Blog

Dear CBI Community, 

We are thrilled to share that Rabbi Ariella Rosen will be joining the Congregation B’nai Israel community as our new Director of Youth and Family Education and Engagement (DYFEE) on June 1, 2022.

After a thorough six-month search process, led by a search committee whose members ranged in age from thirteen to seventy, Rabbi Rosen emerged as the standout leader. Her deep and...Read more...

Dear Friends,

The recent anti-Semitic attacks and other incidents reported nationally arouse grave concern and prompt us to ask a number of critical questions about ourselves and our engagement as a Jewish community.  For each of us in different ways, such events may strike us either as unexpected or alternatively as familiar, but nevertheless they are shocking.  Looking to lessons learned over the past several years, I...Read more...

“Sha’alu Shalom Yerushalayim, Seek the Peace of Jerusalem…”

Psalms, 123: 6

Dear Friends,

My most basic, human response to the violence in Jerusalem, in Gaza, and numerous cities within Israel  is heartbreak.  In the face of lives lost, pervasive fear, dreams broken and rage unleashed, a...Read more...

Dear Friends,

I am very excited to share that I will be teaching a 5-session series on Reparations and Jewish Tradition, Sundays at 10:00 AM, April 11 - May 9.  

These sessions will explore the sources that people are look to for guidance in response to the call from the Black community and communities of color generally to compensate victims of slavery and systemic racism in our society.  Drawing on...Read more...

Dear Friends,

I know you join me in the sense of horror over the murders in Atlanta that left 8 people dead, 6 of whom were of Asian descent.  If you have read about this tragedy, you have also read how this incident reflects an alarming rise against Asian-Americans generally.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, there have been nearly 3800 incidents against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the past year. ...Read more...

Dear Friends,

By now, you may have heard of the devastating fire at the Martin Luther King Community Presbyterian Church in Springfield.  The church is a predominantly Black church, and the fire is being investigated by city, state and federal agencies.  According to several news reports, it has not yet been determined whether this fire was an act of arson or a hate crime.

I have reached out to the church directly as well as...Read more...

Shalom Friends,

Here is the link to tomorrow's Talmud study.  Tomorrow is Hanukkah, so in addition to our usual morning prayers beginning at 9:30, we'll also chant Hallel as part of the holiday.  That means our study will begin a little bit later - closer to 10:15 than our usual 10:00.

Also, I apologize for no video d'var Torah...yet!  Hopefully, I'll be able to record and send something after Shabbat.

Finally,...Read more...

Dear Friends,

Here is my video d'var Torah for this week, inspired by Rabbi Amy Eilberg and her book, From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace.  A few of us at CBI have the great privilege of calling Rabbi Amy Eilberg our friend, and she actually visited CBI about 6 years ago and shared her Torah of peacebuilding over Shabbat and during our first season of CBI Cafe.

If you're intrigued by something in...Read more...

Shalom Friends,

Here is last week's video d'var Torah.  Sorry it's several days late - I found it a little challenging to get it out before Shabbat, but here's hoping I can get them to you earlier in these winter months especially.

Chodesh Tov - it's Rosh Chodesh Kislev and we had a lovely, if chilly, minyan in person this morning, along with about another 9-10 people streming in.  Hanukkah of course is in a little more than...Read more...

Dear Friends,

This morning, we learned from the Northampton Police Department that three stickers were placed on a building in downtown Northampton.  All stickers had the tag “NSC 131 Zone,” which is code for the...Read more...