By Robin Jacobson. Near the turn of the 20th Century, the Dreyfus Affair thrust France into turmoil. In 1894, the French army falsely accused and convicted Jewish military captain Alfred Dreyfus of treasonously selling military secrets to Germany. In a humiliating public ceremony, Dreyfus was stripped of his military insignia and his sword broken while …
By Salo Zelermyer. Since October 7, 2023, the question many of us have been asking is: “What can we do to help?” Some of us have traveled to Israel to volunteer – including on the recent Beth El trip – and sent donations to groups operating in Israel and there is no question that these …
By Robin Jacobson. How can a book full of societal evils like racism, antisemitism, and child abuse manage to be heartwarming and uplifting? This is the magic of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, the recent novel by celebrated author James McBride. Like a murder mystery, the novel opens with the discovery of a dead …
By Rabbi Deborah Megdal. What makes a conversation around Israel “erupt”? I’ve been thinking about this question since a friend shared that her workplace has been, in her words, “erupting over Israel.” As a Jewish person working in a progressive non-profit, she regularly encounters anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives around the war with Hamas. Fast-paced flurries …
By Robin Jacobson. “Pa pleaded. “We can get a hundred and sixty acres out west, just by living on it… If Uncle Sam’s willing to give us a farm… I say let’s take it.” Laura Ingalls Wilder (By the Shores of Silver Lake) In 1862, Congress enacted the Homestead Act, hoping to encourage settlement of …
Nearly two years ago, VP of Communications Hillary Berman and I worked together to create and roll out a new way for congregants to manage their Beth El email. An article penned by Hillary in the February 2022 Scroll about the then-new system begins, “Beth El sends too much email!” And while our endeavor to …
By Education Director Elisha Rothschild Frumkin. I love Israel. I always have. Even though no one in my family had ever visited in person – save my eccentric great uncle who served as a volunteer in Israel for a month in the mid-1980s – I developed a strong connection to Israel from the time I …
By Beth El Preschool Director Lauren Hirt. Within the walls of Beth El Preschool (BEPS), we have shielded our littlest learners from the news. They are too young to understand war, too innocent to conceive of hostages being taken. We have kept discussions of the conflict in Israel out of our classrooms. Behind the scenes, …
By Hazzan Asa Fradkin. A trip to Israel is a magical thing. I still remember my first trip at the age of 19, when I was able to get onto a birthright trip at the last second. As the plane landed and people erupted in applause, I felt that special sense of holiness, that we …
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