August 24, 2024 D’var by Vickie Korey The Torah portion for this week, titled Eikev, is the third parsha in Deuteronomy. This portion continues the speech Moses is giving to the People as they prepare to cross the Jordan River into the “promised land.” The...
July 12, 2024 D’var by member Nancy J Katz There is a lot going on in Parsha Chukat. Here is the story in a nutshell: First – the red cow – Adonai gives instructions on how to sacrifice a red cow and use the ashes to purify someone who has encountered a dead...
by JRC member Melissa Mizel I’ve been interested in Reconstructionism ever since my twenties, when my Manhattan sister and I used to sneak into the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (Reconstructionism’s first congregation) on High Holidays. When my husband,...
by JRC member Charlene Gelber I want to wish us all a Happy 60th anniversary. I wasn’t yet of age in 1964 to join this new Havura, but with my young family, joined in 1978. I jumped right into committees, the Board, and became President in 1983. I was President while...
Passover Seder Resources and Recommendations from JRC updated for 5784/2024 Our spiritual task at Passover is to keep our hearts from hardening, and to use our ritual of symbols and story to both allow the devastation of this moment—crumbly and fragile as matzah—and a...
By Marla Baker, member of JRC’s Israel-Palestine Working Group I am outing myself as a life-long, if currently anguished, Zionist. I have a love for the vivacity and diversity of the people and culture of Israel, unique in all the Middle East; and even as I watch,...
