Clergy Blog

Tisha B’Av 5779 by Rabbi Faith Joy Dantowitz, Sunday, August 11, 2019 “Will there be any chairs there? No, but I will bring one for you.” On Sunday morning I placed a few folding chairs in my trunk before I drove to the Peter Rodino Federal Building in Newark. When I...

Postcards from Jerusalem , Part 5,  Hebron Part 3: Rock the Casbah By Cantor Jessica F. Epstein The smell hit me first. The Casbah had a terrible, rotten smell. It was dark. The passageway was unpleasant and dirty when you entered this part of the Old City of Hebron....

The TBA  Hives are Up and Running! Deep in the woods of Temple B’nai Abraham’s sprawling property, a small humming sound can be heard.  A pair of three and a half-foot tall beehives sit there, filled with honey-coated frames and happy bees, the result of an idea by...

Postcards from Jerusalem: Hebron Part 4−Hebron Part 2: Kiryat Arba and Ibrihimi Mosque by Cantor Jessica F. Epstein The bus turned right, and I was suddenly in a timeless landscape. The rolling hills of Judea are terraced by worn grey stones and filled with olive...

Postcards from Jerusalem: Part 3—Hebron Part 1: All Aboard by Cantor Jessica F. Epstein The sign on the wall at the hostel read, “Abraham, the first backpacker.” I could tell this wasn’t going to be your average trip. It was early in the morning in Jerusalem when I...

The Factory: HaMiffal by Cantor Jessica F. Epstein One afternoon for lunch the Ulpan decided to go to a very close by and interesting place, HaMiffal — the Factory. Originally this building had been a house and then a school for people with developmental disabilities,...

Coming Home by Cantor Jessica F. Epstein Eli Wiesel wrote, “One doesn’t go to Jerusalem, one returns to it.” In my case this was certainly true as I had lived there for year from 1994-5, and only been back briefly for a week in 2004. This was my time to return....

Congratulations to Rabbi Clifford Kulwin on being a recipient of the Star of Essex Award, presented during the Essex County Jewish Heritage celebration in Newark!

By Cantor Jessica F. Epstein It was my first time walking into The Oval to participate in the Livingston Township Memorial Day parade, so of course one of my espadrilles decided to come apart, leaving me limping oddly to the grandstand. On the way to the center of the...