Never Forget

As one might expect, a Judaic library has a large number of books about the Holocaust, which has cast its shadow over almost every event in modern Jewish history.

On January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be marked by a decree of the United Nations. This date is not arbitrary for it commemorates the day 80 years ago in 1945 when the Red Army entered Auschwitz, where more than 1.1 million Jews were murdered. Continue reading

MESH Report December 24, 2024

’Twas the eve before Hanukkah
And all through the shul
Not a person was present
In the office or school.
The halls were dark.
The playground was quiet.
Rabbi Julie was not to be found.
BUT enter the kitchen and
What do you see?
Six volunteers so busily
Preparing a meal for the
Food insecure.
It’s MESH night at Shomrei
You can be sure.

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Hanukkah Book Recommendations

The glow of the Hanukkah lights will shortly fill our homes and shine through the windows. The Hanukkah story  is a great story with heroes and villains, suspense, and a satisfying ending. Even when the story is modified for young readers, it still retains its majesty and provides many opportunities for reinforcing  Jewish values.

This year’s crop of Hanukkah books includes some excellent retellings as well as a look at Hanukkah in settings other than the U.S. There have been several books with interfaith families as the focal point. And there’s a delightful handful of Hanukkah books for adults. Continue reading

Happy Jewish Book Month!

Begun in 1924 as Jewish Book Week by a Jewish librarian who worked at the Boston Public Library, it has stretched to the entire month before Hanukkah. Jewish Book Month is a time to highlight and celebrate libraries, books and Jewish writers.

Jewish books have been around for a very long time: even if not everyone was literate, each person knew the value of the Torah and the highest aspiration was to be a scholar of Jewish books. Continue reading

Tribute to Sam Lampert and the Lampert Library

Aileen Grossberg shared this tribute at the Shabbat service on November 23, 2024. Additional comments were made by Katherine Delaney. 

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Jewish Book Month which begins tomorrow and has been going strong for 99 years.

It’s so appropriate that today when we celebrate the many years that the Lampert family has supported the library and made books available to the Shomrei community, we also celebrate the 60th anniversary of Judy Wildman’s bat mitzvah. As Jews, as People of the Book, we hold both bound books and the Torah scroll in high esteem. Continue reading

Build It And They Will Come

The story of Noah and the ark has something for everyone: there are cute animals for the little ones, a lesson in architecture for older readers, and some bawdy details for adults …. as well as a couple of serious issues of respect for one’s elders and by way of midrash, respect for the earth.

However, it’s those cute animals or the rainbow that most often become the focus. Pass a preschool classroom and you might hear a chorus of bass and moos when Noah is introduced or children drawing brightly colored rainbows. Continue reading

The Season of Our Rejoicing

How time flies! It’s Sukkot again. And why should I be surprised? We just celebrated the High Holidays. Turn, Turn, Turn…the seasons come and go.

While Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur reading for both adults and kids has a decidedly solemn bent, there’s mostly pure joy in the Sukkot and Simhat Torah books.

We rejoice in the bounty of the land and the natural beauty of the land and sky; we revel in the holy words of the Torah.

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MESH Report Sept 24, 2024

 

Chef Aileen Grossberg planned an easy to prepare meal with minimum prep and cooking time. Sous chefs Alex Kent, Lynne Kurzweil , Carole Rothman and new volunteer Julie Weinstein were totally up to the tasks of cutting tomatoes and lettuce, roasting corn, doling out chili sauce and preparing the other parts of the meal until——the ovens wouldn’t work. No gas to the burners.

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