Go East, Young Man

Now, Beverly and I are embarking on a new adventure. I recently accepted a position at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, NY, with a start date in late July. The move will put us closer to Beverly’s family in New York City, and to friends up and down the east coast. For those of you with whom my interactions have been mostly electronic, this should be a seamless transition. I’ll try to keep you informed of my rabbi-ing activities, assuming we can find Jews in New York.

The past few months have been plenty busy even without the Jewish amenities of a major metropolitan area. Life cycle events, as usual, have been time-consuming, and have ranged from the sad (long-time Los Alamos resident Burton Krohn’s funeral, remarks for the funeral of Mauri Katz, unveiling of the tombstone of Evelyn Frank) to the super-joyous (the wedding of Beijing congregants Jake and Becca at a beautiful waterfront hotel in Boston).

On the more moderate emotional level, I ended study of Babylonian Talmud Tractate Chullin as a way to obviate the Fast of the Firstborn just before Pesach (only a few months to go in the 7+ year Daf Yomi cycle), and followed up with community seders in Santa Fe at HaMakom and in Trinidad, Colorado, at Temple Aaron. In addition to leading many Friday night services in Los Alamos and co-leading Saturday morning services with Hazzan Cindy at HaMakom in Santa Fe, I participated with other Santa Fe Jewish clergy in a moving Yom HaShoah event held at the New Mexico State Capitol building, organized by the Jewish Federation. Members of a local church got to hear me describe the history of Jews in China, and I moderated a HaMakom continuing education event at which we heard from a panel of half a dozen Jews who grew up outside the United States. I was also interviewed by Rabbi Neil Amswych for a KSFR Soul Searching program; we discussed Science and Judaism because of our mutual backgrounds in both areas.

Beverly and I attended a talk on the Bnei Menashe (Jews in India who believe they are descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel) at which the renowned translator and author, Hillel Halkin, spoke. Two days later, on my red-eye flight to the East Coast to conduct the Boston wedding, I had the amazing privilege of sitting next to Hillel. After a half-hour of most delightful conversation we both slept for the balance of the flight, but Hillel honored his promise to send me his latest book, After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition, which I recommend highly.

This e-mail address will be the best way to reach me for the foreseeable future, and if you find yourself wandering around Suffolk County, New York, please do let us know. I recommend that you take the red-eye flight to come visit us – you, too, may get to sit next to an author!

B’shalom and l’hitra’ot,
Rabbi Jack

Reading list from the past few months (asterisk denotes an especially enjoyable read)

Fiction
The Princess Bride* – William Goldman (OK, maybe not a Jewish book, but Miracle Max and his wife, Valerie, are Jewish, as was Goldman)
Suddenly, Love – Aharon Appelfeld
Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky
The Bellarosa Connection – Saul Bellow
And So Is the Bus – Yossel Birstein
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank – Nathan Englander
Up From Orchard Street – Eleanor Widmer

Poetry
The lowercase jew – Rodger Kamenetz

Graphic novel
We Are On Our Own – Miriam Katin