Dancing with the Scroll

Elie Wiesel wrote about marking Simchat Torah while interred in Auschwitz. There were of course no Torah scrolls to be found. Life was a harrowing, belittling reality. Food was scarce. Death lived around every corner. Robbed of their dignity, inmates struggled not only to live, but to remember who they...

Continue reading

The openness of the Sukkah

“And the Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Say to the Israelite people: On the fifteenth day on this seventh month there shall be a Feast of Booths to the Eternal One to last seven days’” (Leviticus 23:33). Sukkot is everything Yom Kippur is not: light, upbeat, outdoors, casual and...

Continue reading

Remarks from the President: Yom Kippur 5784

Yom Tov everyone, Good Yontif to everyone here in the Sanctuary and all of you streaming from around the world. Welcome to Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel for this special Yom Kippur Service. Thank you Rabbi David, Cantor Levy, Hazzan Tilman, Andrew Senn, our professional choir, Trumpeter/Shofar Blower Jeff Miller, Cellist...

Continue reading

Beautiful Blank Slate

As we start this New Year, we ask for the opportunity to begin with a “blank slate.” I found myself using this language of “starting again” with my two teenage daughters as well. The new start includes simple routine adjustments such as going to bed earlier, establishing a homework routine,...

Continue reading

Preparing for a New Year

Our Torah states that on Rosh HaShanah we are to mark ‘a sacred occasion’ (Lev 23:24). Our commentators will define Rosh HaShanah as a ‘day of remembrance.’ The Talmud will note that this is one of many new beginnings we celebrate amid the year. Our sages will also refer to...

Continue reading

New Beginnings

This week we wish Liz Z. Sussman, all the very best as she enters into retirement and her next adventure. She has been the Early Childhood Education Director of the Richard E. Rudolph Jr. Preschool at KI for the last eight years. With all of her many gifts, Liz grew...

Continue reading