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...
A Passover Seder Supplement for 2020
The Haggadah is a tool for imparting the lessons of the past to the next generation. We are meant to apply the Biblical stories of oppression to the present so that we can create a future of equality, peace, and justice for all. Jewish tradition teaches: “Whoever...
Corona – the test
As I began revising a test to give my students to evaluate their learning this semester, I got to thinking about the test of Corona. Corona… a test of our patience – how long can we endure? a test of our faith – when will it end? how will it end? a test of our...
Corona and the art of patience – a Mussar teaching for today
In my family we have an ongoing joke. We stopped calling days Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday and so on, we just call it “day.” While thankfully, my family is able to teach and study and work as part of our daily routines, still the monotony of being in severely limited...
We are one – writing our Corona legacy
We are writing our collective Corona legacy. Foremost among all teachings will be that we are one as a world. Today we are one. We are one in our appreciation for shelter to shelter in place, for food that sustains us, and technology that connects us. We are one in...
Where do you find light in the darkness?
Jewish mystics teach us to lift up the shattered shards of our world in order to bring healing. Each time we encounter darkness – the darkness of headlines or the darkness on social media or the darkness of despair that some might be feeling, we need to do our...
Sacrifices Large and Small – Day 12
Sacrifices stand at the center. Sacrifices are at the center of the Five Books of Moses. This week, the Jewish world opens Leviticus, the middle book of the Torah, and reads of the sacrifices that Moses called the Israelites to offer as they stood at Mt. Sinai....
Darkness and Light – Day 11
As the virus progresses globally, the darkness become greater. The news raises the volume on despair. According to Jewish mysticism, with the world’s creation came a shattering of vessels containing God’s light. Shards scattered everywhere, hidden for later...
How? Lamentation for your city and mine
[The Book of Lamentations is read on Tisha B’av – the day on which the First and Second Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed. The texts in italics are quotes from the Hebrew Bible.] How deserted is the city, so once full of people! (Lamentations 1:1) The stores...
Mother’s Day in England & honoring parents in the era of Corona
Honoring our parents is one of the most important commandments in Judaism. The sages put it on par with honoring the Divine. No matter how much we do for our mothers and fathers, it is a commandment that can never be completely fulfilled. When we are young, it is a...
The Real Me
Without hair color, our age will be shown. Without a uniform of suits heading to work, our everyday garb will be revealed. Without daily routines of shaving, mens’ beards will be increasing. No manicures, no pedicures, no haircuts — real nails and unstyled...
Moving to mobilization – are you in?
It has become clear that we need a campaign to support our healthcare workers in their war on Corona. They are on the frontlines fighting the war on Covid-19 and do not have what they need to keep themselves, their families, or their patients safe. Gloves, masks, eye...
Simplicity – Full Stop
We hesitate to reflect on silver linings, fearful of what tomorrow might bring. We appreciate the simplicity of today, recognizing the ways in which we have been held in bondage by our busyness and weighed down by our materials. The swift pace of our lives led us to...
The Coronathon – the marathon we did not sign up for
We are at the start of a marathon for which we had no prep and no training. Some of us don’t run. Some of us can’t run. Some of us don’t want to run. But all of us are in it. The horn was sounded and off we go. Here are some lessons from marathon runners to guide us:...
Corona’s juxtaposition – we are in this alone and we are in this together
Corona creates a juxtaposition. We are at a distance: from our work, from our families, from our everyday lives. Yet we are connected: globally, our priorities are aligned – health, food, the basics. We are anxious: knowing that we cannot know what tomorrow will...
A prayer for our American healthcare heroes
To our neighbors, friends, and community members who are healthcare workers, Thank you… For leaving your home in a time of social distancing. For doing your sacred work of healing. For subduing your inevitable fears to do your job. For your minds that find treatments....
The new, tough conversation we need to have with our kids who are young adults
To our children, We are so sorry that your lives have been turned upside down. We know that so many of your plans have been disrupted and you are disappointed. We are looking forward to this pandemic passing and we already know that this chapter of global history is...
A new place, a new time, a new way
We are in a new place… one we have never known. A wave of a threatening virus is sweeping across our globe. Disrupting – lives, economies, livelihoods. Disordering dreamed of moments – academic experiences for all ages from field trips to the zoo to study...
Celebrating Jewish Earth Day here and there
As a child, on our Jewish Earth Day called Tu Bishvat, my peers and I would buy trees to plant in Israel. As I grew into a young adulthood, we’d have Tu Bishvat seders. Exploring Jewish mysticism, we’d eat the fruits and drink the wines of Israel – four cups...
Three Freedom Songs – A Jewish Take on Liberation
Delivered at Temple Beth El, January 10, 2020 It feels good to be here on this bima. I love this place. We are blessed with incredibly talented clergy: Rabbi Knight, Rabbi Klass and Cantor Thomas. They have great voices – voices of wisdom, voices of kindness, they...
So today is Jewish and Proud Day…
When I learned that today was Jewish and proud day, it struck me as odd. When I stopped to think about it, for me every day is Jewish and proud day. I am proud that our heritage serves as the foundation for the Christian and Muslim faiths who represent billions of...
Never and Again – This time an attack on a home Chanukah Party
We pray “never again” in response to the violent escalation of antisemitism or any hate and yet it is happening again and again. In the summer of 2018, I began my studies for a doctoral program at the Hebrew Union College. In a course for my major in American Jewish...
Evolving and Devolving
Written for Kristallnacht (November 9-10, 2019) and Veteran’s Day (November 11, 2019) Language evolves. Research evolves. Learning evolves. We have been told to expand our language. November 9-10, 1938, was called Kristallnacht – a night of broken glass. Today...
On this holy day, a confessional for all
[Published as an Op-Ed in the Charlotte Observer on Yom Kippur, October 9, 2019] Tonight starts Yom Kippur – a time that Jews across the globe spend in fasting, prayer, and atonement. For 25 hours, we acknowledge and repent of our personal wrongdoing, as well as the...
9/11 – Where do we find faith?
[A reflection for a faculty meeting at Queens University of Charlotte.] Today is 9/11. Our Freshman were born the year of the 9/11 tragedy. Our sophomores, juniors and seniors were toddlers. Our traditional undergrads were born into a world where planes were hijacked,...
El Paso, Dayton, your town, my town
El Paso, Dayton,your town, my town. The El Paso Del Sol Trauma Medical Director said:“It was a long night and long day.” I would add –it has been a long year.Dayton marks the 250th U.S. mass shooting in 2019. In El Paso, the chain of healing started at the...
People plan. God laughs.
[Delivered at Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, July 14, 2019 & Temple Beth El, July 19, 2019. Based on Parashat Balak and Haftarah on Micah.] “Der mensch tracht, un gott lacht – Man plans and God laughs.” There’s a Yiddush expression: “Der Mensch...
Clergy, Moral Courage, and Reproductive Rights
Being clergy calls for moral courage and being a voice for those who are voiceless. Women facing one of the most painful life decisions of choosing to terminate a pregnancy need religious leaders who support a woman’s right to choose to be a voice for them. Last...
What are we teaching our children?
“Say No to HB 370” Press Conference & Interfaith Clergy Rally to Protect our Immigrant Neighbors We stand here today not as politicians but as religious leaders – committed to faith, committed to the faithful, committed to the oppressed, committed to...