Monica Steiner: Abraham the Woman Would Have Stayed

Monica Steiner Hooray!: Abraham the Woman Would Have Stayed Monica has served as a lay leader at CBB for 11 years and on our professional staff for the past 5+, most recently as Director of Donor Relations. This month, CBB wished Monica and her family farewell as they move across country so Monica can begin [...]

2022-05-31T21:52:59-07:00May 31st, 2022|

Charles Perkins: Public Affirmation Speech 

Charles during his mikveh immersion at Goleta Beach. Photo by Phoebe Light Charles Perkins: Public Affirmation Speech Author's note: With much gentle nudging and calm reassurance, our own Rabbi Daniel Brenner convinced me that my public affirmation ceremony would benefit from a few short words about my conversion process -- my "journey home" [...]

2022-01-20T09:47:50-08:00January 20th, 2022|

Rabbi Steve Cohen: Religious Experience and the Reality of the Unseen

Rabbi Steve Cohen: Religious Experience and the Reality of the Unseen One hundred twenty years ago, the great American psychologist and philosopher William James was invited to deliver the prestigious Giffords Lectures in Natural Religion at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  The texts of his lectures were published in 1902 as The Varieties of [...]

2021-11-16T11:55:50-08:00November 16th, 2021|

Rabbi Daniel Brenner: Refugee Shabbat 2021

Rabbi Daniel Brenner: Refugee Shabbat 2021 Erev Shabbat Sermon, March 5, 2021 Tonight across the country, reform and conservative synagogues are commemorating Refugee Shabbat, a Project of the Hebrew immigrant aid society. And this weekend in Santa Barbara, many faith communities are participating in Love your neighbor weekend, a celebration of our immigrant populations.  How [...]

2021-03-09T17:32:02-08:00March 5th, 2021|

Rabbi Daniel Brenner: Reproduction Shabbat

Rabbi Daniel Brenner: Reproduction Shabbat Some of you may have seen that I was asked by the Santa Barbara News Press to comment on the Supreme Court decision to allow CA houses of worship to hold indoor services.  I told the author of the article that we would not be coming back to in-person services [...]

2021-02-16T14:24:27-08:00February 12th, 2021|

CBB Voices blog highlighted at Shabbat services!

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 [...]

2021-01-25T14:51:52-08:00January 25th, 2021|

Judi Shor: A Beshert Relation

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, [...]

2021-01-26T17:33:36-08:00January 18th, 2021|

Phoebe Light: Shabbat in the Time of Corona

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 [...]

2021-01-14T17:27:27-08:00January 14th, 2021|

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|
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