Archive

Chanukah at the Governor’s Mansion

I was blessed to spend the fourth night of Chanukah with Governor Cooper and 16 clergy from the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association at the Governor’s Mansion. Here are the words I shared: Chanukah celebrates the kindling of light on the darkest days of the...

In Honor of Rabbi David Ellenson, of blessed memory

Jews across the globe were bereft over the sudden death last week of Rabbi David Ellenson, former President of the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religious, the Reform movement’s seminary. The Central Conference of American Rabbis shared in their...

Holding Complexity in Your Broken Heart and Finding Healing

Written upon returning from a journey of listening in Israel in mid-November 2023 There is a shattered feeling that is pervasive in Israel and Gaza. The shards of Israel’s southern communities have left people devastated and scattered across the country. Peace...

You turn my mourning into dancing

You turn my mourning into dancing… so that my heart might sing to you and not be silent. (Psalm 30: 12-13) Our global cups are overflowing with grief – Israeli grief, Palestinian grief, Jewish grief, Muslim grief, Christian grief – the latter, at...

Kristallnacht – far longer than a night

This was shared at the 85th Commemoration of Kristallnacht at Queens University of Charlotte. Kristallnacht – some call it the night of broken glass but it wasn’t just a night.  It was experienced as an eternal night — on which systematic-state...

Shloshim – Thirty Days

Od lo avdah tikvateinu – Our hope is not lost. The first thirty days of grief has passed yet tragically still we grieve and still we weep. The cloud of sorrow is palpable. And still the end of shloshim bids us to return to the tasks of life, to the tasks of our...

Oneness

Three weeks ago this Shabbat, our Jewish world was turned upside down in a way that it will never, in our lifetime, be the same.  In the midst of this dark and most devastating time, there have been so many sources of light, healing and hope. Rabbi Andrea London...

We will survive and we will thrive

This talk was delivered at the Hadassah Celebrate the Tatas Event. It is so good to be together. We all need community. We all need Jewish community – now more than ever. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inviting me. When I’ve mentioned to others that I’d be...

Paving Paths to Understanding and Healing

Faculty from multiple faiths are invited to share reflections prior to our faculty meetings. As fate would have it, I was asked to share a reflection prior to yesterday’s faculty meeting. While my reflections are usually lighter and universal, my heart was...

Soul Strong

Temple Beth El Healing Service, Yom Kippur 5784/2023 Thank you Rabbi Knight, Rabbi Erdheim, Rabbi Nichols, Cantor Roskin, and Cantor Thomas for these beautiful services.  Thank you for your stellar leadership and thank you for making me feel at home here. I love...

Interfaith Healing

This sermon was delivered at Grace Baptist Church in Statesville, North Carolina, on Sunday, August 28, 2023. Psalm 133 says, “Hinei mah tov u-mah naim shevet achim gam yachad, behold how good it is to be together as brothers and sisters, as siblings.” And I say the...

Kindness

This was shared as a reflection at our Queens University College of Arts and Sciences faculty meeting in August 2023.  Kindness in English, chesed in Hebrew, is a concept that appears in the Torah more than 190 times. In Judaism, there are 613 commandments, and...

The Yahrziet of Miriam, the Prophetess

This Dvar Torah was delivered at Adugas Israel in Hunterville for their Women of Valor Shabbat on June 30, 2023. At that moment of freedom, immediately after Moses and the Children of Israel sang out in a song, “Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took...

Justice, justice you shall pursue for all

This benediction was written for the ribbon cutting at the New Charlotte U.S. Courthouse Annex and Charles R. Jonas Federal Building Renovation on May 19, 2023. It is an honor to be here and offer prayers and blessings for this courthouse. A vision for justice is...

Sacred Intersections of Time

Today we celebrate a sacred intersection of time. Our Jewish siblings are the midst of Passover celebrating promises of redemption — awakening ancient memory and creating memoryconnecting age-old journeys to today“Egypts” of oppression still existcalling for...

The protests in Israel offer valuable lessons for Americans

This editorial was published in the Charlotte Observer and in Raleigh and Durham on Monday, April 3, 2023. Israel just showed us how a nation can preserve democracy when citizens are committed to preserving it. Protecting democracy is crucial to me, whether in the...

Our Freedom Song

After experiencing hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, the moment of redemption is finally upon us. Miraculously, we, as Israelites, cross through parted seas and stand on solid ground of freedom. Our first act of freedom is to sing. Moses and the Israelites sing....

The increase of antisemitism in America

This interview was aired on Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins on November 10, 2022 (the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night of Broken Glass more appropriately known as the November Pogrom). Link to Charlotte Talks Podcast Link to Charlotte Talks Facebook Live...

We will survive and we will thrive

[Delivered at the Yom Kippur Afternoon Healing Service at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, 5783/2022.] To view the video of this sermon click here. How good it is to be here with all of you.  There is a Yiddish expression that says you can’t dance at two weddings...

Our Prayers at the Dawn of New Jewish Year

Today marks the Jewish New Year of 5783. At this dawn of a new year… We pray for Ukraine and for its people to blessed with peace. May this year witness a reunification of Ukrainian families and return of those refugees who desire to rebuild their homes and lives. We...

A Prayer for our Shalom Park Garden

In this garden may all things grow… May seeds of a lifetime of loving our earth be planted and the roots to generations before us be found May awe be inspired and flowers of friendship blossom May the fruits of our work be shared generously and lift and...

When Hate Comes Your Way: Lesson Learned by the Greenspon Center

When hate comes your way or to an organization you know, which we hope it never does, there are things that one can do to respond in ways that are effective, if not, transformative. When it comes to college campuses, the statistics are alarming. According to Hillel...

Sacred Intersections of Time

We celebrate sacred intersections of time. Our own Kiddush cups filled celebrating promises of redemption – past, present, and future simultaneously awakening ancient memory and creating memory connecting age-old journeys to today “Egypts” of oppression still exist...

Havdalah and Healing Service in prayer for Ukraine

I once gave a Yom Kippur sermon at Temple Beth El, noting that there are some ultra-Orthodox communities where rabbi cards are traded like baseball counterparts, and that if I had such cards, I’d want those of my two favorite Rabbis – Reb Nachman of Breslov and my...

Wedges versus solidarity in Muslim-Jewish relations

by Dr. Hadia Mubarak and Rabbi Judy Schindler   Whether it’s the synagogue hostage situation in Colleyville, Texas or other acts of violence, such events tap into deep fears and threaten to drive yet another wedge between Muslim and Jewish Americans. While these...

The Birth Stories of the Jewish People

This was delivered as part of the 25th annual Comparative Religion Series at Temple Beth El. Robert Seltzer opens his tome on Jewish People Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History with the following statement: “Thirty two centuries ago, the Jewish people...

Sisters

[Reflection from the Conversation on Healing from Trauma: Colleyville, COVID, and Rising Hate on January 24, 2022 and in gratitude to Dr. Hadia Mubarak] We are sisters, scared because of hate aimed at our difference, feeling safety in our solidarity, and support as we...

Texas synagogue horror sparks an all too familiar fear

This editorial was published in the Charlotte Observer on January 18, 2022. It was co-authored by Rabbi Judy Schindler and Rabbi Asher Knight. As Jews, we have had a long history of experiencing our religious “otherness” as a source of fear. Yesterday’s daylong horror...

Setting your intention for 2022

We stand at the start of the new year of 2022. Milestones in time are ideal moments for reflection and for setting intentions that lead to change. The past two years have challenged every one of us and our world. With each passing wave of the pandemic, the tensions in...

Prayer for 2022 & Our World

As we wake to the dawn of a New Year, we pray for… Hearts of compassion to recognize the struggles of others. Minds of wisdom to heal our world – so that we can eradicate the pandemic in the long-term, and in the short-term, learn to live with it and not die...

The soil on which we stand

This talk was delivered at the Restorative Justice Two Year Reflection at Little Rock AME Zion in Charlotte, NC, August 22, 2021 Thank you to Dr. Walker for hosting us. Thank you Dr. Keaton for leading this organizing effort, this organization Restorative Justice CLT,...

A Letter to Mother Earth

This was delivered as a keynote at the Greening Our Faith Communities Summit. May 20, 2021. Charlotte, NC. Dear Mother Earth, We come to you as people of faith from across the state and beyond.  We come to you virtually because our world is sick.  An illness...

At the Cemetery: Stones & Tears

As Jews, we carry not flowers, but stones to the cemetery. Flowers are beautiful but death is not — so we bring stones so as to be realists, so as not to gloss over the harshness and pain. Our hearts are still torn – even as the years and decades may dull the...

That man is a mensch…

That man is a mensch, who lives each day to its fullest; who loves deeply and gives generously, earning the admiration of all; who fills the world with laughter and love, befriending every person; who continually seeks knowledge and wisdom, making mitzvot and the...

The Fight for Freedom Today: A Passover Seder Supplement

The Jewish holiday of Passover begins on the evening of Saturday, March 27th.  The narrative of the Exodus has inspired countless communities in the past and today to fight for freedom.  Our Seder supplement is designed to enable you to bring contemporary...

Refugee Shabbat & praying for the children of our world

We take this Shabbat to think about those globally who are seeking a place of refuge. Why did HIAS (the Jewish refugee resettlement agency) choose this day for Refugee Shabbat? Perhaps because Passover is quickly approaching and we need to think about the ways in...

Two weeks in Washington & our country’s soul

From darkness to light; from violence to the peaceful transfer of power; from insurgency to democracy; from hate to hope; from white supremacy to equality; and from Confederate flags to American flags. From sexism, racism, and antisemitism to Vice President Harris and...

The Turning Point that is Today

We feared this day would come — for we know that words of violence lead to acts of violence. A white supremacist militia group, the Proud Boys, were told to by President Trump to stand back and stand by and they did. They came to Washington yesterday and today and...

Pray for the peace of our country

Take time today to pray. Take time tomorrow to vote (if you haven’t already). And the day after, make time to be civically engaged. Our country and our future depend on all of us. Source of all life, we pray for our country, and its democracy; for peaceful and...

A 1963 Rabbi’s Speech You Need to Hear

The Black-Jewish relationship of the 1960s had strength and created memories of which Jews today are proud. • Fifty percent of the young people who volunteered from all parts of the United States in the summer of 1964 to register voters in Mississippi were Jews....

Each person is a walking Torah

The Torah is the ultimate spiral curriculum, we grow with each annual reading. The teachings on Torah and its commentaries are like a sea — they are endless and we grow endlessly by studying them. This weekend marks a global Jewish celebration of the Torah...