TBE Blog

The TBE Blog is the space where Temple Beth El’s Leadership Team members reflect on relevant topics that are most meaningful to us. Here you will find musings on everything from prayer to politics, music to mysticism and history to current day life. From our iPads, smartphones, and laptops to yours, these are the things that inspire us, keep us up at night, and fuel our own Jewish journeys.

You Matter and So Does Your Vote by Rabbi Dusty Klass

Rabbi Dusty Klass October 11, 2018

If you have been in the building at temple over the past week or so, you may have noticed a cut out of a person, ...

Temple Beth El Follows Path of Three Centuries of Southern Jews (Charlotte Jewish News Editorial, October 2018) by Rabbi Judy Schindler

Rabbi Schindler October 4, 2018

August 5th marked twenty years since I arrived in Charlotte. By sheer coincidence, I spent my twentieth anniversary of becoming a Southerner immersed in a ...

Iyyun for Healing (Yom Kippur 5779) by Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas

Cantor Mary Thomas September 27, 2018

A few months ago, in the course of conversation with our summer intern, Student Rabbi Hannah Elkin, she mentioned that her Clinical Pastoral Education supervisor ...

Temple Beth El Religious School Keeps Our Kids Connected By Moira Quinn Klein

Temple Beth El September 21, 2018

September is a great month. Temperatures begin to slide from misery to comfortable. So does the humidity, by the way, which means “good hair days” ...

And You Shall Teach Them Diligently to Your Children: What I Didn’t Understand…Until Now by Cantor Andrew Bernard

Cantor Bernard September 21, 2018

This summer I spent eight weeks teaching water safety to a bunch of preschoolers at the Downtown Seattle YMCA. This free program offered to the ...

Choose “We” (Yom Kippur 5779) by Rabbi Dusty Klass

Rabbi Dusty Klass September 19, 2018

With gratitude to Rabbi Leah Citrin for walking through this writing process with me every year, and to Rabbis Miriam Farber Wajnberg, Asher Knight, and ...

Choosing to Live While Standing in the Shadow of Death (Kol Nidrei 5779) by Rabbi Asher Knight

Rabbi Asher Knight September 18, 2018

Video of this sermon One day a group of American tourists traveling in Eastern Europe, went to visit the Chofetz Chaim. (In the rabbi world, ...

Emunah: Rebuilding Faith in An Era of “In Nothing We Trust” (Rosh HaShanah 5779) by Rabbi Asher Knight

Rabbi Asher Knight September 11, 2018

Video of this sermon On December 14th, 2012 Noah Pozner and 25 other victims were murdered at Sandy Hook elementary school. Noah was a sweet, ...

On Clenched Fists and Open Hands (Erev Rosh HaShanah 5779) by Rabbi Dusty Klass

Rabbi Dusty Klass September 11, 2018

With gratitude to Rabbis Asher Knight, Leah Citrin, Jay Asher LeVine, Miriam Farber Wajnberg, and Susan Landau, Cantor Mary Thomas, and Jeff Trost – for ...

Finding Home by Janette Schwartz

Temple Beth El September 9, 2018

As far back as I can remember, I’ve had faith. Faith in the love of my parents, faith that tomorrow brings opportunity, and faith that ...

Finding My Faith Again by Ethan Shore

Temple Beth El September 9, 2018

My life is in transition. I have gone from being a Software Engineer, working for the same company for 20 years, to being “43 years ...

Faith in the Future by Amy Krakovitz Montoni

Temple Beth El September 7, 2018

We all hear it at least once daily: young people in America are lazy, selfish, dependent upon their parents, unwilling to take risks, unambitious. Stories ...