Blog
Voices: JRC's Congregational Blog
Our Wide Tent: Two Reflections From Our Israel-Palestine Working Group
JRC and The Israel Palestine Working Group is committed to fostering and encouraging learning and connection through respectful open dialogue. We find it meaningful to be in community at JRC where we are able to openly share our diverse set of beliefs, thoughts and...
JRC’s Book Group, An Open Invitation
A letter to the community written by long-time Book Group member, Charlene Gelber The JRC book group has been meeting uninterrupted the second Sunday of the month since 1984. During Covid, we met on Zoom and have continued to do so, sometimes hybrid (at the building...
This Is the Face of Love
Rabbi Rachel Weiss's email to the community on January 26, 2026 As I chanted the Aleinu on Friday evening and Saturday morning this week, this quote jumped off the page and spoke to my heart: “When senseless hatred rules on earth, and people hide their faces from one...
To Be Righteous, Look to the Trees (Rosh Hashanah 5786-2025 Sermon by Rabbi Rachel Weiss)
One of the most delightful things I did this past summer was serve as the Cultural Consultant for the Music Theater Works professional production of Fiddler on the Roof. For months I sat in on production meetings, helping with the details: the ritual objects, the costumes, the pronunciation of Hebrew and Yiddish, even the choreography of a Shabbat table. We worked to reflect the authenticity of the 1904 Pale of Settlement Jewish shtetl, with the context of today’s immigration and refugee crisis at the forefront.
In Between Is Living (Kol Nidre 5786-2025 Sermon by Rabbi Rachel Weiss)
During these Days of Awe, Yamim Nora’im, the book of life is open, the book of life closes. In the middle is the work we do now, and the life we pray we will live.
Humility, Courage, and Return: Learning Teshuvah from Moses, Joshua, and Ourselves
Shabbat Shuvah – Parshat Vayeilech (Deuteronomy 31) 5 Tishrei 5786 (9/26/2025) by JRC member Linda Mathias Kaskel Welcome to Our Season of Return Here we are on Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of Return, we stand in the sacred space between Rosh Hashanah and...
The Value of Community (Personal Reflection, High Holidays 5785)
On March 14th of last year, my brother Steve Mendelson died after a short bout of renal cancer. Steve was the middle brother of what my father lovingly referred to as My Three Sons, which, for those of you too young to remember, was a television show in the 1960s....
Parshat Lech Lecha: Places and Names
November 9, 2024 D’var by JRC member Vickie Korey Lech Lecha is the third parsha in the book of Genesis. In the beginning, there is Creation. The first through seventh days and nights are created. The Sabbath is designated, man and woman are created, sins are noted,...
Parshat Eikev (Summer 2023 JRC Member D’vrei Torah Series)
Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion, Eikev, is the third section of the Book of Deuteronomy, where Moses continues his second farewell address to the Israelites and urges them to observe even what appear to be minor commandments. Moses then continues his review...
Parsha Eikev (Summer 2024 JRC Member D’vrei Torah Series)
The defining structure of this parsha is repetition. We have encountered everything in this parsha, more than once. As if someone is either phoning it in, being paid by the word, or are afraid the message was lost in translation. Considering how many times the...