Beth El took part in the Jewish world’s one-year commemorations of October 7, 2023 – both in its public mourning and in its dancing. Our clergy and members gathered with thousands in downtown Washington, DC at The Anthem. Synagogues around the world also participated in a special campaign to receive a Torah cover with the …
By Robin Jacobson. Each High Holiday season, we turn again to sacred texts in search of new insights. That makes this a fitting time for Gila Fine’s The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud. Fine takes a fresh and fascinating look at six stories in the Talmud, positing that the women …
By Robin Jacobson. For years Maya Arad has won enthusiastic praise for her fiction, even being described in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as “the finest living author writing in Hebrew.” That alone is reason to dive into The Hebrew Teacher, the first of her books to be translated into English. Readers may be surprised, however, …
By Robin Jacobson. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo imaginatively blends the genres of historical fiction and fantasy. This captivating novel is set in 16th century Spain, a time and place linked to the author’s family history. In 1492, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain, Bardugo’s Jewish ancestors fled to Morocco and Egypt. They …
By Robin Jacobson. Some adult book clubs choose one “young adult” title a year to read, simply to sample from the many excellent books in that category. This year, two outstanding young adult historical novels illuminate lesser-known Jewish experiences in Romania and the United States during World War II: The Blood Years by Elana Arnold …
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 …
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