First, there were cocktails. At Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the historically LGBTQ synagogue in the Mission, in a festively decorated upstairs social hall (rainbow stuff everywhere), members gathered to kick off the biggest Shabbat of the year: Pride Shabbat. There was beer. There was wine. There was booze. And once the service started in the sanctuary,…
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Jew in the Pew
Jew in the Pew
When Moshiach comes, men will clear the table
Think back to the very end of Passover — those final, agonizingly bread-free moments of the weeklong exercise in self-control. What were you doing?…
Jew in the Pew
22 international diplomats, 70 Jews, one seder
When I imagine the platonic ideal of a Passover seder, it is loud, discursive, long and more than a little chaotic. Yet I also know the American seder is…
Jew in the Pew
An adults-only Tu B’Shevat seder — sobering, but hardly sober
Ancient tax day. Kabbalistic metaphor. Zionist agricultural festival. Tu B’Shevat has been many things. In modern America, as the environment became a…
Jew in the Pew
Swapping pulpits for a better world
When Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed in 1986, there was resistance and uproar from the KKK and other assorted racists. As a spiritual…
Jew in the Pew
Tradition and transgression at ‘Trefa Banquet 2.0’
Az men est khazer, zol es shoyn rinen ibern moyl. If you’re going to eat pork, eat it until your mouth drips. — Yiddish saying Last night at Brick &…
Jew in the Pew
A well of Renewal in a valley of tech
On a recent Shabbat, I ventured down to San Jose for a Friday night service. It was the first anniversary Shabbat of Ha-Emek, a new, volunteer-run,…
Jew in the Pew
Starting the annual Torah cycle again — for the 70th, 80th, 90th time
According to tradition, the Torah has 70 faces. We reread it each year in, hoping a new face will be revealed. Its words don’t change, but we do. Who will…
Jew in the Pew
Sukkot may be over, but the gates never close
Sukkot Diary: Part Three of Three Sukkot is over. The holidays are over. Time to take a break from all of this joy. But first, here’s what I did during…