Author Archives: Aileen Grossberg

Is It Passover Yet?

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We can’t ignore it any longer: Passover is less than a week away. If you are looking for a new Haggadah, check out the selection in the library. You may still be able to order one of the new family-oriented Haggadot. Or try downloading from the internet. There are many contemporary Haggadot just waiting for you.   The call number on the spine of library books is 262.5.

If Passover is almost upon us, it means that soon you – or someone you know – will be cooking up a storm. As I’ve gotten older, my Passover mantra has become KISS- Keep It Simple, Stupid. No more multi-step preparation with exotic ingredients no matter how delicious the dish sounds. Continue reading →

MESH Report April 9, 2024

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The sun shone brightly and spirits were high as our energetic volunteers prepared 50 take-away meals for our MESH guests. Working hard on chopping were Rabbi Julie and her sons Ilan and Rafael.  Always willing volunteer Susan Rosenblatt filled little cups with tartar sauce while Carole Rothman wrapped Italian rolls. Alex Kent got the main course ready for the oven. Continue reading →

Guess Who?

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March is Women’s History Month. To expand your horizons beyond women named Ruth or Anne, here’s a match-up quiz of accomplished but lesser-known women.

The library is a resource for information about many of them, either through single biographies, collected biographies or reference works such as Jewish Women in America which are updated on the Jewish Women’s Archive website (jwa.org).

Continue reading →

Leftovers

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Some people hate leftovers. What’s tasty about dried-out day-old meatloaf sitting in a pool of congealed gray gravy? Or is there anything worse than leftover pasta, turning brown at the edges?

On the other hand, that meatloaf can make a hearty sandwich or maybe even be mixed into that day-old pasta and both will have been given a second chance.

Continue reading →

Days of Remembrance

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We Jews have so many holidays and days of remembrance. From Nissan 1, the first day of Passover, marking the beginning of the year (Yes, Nissan actually is the first month of the Hebrew calendar) through Purim in the month of Adar, there are scores of holidays – and four new years. Then there is the weekly Shabbat celebration. I’d estimate that at least 100 days are marked in some special way. Continue reading →

Reflection on the Civil Rights Trip: Personal Highlights

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When I was a kid and drove with my father from our hometown of Lowell, Mass to the orthodontist in Boston, we would go through the streets of Cambridge. I would notice the rather decrepit looking triple deckers, the small apartment buildings, the dirty streets – and the dark faces. I remember questioning my father and asking why people had to live that way. Continue reading →

Noah and the Ark

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And we begin again. A good book is worth rereading as we do the Torah every year. This past Shabbat, we began the annual cycle of reading about the world’s most dysfunctional family.

Is there any emotion or problem that the first family and its descendants didn’t face in the course of many generations: jealousy, fratricide, cheating, lying, murder, rape, impersonating , broken hearts, lust, infertility, lack of confidence? God may have been the world’s first therapist. Continue reading →