FALL ISSUE 2025 ~ NEW MEXICO JEWISH JOURNAL ~ ELUL 5785

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The New Year 5786 begins with Rosh Hashanah at sunset on Monday, September 22nd.

Welcome to the FALL 2025 issue of the nationally award-winning New Mexico Jewish Journal.  This issue's articles are full of surprises, see links below.
Leave it to Judith Fein, who has explored spirituality across the globe, to discover the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton embroidered onto the inside of a cape made in the 1950s for the adoration of the statue of Mary in Santa Fe.
As a young Jewish lawyer and White House Fellow inside Nixon's White House, Bobbie Greene Kilberg worked to see Nixon's dream fulfilled for Blue Lake to be returned to the Taos Pueblo, with bipartisan leadership from Democratic Senator Fred Harris and LaDonna Harris, and the drama of a last-ditch attempt by a rancher-backed New Mexico Senate Democrat to derail the bill.
One hundred objects auger an infinitude of stories for Ilan Stavans in YIVO's centennial book from the Yiddish Institute for Jewish Research.
Rabbi and Los Alamos physicist Rabbi Dr. Jack Shlachter, now 30 years a rabbi, muses on how Jewish thought has shaped the direction of scientific inquiry in a wide-ranging discussion with Gloria Abella Ballen and Ron Duncan Hart.
Cantor Barbara Finn shares how life in re'wire'ment is for some of our spiritual leaders. Discover unsung women pioneers who came West along the Santa Fe Trail in a new award-winning book by historian Frances Levine, Crossings, described in a tribute by Dianne R. Layden.
Corinne Joy Brown tells a story of a renewal of creativity during a writing retreat at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Min Kantrowitz takes us on a journey of Jewish Values about Dignified Giving to the Needy.
A music video by Joel Carrasco with a Crypto-Jewish theme is an official selection for the upcoming Silver City Community Film Festival.
The Jewish community steps up to support immigration rights organizations. Fred Nathan underscores, surprise, surprise, that the dark money blocking malpractice insurance reform came from New Mexico's trial lawyers.
Check out Avid Readers Recommend, now with Letters to the Editor, and the Lifestyles tab (click 3 dots or bars to see all the tabs) for obituaries and community notes. And explore our nifty new tab Past Issues, you'll see all the articles we've published! You can also use the Search Tool 🔍 (the magnifying glass at the top of the page to the right) to find any author, topic or title.

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A Dazzling Fashion Show for the Most Famous Jewish Mother in the World

By Judith Fein Photos by Paul Ross As an international travel journalist, I have met with prime ministers and presidents. As a Hollywood writer, I had alone time with stars, and heads of studios. Never did I feel a frisson of fear. But I was un petit peu panicky about

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The Inside Story of the Return of Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo

By Bobbie Greene Kilberg Blue Lake is a sacred site for the Taos Pueblo, central to their religion, and in 1906 Blue Lake and its surrounding 48,000 acres of watershed land were taken away from the Pueblo by the Federal Government and incorporated into the neighboring national forest. The

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100 Objects from YIVO

by Ilan Stavans In the mid-1980s, as a 25-year-old newly minted Yiddish-speaking immigrant from Mexico to New York, I had two institutions I was eager to be involved with: Forverts, the left-leaning Yiddish daily edited by Abraham Cahan, where Isaac Bashevis Singer, the author of Satan in Goray, The Slave,

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Rabbi Dr. Jack Shlachter: Thirty Years as a Rabbi

Interview with Gloria Abella Ballen and Ron Duncan Hart Rabbi Dr. Jack Shlachter is the rabbi of the Los Alamos Jewish Center and HaMakom in Santa Fe. He is a physicist and the past Head of the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory. This interview, edited for clarity, is

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Clergy Retirement as Re”wire”ment

By Cantor Barbara Finn In this article, compiled and edited by Cantor Barbara Finn, is a delightful sharing of some of the ways our local retired clergy are spending their time. Rabbi Deborah Brin retired twice. The first time was without any planning or intention. She quit her job when

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Tribute to Frances Levine’s New Book, Crossings: Women on the Santa Fe Trail

By Dianne R. Layden, Ph.D. Frances Levine will speak about Jewish women and men on the Santa Fe Trail on Zoom on September 8, 2025, 7:00 PM. Register with the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, 505-348-4471 or BIT.LY/NMJHS-FL. Dr. Frances Levine is well known in New

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From Mabel Dodge Luhan to Rosh Hashanah: An Unexpected Connection

by Corinne Joy Brown Creatives of every kind seem drawn to New Mexico, in part for the stimulation of the scenery and varied culture, and often, to connect with artistic communities that abound there. It’s well known that the “Land of Enchantment” is home to writers and visual artists

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Pe’ah - Dignified helping the needy

By Rabbi Min Kantrowitz - Jewish Values #6 Each edition of NMJJ highlights one of the many Jewish values that guide our lives. Each of these values underlies our Jewish community, regardless of any individuals’ religious observances or practices. These values form the ethical structure of the community. They are

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Carrasco’s Crypto-Judaic Music Video an Official Selection for the Silver City Film Festival

Story contributors: Blanca Carrasco, Joel Carrasco, Larry Lesser, & Kim Ryan Joel Carrasco, a recent UTEP grad in Digital Media Production, reached the red carpet with his first-ever music video. His video of Larry Lesser’s song “Lights Lead Home” from Lesser’s award-winning album Sparks was announced as an Official

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Jewish Community Foundation Increases Grants to Immigrant and Refugee Organizations after an Influx of Donations

By Vivian Skadron, JCF Grants Committee, Co-Founder of the JCF Immigrant and Refugee Assistance Fund This month, the Jewish Community Foundation of New Mexico (JCFNM) announced an increase in grantmaking through its Immigrant and Refugee Assistance Fund as a result of significant donations pouring into the fund over the past

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Dark Money Group Unmasked by the New Mexico Ethics Commission

By Fred Nathan, Executive Director, Think New Mexico Earlier this summer, a dark money group called “New Mexico Safety Over Profit” (NMSOP) was sued by the state Ethics Commission for refusing to comply with the state law that required them to disclose the sources of their funding. NMSOP was the

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Avid Readers Recommend, and Letters, Fall 2025

We have a new feature, Avid Readers Recommend. Paid subscribers only may submit, by email, letters of 250 words or less to comment on articles we have published, and links to other published articles from known credible, trustworthy, publications that they very much want other NMJJ readers to see. (If

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Fall issue cover: "Rosh HaShanah" by Gloria Abella Ballen. Visit https.//www.abellaballen.com.

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Shabbat with Friends: Recapturing Together the Joy of Shabbat
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Where the North Ends, A Novel by Hugo Moreno 

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