Month: March 2021

Because Black History shouldn’t only be relegated to February, the shortest month of the year, Penguin Random House has put out the Black Excellence Booklist. Here is a partial list of suggestions to get you started. If any of you own any of these books and wouldn’t mind passing them around, please put them in … Read more

A Book Review I should have majored in Biblical History when I first went to college in 1968. I certainly had a thirst for it, even at age 18. But eventually the love of science and medicine forced me to put it on the back burner. The growing love of the practice of medicine gave … Read more

By Karli Efron  Karli Efron loves to watch true crime documentaries and consistently gets crushed at Scrabble when playing her husband, Jay. She has been known to host epic dance parties with her daughters, Adele and Miriam. She has lived in Maine since 1999 and has found a real home with Bet Ha’am! Professionally, Efron … Read more

Sam Spinrad Religious School Director As a Jewish parent of young kids, I often felt like my observance of the fourth commandment was half-hearted.  Until recently, I found it easy to “remember Shabbat,” but challenging to “keep it holy.”  Attending services familiarized my children with the liturgy, symbols, and their Jewish community, but the rest … Read more

Lynn Urbach Do you know why you belong to a Reform Congregation? Is it a conscious choice, or one of convenience? To me, the difference between the theologies of the Reform Movement (and Bet Ha’am) and the Conservative Movement (Temple Beth El, TBE), is significant. I belong to Bet Ha’am because I firmly believe in … Read more

Rabbi’s ColumnMar-Apr 2021 Chadashot Dear Friends, We are approaching one full year of this global pandemic, a year apart and yet, we’ve still found paths to be together. Just less than a year ago, we gathered for Purim without a real sense of the tsunami that was coming. A week later, we held our last … Read more