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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By Rabbi Greg Harris. I am emotionally exhausted. Since October 7, I have been glued to news reports, imagining the unimaginable experience of being held hostage in a Hamas terror tunnel, and spiraling about the discoveries of released hostages that their family and homes were destroyed. How does one process these horrors? Simultaneously, I have …
By Robin Jacobson. The great German poet-playwright Goethe had a deep fondness for a grand oak tree in the woodlands near Weimar. One autumn morning in 1827, he famously picnicked beneath its shade. A century later, when prisoners were felling trees in the area to make way for a concentration camp, the guards told them …
By Rabbi Deborah Megdal. Gratitude comes easily sometimes, pouring out of us in response to kindness, support, or lucky circumstance. Feeling and expressing this gratitude is a practice worthy of our continued effort and attention. The plethora of health and social benefits is well supported and widely known. But especially in these times of war …
By Sara Gordon, Beth El President. I’m honored to kick off Beth El’s Israel blog with a few reflections from the March for Israel rally last week. I am having a hard time putting words to it. In a similar way to how I feel like I am running out of words to talk about …
By Robin Jacobson. There’s an old Jewish story about two women sitting on a park bench together. One sighs. Her friend reproves her, “I thought we agreed not to talk about the children!” The tsores and worries of parents are the subject of two thought-provoking new novels by celebrated Israeli authors. How to Love Your …
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