Rabbi Steve Cohen: Two Abrahams

Rabbi Steve Cohen: Two Abrahams Shabbat Shalom! This evening I am thinking of our two great Abrahams. First, Abraham the father of the Jewish people, who lived about 4,000 years ago and whom we meet once again in this week’s Torah portion. And also Abraham Lincoln, who 150 years ago led the United States through [...]

2020-11-02T13:35:55-08:00November 2nd, 2020|

Rabbi Ira Youdovin: Now It’s Our Turn

Rabbi Ira Youdovin: Now It's Our Turn On the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av in the year 586 BCE, the prophet Jeremiah sat somewhere in Jerusalem watching his beloved city go up in flames.  Overcome with grief, he wrote words preserved in the biblical Book of Lamentations: “Lonely sits the city Once great [...]

2020-10-22T20:36:24-07:00October 22nd, 2020|

Mrs. Raymond King Myerson: A Word from Our Matriarch

Mrs. Raymond King Myerson: A Word from Our Matriarch At the suggestion of a very dear friend who recognized the value of my experience, I am sharing this information with any who may find it of value. Because of very advanced age and diminution of eyesight I have secured the company of four [...]

2020-10-20T18:08:26-07:00October 19th, 2020|

Gary Linker: What the Pandemic Brought Home To Me 

Gary Linker: What the Pandemic Brought Home To Me  As a fairly typical baby boomer who grew up in a secular Jewish home in the Midwest, I learned about social justice and the need to give back at a fairly young age.  As a teenager I attended many conferences on civil rights and became a very [...]

2020-10-01T13:07:43-07:00October 8th, 2020|

Rabbi Steve Cohen: Yom Kippur Sermon 2020 – Helplessly Hoping

Rabbi Steve Cohen: Yom Kippur Sermon 2020 - Helplessly Hoping Six long months ago, in late March, my sister sent me a link to a video of an Italian teen choir from Rome, singing a song from our youth, “Helplessly Hoping.” [See bottom of this post to view the video -- Ed]. I had never seen anything like it.  First one young woman, Irene, singing on her own, in her apartment.  She was then joined [...]

2020-09-30T11:26:01-07:00September 28th, 2020|

Joel Block: The Honest Struggle

Joel Block: The Honest Struggle All of us, throughout our lives, often have to make choices between what we think we ought to do and what we think is good for us.  This pandemic has only exacerbated that dilemma.  I am a committed Reform Jew, and that means that I believe that it is incumbent upon me, and all [...]

2020-09-15T15:15:04-07:00September 21st, 2020|

Rabbi Malka Drucker: A Different Four Questions

Rabbi Malka Drucker: A Different Four Questions My father wasn’t a religious man. I don’t know what he believed, only what he behaved. Along with suggesting that I not take everything so seriously, he advised, “What happens, honey, isn’t important; it’s how you deal with it. When I had a heart attack at 54, it [...]

2020-09-21T13:31:22-07:00September 17th, 2020|

Jonathan Gartner: A Jewish Journey

I’ve been thinking recently about CBB’s Mission Statement: “a diverse, inclusive community of individuals and families building together a warm and vibrant house of living Judaism.”   I like the mission statement but when I read it closely, I see many words – ‘community, building, house’ – which imply a physical space.  How, in this time of Covid and social [...]

2020-08-31T14:22:17-07:00September 10th, 2020|

Nick Woolf: What I Learned from Carlos

Shortly after lockdown I started thinking about Carlos Slim. Until recently he was the richest person in the world (and is currently fifth richest). He was asked to explain why he built gigantic supermarkets all over Mexico that put thousands of small shop owners out of business, and then devoted large amounts of the resulting [...]

2020-09-04T14:02:01-07:00September 7th, 2020|
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