Bearing Witness – Day 5 (November 30, 2023) Our last day on this solidarity mission was both emotional and inspirational. We head back to San Diego and will begin sharing our stories and transmit the sacred ones shared with us to our friends and communities...
Bearing Witness – Day 4 (November 29, 2023) Today, we encountered our hardest day yet – meeting with members and survivors of Kibbutzim Kfar Aza and Nachal Oz. We had the privilege of bearing witness to these stories, to the truths of what happened, and...
Bearing Witness – Day 3 (November 28) Yesterday was a tough day – to see the destruction and devastation, first-hand, has felt surreal and painful and numbing. Today, however, felt like a small antidote and ray of hope to...
Bearing Witness – Days 1 and 2 (November 26 and 27, 2023) We began our time together sharing dinner with leaders/members of the Sha’ar HaNegev community. It was truly wonderful to hug our friends and share in a peaceful moment together. We had a...
Some say the most important sermons that Rabbis give are the ones that we, ourselves, need to hear. And so tonight, I find myself deeply drawn to sharing with you a story… the story of a woman named June. June was a first generation American, her parents, like so many...
G’mar chatima tovah, may each of you be inscribed in the book of good deeds; and for those able I want to wish you a tzom kal, a meaningful and easy fast. Throughout these High Holidays, your rabbis have used thousands upon thousands of words in Hebrew and English, melodies...
Sermon – Implicit Bias & Israel By Rabbi Jeremy Gimbel Feb. 4, 2022 Shabbat Shalom. One of my honors beyond Beth Israel is that I sit on a committee that is planning the upcoming Central Conference of American Rabbis convention. The committee includes Rabbis from across the country, and...
Dear Friends, Three years ago, a gunman entered the Tree of Life Synagogue where he killed eleven innocent souls and wounded six more. As we honor the victims and hold their loved ones in our hearts, and even as years three years have passed, I am still jolted by this...
D’var Torah Rosh Chodesh Elul – Monthly Ritual To-do List Aug 6, 2021 – by Rabbi Jeremy Gimbel Elul is the month that leads into the High Holidays. And while we often associate great and meaningful rituals with the holidays of Tishrei — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah...
Dear Friends, As we approach another year of civic duty in casting our vote, I wanted to share a few traditional and contemporary sources from both rabbinic literature and Jewish thinkers that have made the case for taking an active role in civic matters. I also wanted to offer some personal thoughts as we cast our...
