In August of 1897 Theodor Herzl brought together Jewish leaders from around the globe. They met in Basel, Switzerland. The attire was formal. The event would prove to be historic. The subject of the meeting: the need for a home for the Jewish people. Herzl’s vision was to garner support...
If you have ever been to Israel, you know what it feels like to land back in America. You are exhausted. You are fulfilled. You are both energized and dragging. That is how I feel as I write this. This week I came back to the synagogue after an extraordinary...
On Saturday night, I will board a plane to Israel alongside members of our community. I can’t wait to get on that plane. Traveling to Israel is more a pilgrimage than anything else. For generations our people have embarked on this very mission, even if modes of transportation have clearly...
Monday will mark a historic occurrence for KI. For the first time, we will close our building in observance of Juneteenth. It commemorates the day on which enslaved peoples in Texas were freed: June 19, 1865. While celebrations of Juneteenth originated in churches in the south, it has grown over...
Gun violence is the plague of our time. It is heart wrenching. Our children are dying. Our elected officials are standing idly by. This Friday night we will take part in Ceasefire Shabbat, joining with congregations across the country as we bring attention to the horrific realities around guns. We...
I am going to share these words at our Shavuot service tonight (May 25), where we honor an extraordinary group of teenagers. Please join us at 7:00 p.m. for Confirmation and Shavuot services. If you are unable to join us, I thought I would share my message with you: The...
In last week’s Torah portion of Kedoshim we read the important commandment: ‘You shall not curse the deaf nor place a stumbling block before the blind.’ It is a teaching that we take to heart all these years later as we try to make life easier – not harder –...
This week we mark the 75th anniversary of Israel’s founding. It is in every respect a remarkable milestone. Who would have thought, a century ago, that the Jewish people would have a place to call home? Who would have thought, as Hitler’s hate machine sought to eradicate an entire population,...
This week alone we have read about a school shooting in Nashville, mass protests in Israel around agonizing and anti-democratic proposals, tainted drinking water in Philadelphia, the continued escalation of violence in Ukraine and a tornado that brought havoc to many residents of Mississippi. All of this, on top of...
This week we begin the Book of Leviticus. It’s the third book of the Torah and often considered an archaic and challenging book. It relays, among other things, the details around the ritual sacrifices our ancestors made in the earliest days of Judaism. We read about the sacrifices that existed...
