At the One805 Live concert, fund raiser for Santa Barbara’s First Responders held at Kevin Costner’s ocean front estate a week ago, Prince Harry and Princess Megan awarded the “Heart of the Community” to CBB friend Adam McKaig. Adam heads up “Adam’s Angels,” the organization he founded in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. [...]
Jason Prystowsky MD, MPH: Some Omicron reflections from the last week From your friendly, neighborhood, community ER doc (who worked 12 of the last 14 days). . . 1) Omicron is here. It is 3x more contagious than Delta variant and 6-8x more contagious than original variant. It is causing “breakthrough infections” in those vaccinated [...]
Judy Karin: In the Fall We Build a Fort In the fall, we build a fort. I have a childhood memory: we’re stuck in traffic, on the way to visit my grandparents in Queens. I glance out the window and see a field of - I don’t know, it looks like giant ferns. It’s [...]
Lynn Altschul: Maintaining Good Mental Health as Covid Cases Surge Again The Mental Wellness Committee at CBB is engaged in understanding and providing activities, education and strategies for maintaining good mental health for our congregation. We will be exploring a variety of topics with the hope of bringing awareness and clarity to the many aspects [...]
Cantor Mark Childs: Reflections on Reopening Just in time to end their school year, the students from our Netivot program came together yesterday morning en masse, in-person, masked, distanced and very happy (see photo below). I can’t overstate my feelings of joy, after a year plus of interacting via Zoom, over being physically together. My utmost wish [...]
Janet Malki: CBB Leadership Institute When I first was contacted by Jill Feldman and Ashley Goldstein to participate in the CBB Irving and Marlyn Berstein Leadership Institute (LI) via Zoom, I was hesitant for a variety of reasons. You know the excuses: time commitment, not being able to meet in person, concerns about future requests to [...]
Amy Katz: January 6 Riots (Part 2) [Read Part 1, HERE] A very psychic friend had posted something about Nevada, right when I was wondering if and where to go. I took that as a sign. My destination: Carson City, the Capitol of Nevada. (I had to look up where the Capitol of Nevada was). [...]
Amy Katz: January 6 Riots (Part 1) In the wee hours of January 5th, I woke up in a state of abject fear, and in that liminal space between the death of sleep and the resurrection of waking, wrote this in my journal, and on Facebook: “I can’t put my phone down. If I put [...]
CBB Voices blog highlighted at Shabbat services! We celebrated a special "blog post Shabbat" this past Friday, January 22. During the sermon portion of the service, Allan Morton, Judy Karin, and Phoebe Light (pictured here) read posts they've published on the CBB Voices blog. Editor Monica Steiner introduced the panel by describing this blog project [...]
Phoebe Light: Shabbat in the Time of Corona My relationship with Jewish life had always been, up until a couple of years ago, off-and-on. Jewish summer camp a couple of times. A Birthright trip. A year playing guitar at Hillel in college. Even a three-year stint living in Israel, not that I ever really explored [...]