(Image: Beth Am in springtime) Shortly after Governor Newsom shut down California in March I received a beautiful note from one of “my” folks. I asked for her permission to share it. She gave me permission but in the pandemic, racial upheaval and fires I forgot. I came across it today. I wish that it…
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Personally, I’m still trying to sort out this SIP life. I keep forgetting that all sorts of services have ceased. I can’t give my brother the birthday present of a gift certificate to his favorite masseur. I started to! But naturally they are closed. It’s been five months; you’d think I’d have adjusted. This pandemic…
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What do most Americans know about Jewish holidays? Typically – Hanukkah, Passover and… not much else. The three big holidays are the pilgrimage festivals. Cantor Linda Hirschhorn of Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro wrote a lovely, brief description of them. Have a look. In Parshat Re’eh we are given a description of the…
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(Rabbi Stein of B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek. An online sermon) I feel like attaching an audio link to the Simon & Garfunkel song, “It’s All Happening at the Zoo” and then writing new lyrics that say, “It’s all happening on the internet”. Every doggone thing is online! Today I read that during the pandemic…
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I have a friend who plays the organ at an East Bay church and the piano at an East Bay synagogue. He marveled at how quickly the synagogue jumped into cyberspace. His church is still struggling with their website. Over the centuries Jews have learned to act fast. Make it work. There’s the joke that…
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(Image is of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette in their outdoor sanctuary in 2016. They currently have NO PLANS to have services here or in their building. You may join them online.) Can we have Jewish religious services out of doors? Several local synagogues have been using Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal’s Jewish values statement to guide their…
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