Parshat Toldot – 6 parshiot down, only 48 more to go! This week’s parsha, Toldot, opens with Rebekah and Isaac becoming first time parents with the birth of twins, Jacob and Esau. While she is pregnant, God tells Rebekah that two nations are within her and that the older one will serve the younger one. …
Because life so often happens around food, we’re spending the year exploring the weekly parshiot and finding connections to each week’s Shabbat menu. Sarah, a seasoned Jewish educator, brings a wealth of knowledge to our discussions, while Alison, who loves creating dishes that bring people together, is excited to explore the weekly portions in greater …
By Robin Jacobson. The shadow of the past hovers over the present in the remarkable debut novel, The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. Shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize, the novel earned the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction, as well as a place on multiple “Best Books of 2024” lists across the United States, …
Parshat Vayera – 4 parshiot down, only 50 more to go! Vayera is full of dramatic events. The parsha begins as Sarah and Abraham warmly welcome 3 visitors who reveal that Sarah will soon have a son. Given their advanced age, Sarah laughs at this news. Also in Vayera is the story of the destruction …
Parshat Lech Lecha – 3 parshiot down, only 51 more to go! In this parsha, God tells Abram (later to become Abraham) to leave his native land and venture into unknown territory with his wife Sarai (later to become Sarah). God promises Abram that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars and that …
Summary from Sefaria*: Noach (“Noah”) begins as God decides to destroy mankind with a flood. At God’s command, the righteous Noah builds an ark, where Noah, his family, and select animals survive the flood. Noah’s children bear children, and several generations develop. God confounds the speech of people building the Tower of Babel. Because life …
During Yom Kippur, our Beth El community heard the heartbreaking story from Kibbutz Nir Oz family member Carmit Palty Katzir. Carmit’s father Rami, 79, was killed on October 7th. Hamas terrorists took her mother Hana, 77, and her older brother Elad, 47, as captives. Hanna was released in a temporary ceasefire deal in November 2023, but Elad …
By Robin Jacobson. It’s the stuff of family lore and American history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, over 10 million European immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean to America. These included 2.5 million Jews, many of them fleeing pogroms, persecution, and poverty in the Czarist Russian Empire. Courageous and determined, they built new lives in the United States. …
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 …
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 …
By Robin Jacobson. Intimate Strangers: A History of Jews and Catholics in the City of Rome by Frederic Brandfon tells the epic story of Jews in Rome across more than two millennia. It’s perfect for anyone planning to travel to Italy, armchair tourists, or history lovers. The book is a treasure trove of intriguing historical …
By Robin Jacobson. The Postcard by French author Anne Berest is a remarkable true story of a Jewish family told in the form of a novel. It opens with the arrival of a mysterious postcard at Berest’s childhood home in the Paris suburbs in 2003. The front of the postcard shows the Opéra Garnier, a …
By Robin Jacobson. Fans of multi-generational tales of Jewish families have three new non-fiction options, each fascinating: The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire by Joseph Sassoon; The Women of Rothschild: The Untold Story of the World’s Most Famous Dynasty by Natalie Livingstone; and Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and the Rise …
Background The use of Zoom began during the height of the Covid-19 emergency. It has been used in multiple ways throughout the Beth El community. Zoom has enhanced access for adult education, worship, committee work, aspects of youth education, and other areas. Regarding Zoom in religious services, there are two issues: the use of Zoom …
By Robin Jacobson. Early in 2020, Julian Künstler receives an unexpected phone call from his 93-year-old grandmother, Salomea (“Mamie”) Künstler. Mamie invites Julian to stay with her in California for a few weeks while she recovers from a broken wrist. She and her elderly housekeeper-companion, Agatha, need a short-term family chauffeur. For Julian, this is a perfectly timed, golden …
By Robin Jacobson. “The righteous bloom like a date-palm . . .” Psalm 92:13 Among the glories of ancient Israel were its flourishing Judean date palm trees, celebrated for their beauty, shade, and sweet fruit. Long extinct, the Judean date palm is experiencing a miraculous rebirth, thanks to two Israeli scientists who saw potential in …
By Robin Jacobson. The Times of Israel calls it “the great whodunnit of Zionist lore.” In 1933, Chaim Arlosoroff was murdered in Tel Aviv. Only 34 years old, Arlosoroff was a prominent leader in David Ben Gurion’s Mapai Party and head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency in Palestine. Who killed him? And …
Yesterday on the 28th of Nissan, we commemorated Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date for Yom HaShoah is traditionally the 27th of Nissan, which marks the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. We chose to wait a day so that our upper school BERS students could participate and bear witness together with others in the Beth El …
By Robin Jacobson. Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott is a rollicking adventure story of magical realism, a spellbinding blend of old and new folklore. Comical yet profound, the novel explores serious subjects – inherited trauma, the roots of mob violence, and the power of folklore to preserve cultural history. Widely acclaimed, Thistlefoot was a finalist for …
By Robin Jacobson. During an unwelcome visit from Covid-19, I dosed myself with soup, lemon drops (good for masking that metallic Paxlovid taste), and three novels: The Cost of Living by Beth El’s own Saul Golubcow (detective fiction), Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (science fiction), and Eternal by Lisa Scottoline (historical fiction). They were attention-grabbing …
By Robin Jacobson. Which three persons, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? The New York Times Book Review regularly asks this question in interviews. After reading Georgetown Law professor Brad Snyder’s fascinating biography, Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment, I propose Justice Felix …
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