Among the things I believe I now understand is that for me, Judaism is designed to function in a (largely) non-Jewish world. For that reason, I was especially moved this past quarter by the continued support the Jewish community has received from non-Jews following the horrendous Pittsburgh shooting on October 27, 2018. Of course, it is my fervent hope that shootings never happen again; but when tragedy strikes, I hope I remember the debt we owe our neighbors. Their generosity, particularly to organizations like HIAS (formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), has been wonderful.

This past quarter I delivered the sermon for the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Santa Fe and spoke about immigration from a Jewish perspective. I appealed to those present to donate to HIAS, and I was moved by the positive response. An expanded version of my sermon was the basis for my presentation in November at the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society’s annual meeting.

I also had the opportunity to present a well-honed talk on Jews at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project both to the Placitas, NM Havurah and at a lunch-and-learn program at Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe. Leading and co-leading Friday evening and Saturday morning services both in Los Alamos and Santa Fe kept me quite busy, and these services allowed me to lead the congregation in blessing kids with the “Shabbat is Here” tune that I love so much from Kehillat Beijing. I also had the privilege of calling special friends up to the ark to lead a blessing on their 50th wedding anniversary.

Despite a series of snowstorms, Beverly’s hard work paid off with a wonderful turnout for a Friday night service and dinner which we sponsored in honor of our families, and we even held an Aufruf to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of a young couple. Arik and Maria were gracious enough to stand at the ark for many minutes while congregants showered them with sweets, and their reward was surprisingly warm weather two days later for an outdoor (!!!) wedding at which I officiated amidst a gorgeous, snowy Santa Fe background (see photo above). Worrying about how to conduct a ceremony in a (possible) snowstorm probably gained me some more gray hairs, but I now understand that miracles can indeed happen even today.

Below are titles of my reading list over the last quarter, with an asterisk indicating a particular favorite. I also was delighted to receive a copy of HaMakom congregant Dr. Joalie Davie’s new book entitled Healing the Power in You.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Only in America: The Open Society and Jewish Law – ed. Walter Jacob

Yehuda Halevi: Poetry and Pilgrimage – Joseph Yahalom

My Father’s Guitar and Other Imaginary Things* – Joseph Skibell

To the Heart of the Storm* – Will Eisner

The Eichmann Trial – Deborah Lipstadt

Lake Success – Gary Shteyngart

Popular Judaica Library – Germany – Stuart Cohen

Eternal Life – Dara Horn

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee – Wendy Mogel

The Orange Peel and Other Satires – S.Y. Agnon

Napoleon’s Influence on Jewish Law: The Sanhedrin of 1807 and Its Modern Consequences – ed. Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer

The Day I Met Father Isaac at the Supermarket* –Jack Riemer

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections – Walter Benjamin

Moses and Monotheism – Sigmund Freud

The Algarrobos Quartet – Mario Goloboff

Levi’s Vindication: The 1007 Anonymous “as It Really Is” – Kenneth Stow

Between Life and Death* – Yoram Kaniuk

Warner Bros – David Thomson

Judgment – David Bergelson

How to Cure a Fanatic – Amos Oz

May the memory of those slain be a blessing, and may their families be comforted by the outpouring of support around the country and the world).
I do not have a particularly broad vocal range, so the title of this regular, quarterly message about my rabbinic exploits does not refer to my singing. During this past three months I occasion to offer the Jewish perspective as community members cycled through the emotional highs and lows of life. I did some counseling (I always recommend that people seek professional help, as I am not a trained therapist) and made multiple trips to the cemetery where I officiated at a headstone unveiling and helped prepare myself for the solemnity of the High Holidays in a ceremony called “Kever Avot,” visiting the graves of our predecessors. I also led a mincha/maariv (afternoon/evening) service on my Dad’s Yahrzeit (anniversary of death) and shared a teaching from the mystical Jewish text called the Zohar on whether we are obligated to continue to honor our parents after their death; we are, and acknowledging the Yahrzeit is a way of fulfilling this obligation. On Tisha B’Av, the date marking the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem, I chanted chapters of the Book of Lamentations (known as Eicha) both in Los Alamos and at HaMakom in Santa Fe.
Balancing out life’s “lows”, however, have been some wonderful emotional highs – I assisted a young adult as she led services in Los Alamos; and I offered a birthday blessing for a beloved senior member of HaMakom. I also had the opportunity to speak about an amazing Los Alamos, Manhattan-era Jewish scientist and his unique connection to Israel during a New Mexico Jewish Historical Society event in Albuquerque. In conjunction with High Holidays, I blew the shofar at the beginning of Elul, the month preceding the New Year, at a Yom Limmud event in Santa Fe and co-led HaMakom’s Selichot service only a few days before boarding the plane to Beijing. My home-away-from-home community of expats at Kehillat Beijing again welcomed me most generously and graciously as I led High Holiday services there for the fifth year in a row. We had a lovely retreat near the Great Wall of China over Shabbat Shuvah, the sabbath that comes between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and I was glad to see long-standing friends and make new friends as well. Sukkot followed immediately after my return to New Mexico, and I helped usher in the holiday with HaMakom as well as leading a family-oriented “Pizza in the Hut” event in Los Alamos. The holiday season ended with Simchat Torah which I again managed to celebrate both in Los Alamos and Santa Fe, and it’s great to be back in the book of Genesis!
Speaking of books, my long plane flights afforded ample reading time this past quarter. Starred items below were especially enjoyable, and I’m always excited to hear your suggestions.
B’shalom, Rabbi Jack
Fiction
The Heart is Katmandu – Yoel Hoffmann
The Far Side of the River – Yaacov Zipper
Barrel Fever – David Sedaris (OK, no Jewish content but it contains SantaLand Diaries)
Waking Lions* – Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
From Many Countries – Sholem Asch

In anticipation of a production of Dr. Atomic in Santa Fe, an opera which depicts Los Alamos as it prepared for the Trinity test, I served as emcee for the showing of a documentary called The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, conducted under the joint auspices of the Los Alamos Jewish Center and the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society. I chose to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Israel at that showing (which fell on the secular calendar anniversary) by reading from Ben-Gurion’s Declaration of State of Israel. The Manhattan Project and its Jews were also the subject of a recent article in the San Diego Jewish Journal by Judie Fein (http://sdjewishjournal.com/sdjj/june-2018/jews-and-the-atomic-bomb/) in which I am quoted extensively.

At HaMakom where much of my rabbi-ing takes place, I offered a blessing and wishes for Chazzan Cindy as she celebrated a birthday anniversary by conducting a “Beatles Shabbat”. I also led a Bet Din to welcome two new members into the Jewish community; their conversion to Judaism will forever be celebrated on the eve of the anniversary of our receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai on Shavuot. In two synagogues separated by over 1300 miles, my brother Ted and I each had the 3rd Aliyah on Shavuot and got a close look as the Decalogue was chanted. That day was bittersweet; it also marked the anniversary of what would have been my Dad’s 94th birthday.

I continue to share a story each Friday night that I lead services in Los Alamos. During this past quarter, I gave a talk on Judaism and Immigration entitled “Jews Are No Strangers to the Strangers in Our Midst” and a mini-lecture and demonstration on tefillin at a Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, a late-night study session on the holiday of Shavuot. I also conducted the funeral for Evelyn Frank Krems who knew many of the great physicists associated with Los Alamos and I spoke at a memorial for long-time New Mexico resident Frederik Weindling. Balancing those sad events was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a synagogue, when one of our HaMakom congregants proposed to his now-fiancée at a Shabbat morning service. I hope the couple will soon have a date they’ll want to mark as their wedding anniversary. Which reminds me – September 2 and/or 15 Elul are coming up soon, so not only are the High Holidays around the corner, but I need to buy a wedding anniversary gift for Beverly!

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Reading list of the past quarter (special mention for those with an asterisk):

On the flip side, congregations without buildings are a significant part of my rabbi experiences this past quarter. HaMakom, the progressive, renewal-ish group in Santa Fe, recently began renting space in the beautiful Beit Tikva shul, and the arrangement has been beneficial to both groups. We’ve even held a few joint activities including a Tu Bi Shevat seder and a Yom HaShoah Remembrance event. Liturgically, my regular rabbi work has involved co-leading Shabbat morning, occasional Friday night, Purim, and community seder services with Hazzan Cindy at HaMakom, and leading Friday night services at the Los Alamos Jewish Center the rest of the month. I’ve also had the opportunity to make a few remarks at various events, both sad and joyous. I struggled a lot with the right words I delivered at a non-denominational candlelight vigil following the Parkland, Texas, shooting, eventually closing my speech with a responsive “Dayenu – it should have been enough” as I listed schools where children have been slain by someone with a gun. I had fun speaking at an upshirin (first haircut for a Jewish boy, traditionally at age 3), at the opening of a session of the New Mexico State Senate, at our farewell HaMakom event in the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Santa Fe, at a Life and Legacy event in Albuquerque hosted by the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, and at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Beijing, China. The last was a whirlwind (literally weekend) trip to share in the simcha with my family away from home, Kehillat Beijing, another congregation that is without its own building,

Perhaps it’s this wandering that makes Jews so sympathetic, in general, to immigrants and refugees. In response to recent events, I prepared a talk entitled “The Jews Are No Strangers to the Stranger in our Midst: Jewish Texts on Immigration” and have delivered it both in Los Alamos and at the Moishe House in Beijing just before heading to the airport. Despite, or perhaps because of our collective immigrant experience, it’s truly a small Jewish world; I was startled at the Beijing airport on my return trip to hear someone say “Hey, that’s Rabbi Jack!” About 20 high school students from the Milken Community Schools Jewish Day School in Los Angeles were on their way home after a week-long service project in China; the group had attended Kehillat Beijing’s Friday night service. I guess even if we find ourselves without synagogue buildings, we manage to find each other, and that seems more important.

The long plane flights and a little down time during Pesach allowed me to expand my reading list. Many of the books deal with the Jewish immigrant or refugee experience, and my favorites are marked by an asterisk. I’d also like to take the opportunity to promote a book by my friend, Rahel Halabe. Her biblical Hebrew textbook Hinneh is availabe in the new revised edition published by Hebrew University Magnes Press at https://www.magnes-press.com/Authors/Rahel+Halabe.aspx?name=Rahel+Halabe

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Life cycle events, regular services, and some presentations kept me busy rabbinically this past quarter. We had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony in Los Alamos for Evia Alexander, marking a second-generation of Alexander B’nai Mitzvah celebrations. It was most enjoyable to see the whole Alexander clan together for this Simcha. We also had a truly remarkable celebration at HaMakom in Santa Fe as the entire community shared in the joy of Itai Rosen’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah. End-of-life events remind us to be thankful for our very lives; I participated in a tahara to help prepare a body for its final journey to the grave, led an unveiling ceremony at Guaje Pines in Los Alamos, and assisted Beverly in marking both the end of her 11-month kaddish recitation and first Yahrzeit for her mom, Justine Post.

I love to interject brief teachings at events, and opportunities for such teachings occurred at the general membership meetings for both the LAJC and HaMakom as well as at the wonderful Matriarchs event honoring six inspirational women at HaMakom. Beverly and I were thankful to receive aliyot at Madison Jewish Center where we were married years ago and at Beit Tikvah in Santa Fe where we joined the congregation during our relaxing December break.

More extended teaching opportunities were presented by the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society where I spoke about “Fat Man and the Development of a Plutonium Bomb: A Crisis at Los Alamos and the Jews Who Solved It,” by Los Alamos National Laboratory which recorded my talk entitled “Sine Qua Non: Foreign-Born Scientists at Los Alamos,” and by my friends Ron Duncan Hart and Gloria Abella Bellan who filmed me delivering a talk on “Jews in Theory” about the Jews at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwLsS8gkpVw&index=4&list=PLmg8fwxbUbH38Ydd5AjftD7W9sxnVfBcl

I’m of course thankful for all the books we’ve acquired as well as those which I’ve read over the past quarter (my reading list is below), and I’m also appreciative for the books I’ve been gifted recently including “Just Call Me ‘Mr. Lucky’: An Ethical Will Entwined in an Autobiography” by HaMakom member Chuck Friedman and “Sholem Aleichem – Jewish Children” from the Gaon Jewish Classics by the aforementioned Ron and Gloria.

Both Dov and Orli were in Los Alamos for a brief spell, and I am thankful that we had a delicious and festive meal with them on Shabbat evening courtesy of Beverly. I especially liked giving both kids their traditional Shabbat blessings live instead of at a distance.

I look forward as always to hearing back from you, particularly if you try the thankfulness exercise I outlined at the beginning of this message. You might start by being thankful you enjoy the gift of reading.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Backing up a few months for this quarterly e-mail, however, finds us in Av which traditionally begins with sadness, and I observed the anniversary of the destruction of the Temples, Tisha B’Av, in Alexandria, VA with Congregation Agudas Achim while on travel in D.C. Later in Av I marked my father’s 27th Yahrzeit by leading a minyan in Los Alamos. Likely Rabbi Yohanan was saying that we should seize opportunities and use our time wisely. Beverly and I indeed seized the opportunity to join millions of Americans and witness the total solar eclipse on the last day of Av, and clearly the month went out in a blaze of glory. What an amazing experience! We joined the Mt. Sinai Congregation in Cheyenne, WY for Shabbat services a few days before totality where, in addition to an Aliyah, Rabbi Moldo provided me with a speaking slot. I described eclipses from both physics and Jewish perspectives, and the talk also led to an extensive article in the Intermountain Jewish News (Denver).

My rabbi-ing these past three months of course centered on my visit to Beijing, China, where I was thrilled to celebrate the High Holidays with Kehillat Beijing for the fourth year in a row. The congregation of ex-pats always amazes me, and the number of young Jewish adults is simply wonderful. There are many intelligent, opinionated Jews in their 20s and 30s, and each voluntarily identifies with the vibrant Jewish community. We had a thought-provoking discussion about the State of Israel over a Shabbat Shuvah retreat between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and I now look at the words of Prayers for Israel much more carefully thanks to the discussion leaders. Over the course of our two-week trip, I also provided some insights into the structure of a worship service and gave a talk at the Moishe House about Jewish mysticism. Between the holidays, Beverly and I took a two-day vacation to Harbin in northeast China and saw two restored (but not functioning) synagogues and a Jewish cemetery in this city that once counted among its residents as many as 20,000 Russian Jews.

Life cycle events fill in the gaps, and I ran the gamut last quarter from blessing children at a consecration service on Shimini Atzeret (the day before Simchat Torah) to teaching some B’nai Mitzvah students to conducting a wedding to chanting a wedding blessing in Boston for Beverly’s niece to presiding over a funeral for long-time Los Alamos resident, Ruth Sherman, z”l (may her memory serve as a blessing). I also gave a few other talks around town – one to students, postdocs and early career staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory entitled (Non) Standard Deviations about various detours from a standard scientific research career, including my rabbinic ordination and responsibilities; and another talk at a local church where I summarized the Jewish View on Hope to a Faith and Science group. All in all, I’ve been roasting plenty of pumpkins and using the light to illuminate my reading – my last quarter’s book list is below.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Addiction and Its Consequences in Jewish Law – edited by Walter Jacob
Adventures of a Mathematician – Stan Ulam
Four Stories – Etgar Keret
Crafting the 613 Commandments: Maimonides on the Enumeration, Classification, and Formulation of the Scriptural Commandments – Albert Friedberg
Moon: A Brief History – Bernd Brunner (in preparation for the eclipse)
Alter – Jacob Dineson (tr. Jane Peppler)
The Thirteenth Tribe – Arthur Koestler
The Extra – A.B. Yehoshua
Lost in America* – Sherwin Nuland
Inside Woody Allen – Stuart Hampl and Woody Allen
The Jews in Harbin – Qu Wei and Li Shuxiao (a wonderful gift from a friend in Beijing)
O Jerusalem* – Collins and LaPierre
Preserving the Hunger: An Isaac Rosenfeld Reader – ed. Mark Shechner
I, Sarah Steinway – Mary E. Carter (not yet published but keep your eyes open for it soon)
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein – Abraham Pais
Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng – Xu Xin
And a special thanks to Joe and Janet Eigner for their generous donation to my library and the libraries at HaMakom in Santa Fe and the Los Alamos Jewish Center

My rabbinic responsibilities this quarter included some joyous moments as well. I had multiple opportunities to lead Friday night services in Los Alamos. Included in my usual leading or co-leading for Friday nights and Saturday mornings at HaMakom in Santa Fe was a birthday blessing for Chazan Cindy. I also gave reprises of a couple of Jewish-themed talks: at HaMakom, I paid tribute to Jewish authors Else Lasker-Schuler, Dvora Baron and Esther Singer Kreitman; and I spoke on the Jews in Theoretical Division during the Manhattan Project for a visiting group from Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Friends of friends passed through Los Alamos on a multi-day bike trip, and I delivered an impromptu talk about my path to the rabbinate as well as a capsule summary of the history of the Laboratory and its current mission and research. Whenever I can, I inject a rabbinic story or teaching into an event, and I was successful in this regard at the annual membership meeting for the LAJC, at the Shabbat service honoring High School graduates in Los Alamos, and at the luncheon for Burton and Susan Krohn celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Several organizations within the Santa Fe Jewish community collaborated on a Yom HaShoah service this year, and I was honored to participate. And thanks go to Beth Shalom in Vancouver, Canada, who offered aliyot to me and Beverly at several of the services we attended while visiting Dov over Shavuot. By the way, their blintzes were exceptionally good!

The plane flight to and from Vancouver provided at least one block of reading time this quarter, and my reading list for this period is captured below. The Eva Hoffman book had been sitting unread on my shelf for some years, and coincidentally it has a Jewish Vancouver connection. The ordering is chronological, not a measure of entertainment value, and it mixes fiction with non-fiction. Celebrating life is high on my list, and reading is definitely one way to do so.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

The Zookeeper’s Wife – Diane Ackerman

Lost in Translation – Eva Hoffman

Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Story of My Life – edited by Brian Horowitz and Leonid Katsis (originally published in Hebrew)

Storm Over Paris – Blanche (Blume) Lempel (translated from Yiddish)

Touching Heaven Touching Earth – Rabbi Shmuel Avidor HaCohen

Six Days of War – Michael Oren

Judas – Amos Oz (translated from Hebrew)

Modern Midrash – David Jacobson

Street of Steps – Yehudit Hendel (translated from Hebrew)

Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud – Barry Holtz

Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage – Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Peninnah Schram

A Non-Swimmer Considers Her Mikvah – Mary Carter (New Mexico author)

This go-around, however, I found that a powerful message of Pesach came in the preparatory weeks leading up to the big day. Beverly and (to a much, MUCH lesser extent) I used the time after Purim to do some spring cleaning. Amidst various items on shelves rarely inspected, Beverly came across a cracked charoset bowl, a gift from whom I have absolutely no idea, inexpertly glued decades ago by yours truly using a possibly toxic and almost certainly not kosher-for-Pesach epoxy. “Do we really need to keep this?” Beverly asked. My automatic response was to say “Of course,” and then I realized that I was wrong. Holding on to broken pieces of our past is counter to the message of Passover. With each observance of the holiday, we can begin anew, choosing to shed our enslavement to elements in our childhood or adulthood that hold us back from achieving our full potential. Just because we used to do things one way doesn’t mean that we always need to repeat the process. So, into the trash went the bowl, and with it I hope, went some of the sadness, frustration, and grievances I’ve clung to over the years.

I prepared for Pesach in many rabbinic ways as well this year. Along with leading several Friday night services in Los Alamos and sharing the bima with Hazzan Cindy at HaMakom on Saturday mornings and other Friday nights, I led or co-led Tu Bi-Shevat seders at both shuls, helped in a spirited reading of the Megillah for Purim, and shared responsibility for a practice seder for kids and parents in Santa Fe. By way of engagement with the broader community, I had occasion this past quarter once again to deliver the opening prayer to the New Mexico State Senate and to present a talk in the Los Alamos Lenten Series at the Episcopal Church entitled “Hungering for Jewish Wisdom: The Classic Jewish Texts and Their Insights Into Hunger.” I also was a signatory to an open letter in support of refugees and immigrants prepared by the New Mexico Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League and read material from this organization at a candlelight vigil at the Los Alamos Jewish Center after the multiple bomb threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and other institutions around the country.

Beverly and I were in New Orleans on my mom’s first Yahrzeit, and I shared a brief teaching at the early morning service arranged so graciously by Shir Chadash in nearby Metairie. At HaMakom, I organized a discussion utilizing 19 different haggadot on Shabbat HaGadol, and all these events culminated in my leadership role at two community seders, first in Santa Fe and then in Los Alamos.

Though squeezed into my free time, I was able to escape into many books listed below. An asterisk indicates a particularly high enjoyment level for me, and I’m happy to correspond with those who’d like additional details. I’ve even included a movie, both because I found it hilarious and because it is one I’d recommend that you see before Purim next year. Right after watching it, you should begin your spring cleaning, and if you are wondering whether or not I still have the charoset bowl you gifted me, please let me know.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Ostend: Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth, and the Summer Before the Dark – Volker Weidermann*

Poyln: My Life within Jewish Life in Poland, Sketches and Images – Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk*

Studying the Torah: A Guide to In-Depth Interpretation – Avigdor Bonchek

Kabbalat Shabbat – Debra Band*

The Acrophile – Yoram Kaniuk

Bar-Kokhba – Yigael Yadin

Four Alsatian Jewish Families Shape Albuquerque – Noel Pugach

Yosele – Jacob Dinezon

Prayer After the Slaughter – Kurt Tucholsky

Lunar Savings Time – Alex Epstein

Come and Hug Me – Michal Snunit

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Harari

Rashi – Avraham Grossman

The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature – Rami Shapiro

The Betrayers – David Bezmozgis*

Two She-Bears – Meir Shalev*

Best. State. Ever. – Dave Barry – (no Jewish content, but it helped me prep for the next entry)

For This We Left Egypt? – Dave Barry, et.al.

Moods – Yoel Hoffmann

The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph – Robert Wistrich*

The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative & Religious Imagination – Marc Michael Epstein

Never Again?: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism – Abraham Foxman

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea – Charles Seife (really a math book, but some interesting ideas about religious attitudes toward zero, including Jewish ones)

Beverly inherited a love of people and a passion for making the world a better place from her mom, though she did manage to shake the thick Brooklyn accent that Justine possessed until her speech was curtailed by aphasia. My mother was also a Brooklyn girl, and the end of my eleven months of saying kaddish for Shirley practically coincided with Beverly’s end of sheloshim. In 2016 Beverly and I lost the two Brooklyn-born women who gave birth to us and shaped our lives. May their memories serve as blessings.

On my last visit to New York prior to Justine’s death, Beverly and I davened at the Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care in Brooklyn, and that experience awakened a deep sense of gratitude in me. After my aliyah, the rabbi had to wheel everyone else up to the bima for aliyot, help them recite blessings (often word-by-word), hold books for people, wheel people back to their spots, call an aide when someone had a serious coughing fit, and keep everyone on the right page. My rabbinic life has been remarkably easy by comparison.

In addition to leading services at the Los Alamos Jewish Center and HaMakom in Santa Fe and chanting Haftarah at a shul in Seattle while visiting Dov, I gave a few talks this quarter on Jewish topics in various venues. At the Episcopal church in Los Alamos, I lectured on Jewish Scriptural Interpretation with a focus on parashat Noach, and at the annual New Mexico Jewish Historical Society meeting, I spoke on PaRDeS Applied to Jewish Home Rituals while also leading those who were interested in a semi-impromptu Havdalah service at the conclusion of Shabbat in the lobby of the hotel. Recently I delivered a talk at a Santa Fe Jewish Book Council event entitled “Ahead of Their Time: Else Lasker-Schuler, Dvora Baron, and Esther Kreitman.” As a follow-up to a connection made in Beijing, I was interviewed by phone for a Jerusalem radio program in December, though no one I know has mentioned hearing the broadcast.

Among the books I’ve read this quarter, Brooklyn again plays a role, notably in the title of a recently translated collection of Yiddish short stories and in the birthplace of the subject in another interpretive biography in the Yale Jewish Lives series. I suspect you can pick those out of the list without any trouble. Next quarter – Queens?

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

The Tale of the 1002nd Night – Joseph Roth*

All Breathing Life Adores Your Name – Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile – Homero Aridjis

The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Documents from the Cairo Geniza – Mark Cohen*

The Peace Process – Bruce Jay Friedman

Best-Kept Secrets of Judaism – Reuven Bulka

Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories – Blume Lempel*

Vilna My Vilna – Stories by Abraham Karpinowitz**

Tough Questions Jews Ask – Edward Feinstein

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli (see p. 40 for an interesting rabbinic anecdote)

Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power – Neal Gabler**

Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science – Lawrence Krauss (my favorite physicist – but Queens, not Brooklyn)

Why Be Jewish? A Testament – Edgar Bronfman

A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era: The Book of the Covenant of Pinhas Hurwitz and its Remarkable Legacy – David Ruderman

My Heart – Else Lasker-Schuler

Until the Dawn’s Light – Aharon Appelfeld

From Foe to Friend and Other Stories: A graphic novel by Shay Charka – by S.Y. Agnon

Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art – Mark Podwal

The Internet Revolution and Jewish Law – ed. Walter Jacob