I recently emailed a friend (yes, she in an interfaith marriage) who works at Berkeley Rep Theater to ask, “Do you have upcoming plays with a Jewish theme?” She replied, “Maybe I’m not the right person to ask because in my eyes there is always a Jewish theme.” She sent me some of her ideas…
Read More »Jewish Culture
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is NOW!
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival started on Thursday. You can still buy tickets to lots of films. Go to their website, www.sfjff.org and scroll through the dozens of films at four locations. (or is it five?!)
Read More »Death, Mourning and especially Shiva
I think the best time to talk about death is on a summer day when dying seems preposterous and one can’t be sad because the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and all is right with the world. So let’s take a moment and talk about Death and Mourning while it is not at…
Read More »ISRAEL!
Day One I joined the Beth Jacob congregational trip to Israel in June. The idea was to follow the books of Tanach (the bible) from the time that the Israelites entered the land of Israel in the book of Joshua and then trace the history through the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, visiting the sites…
Read More »What does it mean to be ‘Spiritual’?
Many people identify as spiritual but not religious. In conversation the word, spiritual, has come to mean a sort of vague ‘good’ that isn’t focused on anything and has responsibility to no one. When I ask what that means to them, they typically say, something like, “I believe there is a force greater than us.”…
Read More »The Music of Shabbat
The Music of Shabbat with Cantor Ilene Keys What are the common melodies, why do they change, what’s the difference between songs and chanting? What is the role of the cantor in prayer? Why have a cantor and a rabbi in prayer services? In what way is the cantor clergy? What are the duties of…
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