Our CRS initiative, What Matters: Caring Conversations About End of Life, focuses on the importance of advance care planning and notably as it is applied in the Jewish community. The COVID-19 health crisis has brought major changes to our lives, but the situation also gives us the opportunity to start meaningful conversations with our loved […]

Our beloved Cantor Emeritus Ephraim Biran passed away on Saturday, May 16. He served as Cantor of Rodeph Sholom from 1963 until his retirement in 1994. His beautiful voice, potent and memorable, enriched our Shabbat, High Holy Day, and Festival Services. Under Cantor Biran’s direction, he created the Rodeph Sholom Children’s Choir in 1974 comprised […]

What is Shavuot? Shavuot was originally an agricultural festival to mark the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. Israelites went on a pilgrimage bringing crop offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. Although it began as this harvest festival bringing the first fruits to the Temple as a […]

The celebration of Lag B’Omer starts Monday night! Like many Jewish holidays, it has its basis in the ancient agricultural calendar. Lag B’Omer falls on the 33rd day of the seven-week period between Passover and Shavuot—this year on Tuesday, May 12. This period, known as the Omer, marks the spring cycle of planting and harvest, as […]

This message was sent to the congregation on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. Dear Rodeph Sholom family,  Mother’s Day this year will be yet another occasion when many of us can only virtually hug the people most precious to us. My own kids will not be able to tell their mother in person how truly incredible […]