The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende “When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating,” begins Isabel Allende. As a child, she watched her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children without “resources or voice.” Isabel became a fierce and defiant little girl, determined […]
Deacon King Kong by James McBride In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate […]
I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust by Emily Grodin and Valerie Gilpeer A remarkable memoir by a mother and her autistic daughter who’d long been unable to communicate—until a miraculous breakthrough revealed a young woman with a rich and creative interior life, a poet, who’d been trapped inside for more than two decades. […]
Caste The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Poetically written and brilliantly researched, Caste invites us to discover the inner workings of an American hierarchy that goes far beyond the confines of race, class, or gender. A book steeped in empathy and insight, Caste explores, through layered analysis and stories of real people, the […]
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen In the back of beyond in the Negev, somewhere between Omer and Beersheva, Dr. Eitan Green — a man of principle who ended up in Beersheva because he refused to tolerate bribery in the medical field — runs over an Eritrean migrant worker while on a midnight drive through the desert. He leaves his […]
In The Country of Women by Susan Straight A moving family saga celebrates generations of bold, brave, and determined women. Award-winning novelist Straight (Between Heaven and Here, 2012, etc.) makes her nonfiction debut with an eloquent, absorbing memoir. Addressed to her three adult daughters, the narrative weaves together stories that transcend time, place, race, and […]
The Gratitude of Labor There is an important principle in Judaism, a source of hope and also one of the structuring principles of the Torah. It is the principle that God creates the cure before the disease. (Megillah 13b) Bad things may happen but God has already given us the remedy if we know where to look […]
Friday, February 4, 2022/3 Adar I, 5782 Parashat T’rumah Exodus 25:1−27:19 Dear Friends, After receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the Israelites are hard at work to create a sacred community of justice and compassion. They have now been living in the wilderness for months. Although the Torah gave them guidelines to help them settle […]
Odds & Ends & A Prayer Linda Rubin and Marla Shwarts Safety, transparency, hope, community, science, diligence, trust, – all of these attributes have been the guiding principles of your Reopening Task Force and Temple Beth El as we maneuver through this pandemic. Weekly meetings to keep pace with the ever changing science and medical […]
Celebrating Love Cantor Ilan Davidson cantor@bethelsp.org As we enter into the month of February, it seems appropriate to discuss the topic of celebrating love. In the past, you have read my article about a little-known holiday, the Jewish Valentine’s Day, T’u B’Av, which takes place in the summer. I also wrote about how, as Jews, […]
