It doesn’t seem possible that a country as small as Israel could fit so many different festivals in just the summer months! Everything from wine, to music, to films, to dance, to arts and crafts, Israel has a festival for you! And – most of the activities at every festival are free! Here’s a small taste of some of the festivals you can enjoy. (more…)
(photo credit: MAXIM ZMEYEV/REUTERS) (more…)
By ZVIKA KLEIN Updated: MAY 20, 2022
It felt surreal: A group of rabbis – male and female, from diverse backgrounds, including Orthodox – met this week at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem. The weather was perfect for an outside gathering, the first of its kind. (more…)
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Rising some 886 meters above sea level, Mount Gerizim commands a majestic view over modern-day Nablus – biblical Shechem – in the valley below, and Mount Ebal in the north. (more…)
How many of you remember Allan Sherman? His parodies of well-known songs were all the rage in the 1960’s, including “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” “The Streets of Miami,” and of course my favorite – “Seltzer Boy” where he sings: “Don’t bring me water, I rather have seltzer, ‘Cause water don’t bubble, And water don’t fizz, Water I hate it, ‘Cause it ain’t carbonated, But a glass of seltzer, On the other hand is!” (more…)
(Sermon given at the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony of Max Garsten, son of Bryan and Anna Garsten)
Our custom here at Beth Sholom is for the rabbi to ask the Bar or Bat Mitzvah for a topic to talk about at their service. Max has been interested in juggling, so we decided on this subject.
I don’t know anything about juggling colored balls or bowling pins, but I did once see a movie, that no one else ever heard of, called, “The Juggler”. The Juggler is a 1953 drama film starring Kirk Douglas as a survivor of the Holocaust. After World War II, Hans Müller is one of a shipload of Jewish refugees who disembark at Haifa in 1949 and are placed in a refugee camp. Like many other concentration camp survivors, Hans has many emotional problems, including survivor guilt. At one point, he mistakes a woman and her children for his murdered family. (more…)
Does anyone else feel like this year has flown by? It has been a year of highs and lows. We continue to wrestle with problems of the pandemic. Circumstances regarding security continue to be in process and progressing. All our committees have actively continued with their programming. (more…)
TBS members are of course familiar with the major Jewish holidays. Indeed, as you read this you will have recently celebrated Pesach while anticipating the next major holiday of Shavuot commemorating G-d’s giving of the Torah to Moses and the Jewish people. The Counting of the Omer begins on the second night of Pesach, but during the six weeks from the end of Pesach until Shavuot there are six major observances that are by turns secular and religious, happy and sad, that characterize Israeli life while making a powerful impression on anyone who happens to be visiting the country. If you really want to feel part of the Israeli experience, these six weeks are hard to beat. (more…)
