March 7, 2025
Shabbat Shalom! It is wonderful to be back, and I am so incredibly grateful for my time away these past few weeks. I want to express my profound gratitude to the staff and lay leaders who helped to cover for me while I was away, including leading services and Torah study. My time away gave me an opportunity to take a deep breath and spend time reflecting on Jewish life and the complexity we are encountering in the world during the last few months. Over the course of this time, I read several books which has helped me formulate my thinking about our congregation and how we can best carry out our vision, to empower people to live and learn Jewishly and make the world a better place. As I reflected on my readings, I will be spending the next several months in conversation with some of our lay leaders about the thoughts and challenges we are facing in the Jewish world and how we can best live in a world motivated by Jewish pride.
During this past month I read the following books which I highly recommend:
The Triumph of Life by Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is a reflection on theology over the course of Jewish history. Rabbi Greenberg writes of the role God plays in the world in this third era of Jewish life, post-Holocaust. God, he writes, has completely withdrawn from the world, meaning God no longer acts in the world, leaving the fulfillment of the covenant up to us.
For a Time Such as This by Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove is a reflection on Jewish life post October 7th. He discusses the challenges presented by community, the war, and antisemitism. The title of the book comes from the book of Esther when Mordecai calls out to Esther saying for a time such is this, perhaps you were placed at this moment in time to bring about healing and wholeness and lead in a complex world.
If You Will It by Elliot Abrams is also about living in a post October 7th world in which Abrams makes several suggestions about how to strengthen the Jewish community. He reflects on the importance of immersive experiences like Jewish summer camp, Jewish education, and the role of Israel.
Morning has Broken by Erica Brown which is a collection of short reflections from day-to-day life relating to the complexities and challenges of the Jewish world after October 7th. She shares insights about the Torah and how to approach one’s life in this challenging moment.
Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that ignited the Arab-Israeli conflict by Yardena Schwartz is arguably the most important book I have read about the history of the conflict which dates back to the massacre in Hebron in 1929 when more than 100 Jews were murdered in a pogrom. She ties the history of that event to the Hamas attacks and helps us understand the complexities of this century long conflict. This book is a must read for anyone interested in learning more.
Gates of Gaza by Amir Tibon is a remarkable story about how he and his family survived the attacks by Hamas on October 7th in his shelter on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the closest Kibbutz to Gaza. The story weaves the history of the Kibbutz, the complexity of the political situation, peace efforts, and Israeli internal politics with the harrowing events of that day.
Lastly, I read The Ravine by Wendy Lower which is one of the most important newer works about the Holocaust in which Lower researched a photo she had uncovered in the archives of the United States Holocaust Museum which showed the tragic death of a mother and her child during the Holocaust. Rarely, she reflects, do we have imagery of the exact moment of death and her books takes through her research to try to discover the context and the people, both the perpetrators and the victims in the photograph.
As I reflect on all these important books, it is important that we all remember the World Zionist Congress elections begin on Monday March 10th and continue through May. It is my simple request that everyone make a plan to vote and that we all vote for the ARZA slate. Voting in the WZC elections is critical because the congress will decide how $5 billion are allocated to support Jewish life in Israel. The ARZA slate supports egalitarian Judaism in Israel, Reform congregations, LGBTQ+ rights, and regional security. To learn more please visit www.vote4reform.org and remember to vote starting next week!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rick Kellner