Rabbis and Immigration Justice
In January 2023, President Biden ventured down to the southern border of the United States. While in El Paso, President Biden met with Bishop Mark Seitz, who gave him a note from a migrant child waiting to be reunited with her family. In part, the message read, ”Lord, I ask you to get me out of here soon. Help me with my case. I want to be with my mommy and my sister soon.” During the Trump Administration, the media covered the sounds and images of US Border Patrol personnel ripping babies from their mother’s arms. While that may not be the current practice under the Biden Administration, US immigration policies do continue to separate families. US immigration policy continues to be a disaster, with […]
Jews in the Woods
I had only known urban or suburban living until I moved to Vermont. Having grown up in Montreal in the suburban shtetl that is ironically called Cote-Saint-Luc, I moved to the west coast, then New York City, and finally, to Boston for rabbinical school at Hebrew College. Rural living was as foreign to me as a New York bagel (I am a Montrealer after all, and we know our bagels are the best in the world), but almost 10 years later, there’s just no going back to urban life. While pollsters and their analysts may bemoan the crumbling of Jewish life across North America, I can tell you that, in rural Vermont, Jewish living is thriving with great potential for more meaningful engagement. It is […]
Re-Thinking “Spiritual” Communities—Jewish Cohousing
Jews love community. We pray in groups (minyanim). We study in pairs (chevruta). We eat and celebrate together in joyous gatherings (smachot). Historically, Jews also typically lived in community. We stayed together as a people through persecution in Biblical times and dispersion in diaspora by living connectedly in Jewish villages, neighborhoods, and yes, even shtetls. We returned from exile and established kibbutzim and moshavim, close-knit Israeli communities where neighbors did all manner of things together, from draining swamps and farming to eating meals and raising kids. We came to the U.S. and created a thriving Jewish village on the Lower East Side. Community has sustained us; it is in our bones. But today, most Jews don’t live in community. Our lives, in particular our Jewish […]