There are few things that truly make me upset.  The biggest is ignorance. “…she [Anne Frank] died three days before the camp was liberated, it makes me ill.  They knew the liberation was coming and they still went to the gas chamers?!” ~A Patron after the show Ok, so you sit through two-and-a-half hours of a wonderful production of The Diary of Anne Frank in Salt Lake City, UT and this is what I hear people saying as they...

This is a traditional greeting for the Jewish High Holidays (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur).  For those who live with their heads in the ground (though this is probably no one who reads blogs) or just don’t live places with a large Jewish community, today was Yom Kippur, the closing holiday of the High Holidays.  It is a day of repentance, atonement, and remembrance.  Many Jews will mistakenly tell you that it is the most important holiday...

I know that a few times I have mentioned that currently the synagogue that I am a member of  is on the hunt for a new Rabbi.  As I understand it, the reasons behind our old rabbi leaving is mostly political and financial.  It is unfortunate that no matter what your religion may be, there is always some kind of political undercurrents that affect the day-to-day activities of the congregation or community.  So, that is how we find ourselves in...

So, we opened the fifth show of the season, I had my birthday, the Winter Olympics started, and I led part of services at temple this week.  Lots of exciting stuff.  It is nice to get to the weekend and have some time off, and what a good weekend for it.  The holiday weekend will be nice, with no work Monday I should be able to get some good skiing in.  We will just have to see how the crowds are. The service on Saturday morning was nice.  Once...

…Faith, God, Prayer… It sounds like a list of tags, but they are themes that I seem to come across often in the blogs that I read.  I don’t have an issue with this, I just find it interesting how much and how many people publicly talk about these things.  I don’t know why it surprises me because since moving to Utah I have had more conversations about religion and faith than I probably have ever had before.  Sometimes I...

Unfortunately as of the beginning of 2010, the synagogue that I belong to here in Salt Lake City, Congregation Kol Ami, has found itself without a Rabbi. Of course this is due to politics and such which seems to be unavoidable in most religious organizations these days. Because of this, the synagogue has been finding people to help lead services from within the congregation. I have been asked to help out on a number of occasions, which I am...