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...
An NC Rabbi on Kanye West, Donald Trump and disrupting the drumbeat of hate
This editorial was published in the Charlotte Observer on October 19, 2022 The drumbeat of hate in our society is becoming louder and more prevalent. It is coming at us in surround sound and emitting from multiple instruments. This past weekend former President Trump...
Ecclesiastes and advice on marriage – there is a time for everything
Dr. Dick Blackwell, trained in both psychotherapy and ministry, and I reflected on Ecclesiastes and making marriage work. My words are in black font and Dr. Blackwell’s insights are in purple. Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for everything – for...
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...
120 minutes and 120 years: guilt, wisdom and clearing our conscience
Have you ever hit send on an email and then wished you could take it back? Did you know there’s an Outlook feature that lets you recall an email for up to 120 minutes after you send it? In Gmail the option to retract an email is available for only 30 seconds....
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...
Kristallnacht & Pittsburgh: Shattering and Picking Up the Shattered Pieces
Hate… Plans shattered. Dreams shattered. Lives shattered. Kristallnacht: Germany’s shattering. November 9th and 10th. The virus of antisemitism. Awakened, virulent, violent. Tree of Life Synagogue: Pittsburgh’s shattering. America’s shattering. October 27th. An...
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...
Election Season Event: Candidates of Color Forum at Queens University, April 21st @ 7:00 pm
Election Season Event: April 2022 Candidates of Color Forum with Aisha Dew & Rev. Vahisha Hasan and Queens Students Thursday, April 21, 2022 Time: 7:00 pm Location: Ketner Auditorium at Queens University of Charlotte Who will be running our city and county?...
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...
Charlotte interfaith leaders unveil traveling mural honoring those living in tent cities
Charlotte interfaith leaders unveil traveling mural honoring those living in tent cities As Jews began the holiday of Passover during the last weekend in March, at their traditional Seder meal they recited the 10 Plagues that God is said to have imposed on 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...
House Bill 69 – Supporting NC’s Education on the Holocaust and Genocide Bill
These words were delivered by Rabbi Judy Schindler to the North Carolina House Education K-12 Standing Committee on March 23, 2021. In the five years since our inception, the Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice at Queens University of Charlotte has...
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...
Gratitude and One Prayer – A Thanksgiving Peaceful Pause with Musician Beth Schafer
How is this Thanksgiving different from all other Thanksgivings? It has been a tough nine months. We have endured so much pain as a community, country, and globe. People are struggling so deeply with homelessness, unemployment, isolation, illness, death, not to...
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...
A Prayer for Healing
God of Hannah, who saw tears roll down her face and provided solace, God of Hagar, who opened her eyes to the see the wellspring before her, help us in our moments of despair to open our eyes to see the wellsprings before us, God of Miriam, who led our people in song...
Mayim Chayim – Living Waters
Yom Kippur 5781/2020 [If you are reading this and would like to comment, please do not post your comments on social media but on this blog or through the google doc link below. Thank you.] It is great to be with you, my Temple Beth El Family for this healing service....
“It is not good for man to be alone.” I have learned we never are.
This is recommended pre-reading for those who are attending Temple Beth El’s Yom Kippur Afternoon Healing Service. “What if?” I asked myself as the pandemic began to impact all of our lives on a profound level. “What if I or the people I know and love get...
Why I march for Black Lives Matter
These words were shared as part of a panel with Dr. Buffie Longmire-Avital and Laurel Grauer, with Amy Rogers as moderator, on the topic of “Black Lives Matter from Jewish Perspectives” on August 5, 2020. Questioning is part of human nature. Questioning is...
My words to City Council…
Shared at a Public Forum on July 27, 2020. Thank you for removing the Judah Benjamin memorial from Tryon Street. I and the Jewish community deeply appreciate your work. I speak tonight on the Charlotte Black Upward Mobility & Restorative Justice Resolution that we...
Find comfort? Where? How?
Today is called the Sabbath of comfort. With hundreds of thousands dead and millions sick from COVID-19, where and how are we supposed to find comfort? As Jews, we are experts in facing shattered worlds. In 586 BCE, we witnessed the destruction of our First Temple in...
Holy ground & holy people – Selma & Representative John Lewis
In my mind, Selma is a place of holy ground – a place where a bloody civil rights battle was fought. The bridge serves as the perfect metaphor for the work we are called to today. We need to move forward to transform our country from a place of empty promises of...
Change starts with me
Like many of us, the famous Rabbi Salantar looked at the world and was tortured by the injustice and pain he saw. As a youth, he set his sights on changing the world as so many of us do. After some time, he found it difficult to change the world so he tried to change...
A physical virus helps us see our historic virus
[These were my words at the June 15, 2020 Restorative Justice CLT Teach-In.] As I do this work, I keep this image of Jonathan Ferrell on my desk. In 2015, when the email came asking if any clergy would be willing to be a part of support team for a mother, Mrs. Georgia...
20/20 and 2020 – A year of perfect vision or not?
“I always thought 2020 was going to be a hopeful year… Then I was dreadfully wrong… Then, perhaps, I was right.” For the past 18 years I had high hopes for the year 2020. Since the day my youngest child entered kindergarten, I would daydream about his graduating high...
Memorial Days and Trumpets
Today is Memorial Day in the United States. My father and father-in-law served in the United States Army. We have memorial days in many countries and we have memorial days in the Torah. Just as trumpets play “Taps” today as a cry and call for peace, so...
Celebrating the moms of our world
There is a Yiddush proverb that says that “God could not be everywhere so God created mothers.” Today we celebrate the mothers of our world — our own mothers; mothers who are essential workers and healthcare workers; mothers who are working; mothers...
A New Way of Marking Time: Before Corona (BC) and After Corona (AC)
We know that life and the world have changed. There will be a new way of marking time. There will be BC – Before Corona, and there will be AC – After Corona. In the meantime, we are in the middle. In the religious realm, this time is what we call liminal....
Passover and the Power of Opening Doors
The holiday of Passover teaches us about the power of opening and closing doors. Both are critical to saving life. To lift your Seder with meaning and relevance, click here for a 2020 Passover Seder Supplement 2020. Photo by Diane...