SPARKS OF DEDICATION & MEN'S CLUB LATKE PARTY DEC. 19th CONGREGATION B'NAI ISRAEL
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A Long Journey Home
By Sabra Minkus After a 2000-plus year journey from Israel, a group called B'nei Menashe are in the process of returning to a land they believe is their ancestral home – Israel. They are believed to be the descendants of Manasseh, son of Joseph. They were exiled from northern
Our Kafkaesque Immigration System 2.0
By Emily Alvarez Mark M. (name and identifying details withheld for safety) fled his home country in South America in late 2018 after receiving threats that made remaining there impossible. He entered the United States legally on a B-2 visitor visa and, within months, filed an affirmative asylum application, a
"Chevra Kadisha: The Last Responders," Conference gathering at Camp Ramah, Ojai
By Gail Rubin, CT Between the general tendency to avoid discussing death, and the rule against revealing one’s participation in a specific tahara, many communities don’t know about the Chevra Kadisha and Jewish rituals they perform around end-of-life. It’s been six years since Kavod v’Nichum last
Etty and the Etty Project: Susan Stein in New Mexico
by Dianne R. Layden, Ph.D. The short play Etty about the life of Dutch woman Esther “Etty” Hillesum (1914-1943) during the German occupation was performed by Susan Stein in schools and houses of worship in New Mexico in October 2025.* I saw the performance in Albuquerque at Congregation Albert