This week, we read a double Torah portion. In the Jewish calendar as established by the Masoretes, the Rabbinic scholars living in Safed in the seventh and eighth centuries of the Common Era, there are 54 Torah portions. In the Jewish lunar/solar year, there are 50 weeks. On four Shabbatot...
This last week, the news has yet again been dominated by stories and images involving the police in the United States. On the one hand, there are ongoing reports of police departments on trial for the misbehavior of a few cops. On the other hand, there was also the gripping...
On June 11, 1989, correspondent Martin Weyl ran a lengthy piece in the New York Times entitled “How do Museums Speak the Unspeakable?” More than a survey of the then 19 Holocaust museums, 48 resource centers, 34 archival facilities, 12 memorials and 26 research institutes was a nagging question about...
I have been a cantor now for 21 years and was a student cantor for 3 years. In those 24 years of officiating at B’nai Mitzvahs, I could never call myself “the parent” of a Bar or Bat Mitzvah student….until now. I have had the honor of standing by the side of...
In the past, our Spring Celebration included dinner, dancing, music and entertainment. Call it a Gala, a Celebration, a Fundraiser, a Casino Night, or a Dinner Dance; it is KI’s tradition to plan an Annual Spring Event. Last year’s event honoring our current and past KI presidents was abruptly cancelled...
“Song of Songs,” (1960) Panel III, Marc Chagall National Museum, Nice, France. Passover has many beloved traditions. The holiday begins with the gathering of families and the reading of the Haggadah. Soon as Pesach ends, traditional Jews begin studying Pirkei Avot “Ethics of the Fathers” (or, alternatively, “Principle Teachings”), a...
This coming weekend is an auspicious time for Jews the world over! This Shabbat is called Shabbat Hagadol/The Great Shabbat! The requisite Torah portion is Tzav, the second Sidrah in the book of VaYikra/Leviticus. At the end of Shabbat on Saturday evening, we go directly into the Passover Seder! And...
I am no longer surprised by reports of mass shootings in this country, nor am I numb to the human tragedy experienced by so many. America suffers from a deep sickness, a perverse reverence of high-powered firearms, an insane veneration of machismo and an insatiable capacity to hate. Mass shootings...
After a year of celebrating Jewish holidays in our homes, we are finally getting ready to march out of Egypt and leave those pesky plague/plagues behind. After a year of virtual celebrations, many of us have been immunized, and we are ready to step outside our homes and begin gathering...
This week’s Torah portion is a double one: Vayakhel-Pekudei Exodus 35:1–40:38. These portions are a continuation of the description of the building of the “Mishkan-“our sacred place where God dwells within. Four parshas of the Torah focus on the building of the “mishkan” whereas one parsha focuses on the creation of...
