liu, Lydia Kendis, Randi Raskin Nash, Alan Ross, Kathy Trow, and, of course, Rabbi Nathan and Rabbi Linda.

If you’d like to attend or help out at a future Tot Shabbat please reach out to Jackie Gelman.

Upcoming dates: 1/10, 2/14

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Rabbi Nathan's Blog:
Facing Our Legacy

January 2025

This past March I had the privilege of attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association convention held in Atlanta. At the tail end of the convention, I was able to join a smaller group of rabbis on a side trip to Montgomery, Alabama to learn more about the African American experience in our country, from enslavement to the Jim Crow era, and the fight for civil rights. Two particular moments from that experience stood out for me: 

In addition to the exhibits in the Legacy Museum that movingly detail the story of enslavement and the struggle for freedom, we spent time at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a sobering testimonial to the more than 4,400 Black people killed in racial terror lynchings, listing lynchings by name and by county of each state...

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