Elizabeth Gaynes: Remembering Judy Meisel Yesterday would have been Judy Meisel's 92nd birthday. If you did not know Judy, who passed away late last year, she was a Holocaust survivor, speaker and Civil Rights advocate, and Judy was also the Director of Beit HaYeladim Preschool at CBB for many years (click here to read about Judy’s [...]
Judi Shor: A Beshert Relation Like so many of you, Judy Meisel touched our family’s life in many inspiring and unforgettable ways. I would like to share a few ‘beshert’ Meisel-Shor coincidences. I knew Judy’s daughter, Debbie, from back east before we had even moved to Santa Barbara and met Judy. Debbie lived in Potomac, [...]
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 [...]
Rabbi Ira Youdovin: The Night the Rabbi Stole a Christmas Tree ‘Twas the twilight before Christmas. As I walked past the display of yuletide and Chanukah decorations in the lobby of my Chicago condo, Byron, one of the deskmen, came up to me with a very un-Christmas-like frown. He had planned to purchase a Christmas [...]
Barbara Greenleaf: The Sunday School of Grandma and Grandpa When our younger daughter saw that Sunday school was not going to reopen due to the Coronavirus, she asked her father and me if we would take over her boys’ religious education. We just looked at each other blankly and, frankly, a little panic-stricken. Neither of [...]
Stacy Baron: A Spoonful of Sugar A tribute to Judy Meisel . . . The recent passing of Judy Meisel, such a remarkable woman, brought back meaningful memories for so many of us in Santa Barbara. Judy’s children and grandchildren spoke so eloquently at her recent memorial on Zoom just a few weeks ago. Her [...]
Sharon Davidson: A Caregiver’s Prayer Master of the Universe, As I wake each morning to the heartbreaking tasks of providing care to my loved one, I pray for the energy and patience to meet the challenges of the day ahead and the days to come. I pray that I can perform these duties with kindness and respect, in order to maintain his dignity and honor his humanity. I pray [...]
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 [...]
Sharon Davidson: My Unetanah Tokef [This post shares the beautiful blessing poem by new CBB member Sharon Davidson. It was originally recorded and aired as part of her other Jewish home of Congregation Beth El in San Diego for their online High Holy Day services this year. We share it here today, thrilled to have [...]
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 [...]