Read Our Rabbis' Weekly Messages

Dear Friends On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful that we just celebrated a beautiful installation. I want to offer thanks to the Board of Trustees and […]

Dear Friends, In two weeks, our congregation will celebrate its first Rabbinic Installation in decades.A Rabbinic Installation is a sacred event in the life of a […]

Dear Friends, In two weeks, our congregation will celebrate its first Rabbinic Installation in decades.A Rabbinic Installation is a sacred event in the life of a […]

Fight Hatred By Doing Deeds of Loving-Kindness With Your Temple Dear Friends, I remember exactly where I was on the day of the deadliest antisemitic attack […]

Colin Powell’s Yiddish Soul Dear Friends, This week America lost one of its most inspiring leaders, Colin Powell.  I first became aware of Powell in the […]

L’Chaim with Etrog Liquor Dear Friends, This week, William Shatner of Star Trek fame returned to earth after his first real-life journey into space. Shortly after touchdown, he […]

Dear Friends, Harvey Doppelt, a member of our congregation called me a few weeks ago. “Rabbi, would you lead the Babi Yar Remembrance Ceremony at the Ukrainian […]

Jewish Environmental Awareness Dear Friends, Almost every day in the newspaper I see articles about problems of climate change. In recent years there has been a […]

Sukkot Memories of my Father Dear Friends, I always think of my father at Sukkot because in his last years he became an Etrog farmer. One […]

Dear Friends, This coming Monday is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. We celebrate the full moon of the Fall equinox and the fruits of the harvest. The Sukkah is a […]

Dear Friends, This Shabbat is 9/11. If you ask someone where they were on 9/11, you will hear vivid memories of exactly where they were when the […]

Dear Friends, Tonight, is the last Shabbat of the year 5781. On Monday night we will usher in the New Year 5782. May our spirits, strength, […]

We are honoring you at the High Holy Days Dear Friends, It is exciting that in 10 days we will greet Rosh Hashanah at Caramoor in-person […]

Dear Friends, This week we witnessed the messy end of a 20-year American war in Afghanistan. This has been America’s longest war. More than 2,500 US […]

Mountains of Curses, Mountains of Blessings, and Gold Medals Dear Friends, This week the news of the Delta variant has cast a dark shadow on our […]

Dear Friends, In just six weeks we will greet the New Jewish Year, 5782. It is exciting to be back at Caramoor in-person. Many things will be […]

The Jewish antidote for hatred is a holiday of Love, Tu b’AvDear Friends,Ben and Jerry’s is playing politics with ice-cream. This week they announced a boycott […]

Spiritual Revival Dear Friends, A few weeks ago, at Torah study, Rabbi Greenberg revealed something unexpected. He said, “One of the greatest regrets of my rabbinate is […]

1 AvDear Friends, This past week my wife, Debbie, and I were driving in Manhattan. We were stopped at a red light. Looking up, we saw […]

Jewish July 4thDear Friends, Do you remember where you were on July 4th, 1976? This was the day of America’s Bicentennial and Operation Sail, the country’s largest […]

Summertime Shabbat at Shaaray Dear Friends,George Gershwin, the great composer, grew up in Brooklyn in a Jewish family. His name, at his Bar Mitzvah, was Jacob […]

Full of hope about new Israeli Knesset (government) Dear Friends, I am full of hope about the new Israeli government that began this week. This government […]

Ice-Cream and GodDear Friends, I am thrilled to inform you of our new policy. If you are vaccinated, you can take off your mask. I want to […]

Dear Friends, PRIDE in our Community I am so proud our congregation is Celebrating Pride Shabbat. Reform Judaism was the first movement to champion LBGTQ inclusion. Our […]

Dear Friends, The Roller Coaster The past few weeks have been a roller coaster for our Jewish community. The warfare in Israel has been heartbreaking. The […]