Update: Closing Reception, Artist Talk and Benefit for MESH
Fran’s recent paintings and monoprints are informed by an inexhaustible supply of images, colors and textures milling about in her head. These elements combine to create shapes and forms that push and pull at each other. Gestures and touch are directed, but surrender to the energy and physical nature of the materials. Continue reading
It’s traditional to have honey on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize our hope for a sweet new year. That includes dipping apple and challah in honey. Over the years, I’ve also accumulated some recipes with honey that I make only at this time of the year – on Rosh Hashanah itself or during the period between Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. Continue reading
This summer, July 1, marked my seventh anniversary of working at Shomrei. As most of you know, Shomrei has become not just a place of work, but a spiritual home for me and for my family. The connection I have to this congregation is deeper than I could have ever imagined. While I sometimes struggle with the importance of titles and prefer to think that I’m just me, sharing this sacred space with you, I am excited about my new title for this year and was encouraged by Rabbi Julie to offer an explanation of why this title was chosen and what Shaliach Tzibbur (“messenger of the community”) means, literally, figuratively, and personally. Continue reading
Shalom,
As summer is winding down and everyone enjoys the last few weeks of vacation, we wanted to share with you what to expect when you return to Shomrei.
Our preschool teachers completed another successful camp season and are now preparing their classes for the first day of school. The entire staff and all of our volunteers are hard at work preparing for the High Holidays and fall season filled with a number of activities. Continue reading
Family lore has it that Grandpa Julius, my father’s father, was the only man in the shtetl of Skidel with a gun and that he was spirited out of town in a coffin because ”they” were after him. It’s hard to believe that this man of few words, whom I never heard raise his voice, might have had violence in this past.
Or Did Grandpa Sam, a small, quiet, white haired man with impeccable handwriting really know the Talmud so well that if you stuck a pin through a word, he would know the word on the other side of the page?
What do these family stories have to do with the High Holidays coming up? Continue reading
Anniversaries are something to look forward to with joy, sadness, appreciation, or awe.
This past weekend we marked the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC, a group of ministers and related individuals, fighting for the struggle for civil rights.
When you see this at Costco, you know that the Days of Awe, the High Holidays, will soon be upon us.
All kidding aside, we are right in the middle of the month of Elul, the prelude to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The shofar sounds each day (except Shabbat) and we recite Psalm 27 to remind us that the holidays are near. Continue reading
