A Message from Israel by Sam Swire
Our TBE group of 50 is having an incredible time here in Israel. This opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in the land that is both so important to our people’s history and culture has been an incredible bonding experience. We are bonding with each other and to our past and present. Our first full day here, […]
URJ Camps are Home Away from Home by Lindsay Rosenzweig, Incoming LIBERTY Youth Group President
A sea of white. Lying on a tennis court with your friends, looking up at the stars. Singing and dancing during services. This is a typical Friday night in the mountainous area of Cleveland, Georgia, at the beautiful URJ Camp Coleman. In less than 4 days, children from all over the Southeast (and beyond) will […]
A Retrospective as We Move Forward by Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas
Some of you know this story, but I think it bears repeating at this time. Like the Reader’s Digest volumes on my grandparents’ shelf, I’m going to tell you the abridged version. I grew up in a small, Classical Reform congregation in Bayonne, NJ. Bayonne had a thriving Jewish community when my grandparents and […]
Counting the Omer Toward Torah by Rabbi Dusty Klass
“Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has made us holy with your commandments and commanded us to count the omer. Today is 37 days, which is five weeks and two days of the omer.” Those of you who have been attending Friday night services in the past few weeks may […]
Mother’s Day by Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas
Mother’s Day is this Sunday and my social media is filled with friends sharing their Mother’s Day memories from years gone by. The memories shared are funny, frustrating, warm, or pained; they capture longing, they capture solitude and sadness, they capture profound joy. The New York Times Well section has had several articles and […]
Magic Words by Susan Jacobs, Director of Education
I’m sitting at my computer scrolling through inspiring quotes to find the perfect one that will inspire all of our congregational families to volunteer on Mitzvah Day. If only I could find those magic words from someone far more eloquent than me that would touch our hearts and move us into action. Profound words from […]
Stories by Cantor Andrew Bernard
When kids ask me whether some of the more fantastic or contradictory stories in the Tanach are true, I usually respond by asking them whether they go to annual family reunions. For those that do, I ask whether they hear the same family stories year after year, often told by their grandparents or their […]
Engaging Baby Boomers by Rabbi Asher Knight
When I first arrived in Charlotte, I met hundreds of congregants through Welcome Events planned by Temple Beth El’s Transition Committee. During these events, I repeatedly heard similar stories from our members, particularly Baby Boomers and Empty Nesters. They told me that they felt deeply tied emotionally to our congregation and to Jewish life, but […]
DAYEINU! by Dr. Laura Bernstein, Executive Director
Like tens of thousands of Jews around the world, my family and I recounted the story of Exodus this week as we participated in the annual Passover seder. It would have been enough to have been invited to one seder. We were blessed to be included in two. It would have been enough to hear […]
