Our lights shine bright!

A recap of our Hannukah Celebration on December 28th 2024

Thank you to all who cooked, decorated, created kids' activities, and attended our wonderful Hanukkah celebration! We welcomed members and visitors alike to take part and enjoy the wonderful food that our whole community put together.

Our combined committee representing young families, religious school and sisterhood met and planned the celebration, starting weeks beforehand. Their hard work showed! There were kids playing dreidel and facepainting. We have to give a shout out to our Sisterhood member Justine and her husband Oren for their amazing Hannukah apparel!

With about 100 people attending our celebration, we’re excited to make this an annual event to look forward to each year!

Thanks to all who signed up to bring a dish, volunteered their time, or donated!

If anyone would like to help with a similar Passover event in April, reach out to Holly at holly@tbytahoe.org

Dispatch from Israel: December 30, 2024

For the weeks over winter break, the Ben-Shoshan family is traveling in Israel in order to achieve our second-eldest, Aidan’s, goal of becoming a b’mitzvah at a place with “Roman ruins and an epic hike”. Indeed, he was thrilled to read Torah on top of Masada this past Shabbat. While our family looks forward to celebrating with you when we return (see below for when we are hosting Shabbat!), this trip has also given Rabbi Lauren a chance to catch up with a few friends around the country.

The name Dr. Ilana Kwartin might already be familiar to you; she and her husband, Rabbi Lauren’s friend from high school youth group, Martin Beifeld, live with their four children in Eliav, the moshav which our communities connected with post-October 7th. Since the tragedy of that day, Dr. Ilana shifted to become the executive director of Healing Space Rishpon, an innovative healing center that aims to rehabilitate the mind-body connection ruptured by trauma. 

As a whole, Israel continues to be on the cutting edge of resilience therapy research, training, and implementation. One of the most impressive aspects of Israeli culture is its evolving understanding of how to build resilience in the face of so much adversity. There is a deep interest in cultivating a better emotional and spiritual tomorrow than what we have today. Healing Space, its therapists, and its campus in Rishpon is a part of this vital goal.

Since October 7th, Healing Space mobilized 140 therapists to provide sessions to thousands of Israelis. They have accumulated over 30,000 hours of experience in trauma healing throughout the war so far. They use a wide variety of evidence-based modalities, from art and nature to embodiment and group therapies, to help Israelis throughout the country integrate their trauma so that each is able to not be consumed by their pain. However, the thing that struck me most when Dr. Ilana and I caught up about her work is the idea of hope. Hope for a better future - a future guided by healing over hurt, by compassion over rage - that drives this initiative and others like it. 

There is so much dark in this season and in our world today. Yet the hope for healing, for compassion, for the potential for inner peace that this cultivates, exists. During Hanukkah, this is the kind of light we need. 

Dispatch from Israel: December 23, 2024

For the next three weeks, the Ben-Shoshan family is traveling in Israel in order to achieve our second-eldest, Aidan’s, goal of becoming a b’mitzvah at a place with “Roman ruins and an epic hike”. Specifically, Masada. While our family looks forward to celebrating with you when we return (see below for when we are hosting Shabbat!), this trip has also given Rabbi Lauren a chance to catch up with a few friends around the country.

Alon, Rabbi Lauren’s husband, has known Leatt Segal since they were 15; Rabbi Lauren met Leatt only a few years later, at age 23. This year, Leatt’s 11 year old son chose to switch schools, specifically, to Hand in Hand, the Bilingual School in Jerusalem. While the overarching organization of Hand in Hand runs grassroots peace projects throughout Israel, the Bilingual School is one of the country’s premier educational institutions that teaches both Arab and Jewish students, together, as a unified student body, throughout the school year. Since many Israelis make their lifelong friendship connections through their schooling and educational experiences, this Pre-K through 12th grade school is an important experiment in peace-making.

Two weeks ago, the school hosted a hackathon for its middle school students. Over three days, the sixth and seventh graders prepared and presented projects. The students chose their projects based on shared interests, ranging from food issues to 3D engineering challenges. By working together, across cultures and languages, to think through the larger difficulties that face humanity, the students created something greater than solutions to our collective problems: their work together cultivates hope. Hand In Hand fosters hope for true co-existence, for a lasting and loving peace in the land of Israel. As Leatt says, “This amazing school not only produces a reality in which Jews and Arabs truly share the same heart, but also produces high quality learning experiences.”

You can find more about Hand In Hand, their projects beyond the school where Leatt’s family is proud to attend, and how to share the school’s story and grassroots-led peace work in Israel, click here.

We stand with Israel

The Board of Directors of the North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation express our unconditional support for the State of Israel and our abiding solidarity with the citizens of Israel. We will continue to support a solution that ensures peace and security for Israel and her neighbors and oppose efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel.

Adopted from the Union for Reform Judaism