By the time this eKI arrives for you to read it, Passover will be over but what many are calling the 11th Plague will still be raging. We will still be quarantined and the serious discussion of trend curves and economic restarts will continue to rage. Of course, the Coronavirus...
Ordinary Citizens: Lessons from the Pandemic of 2020 Many of you may remember Stephen E. Ambrose’s book, Citizen Soldiers, which came out in 1997. At one level, it traced the history of World War II from the beaches of Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the ultimate defeat...
By now, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the entire world is changing life as we know it. It is less clear, but certainly as true, that this experience will have long term effects on how we live on this planet after the pandemic is over. Someone once...
We are living in unprecedented times. Not just us at KI or in America but in the whole world. Not since World War II has there been a global situation which has affected everyone on the planet in a personal way. By far our biggest challenge is medical and scientific....
This week of uncertainty about the coronavirus has impacted everyone. At KI, we have given lots of thought to the best ways to help our community be safe and healthy, while at the same time allowing for everyone’s best judgement. We are currently receiving the message of maintaining distance and...
At our senior staff meeting each week, we focus on either the Torah portion or upcoming holiday. This week we asked what is the “moral” of the Purim Story. The story is a challenging one, there is hiding of Jewish identity, ancient Anti-Semitism, and killing of Persians at the end...
The Torah portion for this week, Terumah (Gift-offering), from Exodus 25 discusses the building of the first sanctuary of the Jewish people, a tent like structure, built, dissembled, carried and built again, numerous times during the Hebrews forty years in the desert. Its plan and utensils became the basis for...
Which came first – the hatred or the laws? Last Shabbat morning I stood on the side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where over 50 years ago police and angry citizens probably occupied that very spot. We discussed civil rights leaders who are depicted on a mural as the students...
This week’s Torah portion, Yitro, is one of the few that names a specific person. “Yitro” or “Jethro” is Moses’ father-in-law, and is an extremely important figure to this story, which is about Moses’ leadership style and how we will eventually form a system of government that does not completely...
This year Tu BiShvat (15th of Shevat) or Jewish Arbor Day takes place on Monday, February 10, 2020. Its origins are found in the discussions of the early rabbis about the Jewish calendar. The followers of Shammai declared that the first day of the month of Shevat to be “the...
