Mostly in my physics role, I found myself traveling a fair amount over the past quarter, and I had the opportunity to attend services in several different synagogues. Invariably, at each venue I was exposed to a new idea, an innovative practice, or an inspirational teaching. I look forward to sharing and recreating these experiences both at the Los Alamos Jewish Center and at HaMakom in Santa Fe over the coming months, and if I don’t see you on a regular basis, I’ll assume that you, too, are trying out different synagogues.

My thanks go to Temple Israel of Alameda, California (Rabbi Annette Koch), Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle (Rabbis Jill Borodin and Paula Rose), Or Chadash in Damascus, MD (Rabbi Alison Kobey who gets a special thanks for the extra bag of M&Ms), Beth Shalom Congregation in Columbia, MD (Rabbi Susan Grossman), Madison Jewish Center in Brooklyn (Rabbi Shae Kane), and Park Slope Jewish Center, also in Brooklyn (Rabbi Carie Carter).

My own rabbinic leadership this quarter included the usual Shabbat services in New Mexico when I was actually in town, supplemented by a Tu Bi Sh’vat seder, a rousing Purim evening modeled on my experience a decade ago at Or Chadasch in Vienna, Austria, and sadly, presiding over the funeral for a dear friend and wonderful human being, Joe Sapir. May his memory be a blessing.

I also delivered the opening prayer for one session of the New Mexico State Senate, gave a short teaching about generation to generation at a Life and Legacy program (see https://www.jewishlifelegacy.org/), provided a brief introduction to Judaism to seven Berea College students and the pastor who led them on a spring break interfaith week, and delivered three formal talks.

One talk, titled “The Pinyan Minyan: Jews of China Then and Now,” was organized by Oasis in Albuquerque, the second talk was part of the Los Alamos Lenten Series and was called “Reading From Left (Brain) to Right (Brain): Wisdom in the Jewish Texts,” and the third was conducted under the auspices of the HaMakom Continuing Education program. By HaMakom request, I spoke on the relationship between science and religion in a presentation entitled “From Adam to Atom: How Science and Religion Interact in the Mind of a Physicist/Rabbi.”

My deep appreciation goes to members of Los Alamos who came to a hastily convened Yahrzeit ma’ariv minyan on a cold and wintery evening in memory of my mom, Shirley Shlachter, when all my planning about attending a synagogue in the D.C. area came to naught because of flight cancelations due to winter weather.

For a change of pace in your synagogue routine, join in the 130th anniversary celebration of historic Temple Aaron in Trinidad, Colorado, Friday-Sunday, June 21-23rd. Donations to help restore this magnificent building are always welcome—they’ve already raised $75,000! https://www.templeaaron.org/130th-anniv-gala

My travels, as usual, gave me additional reading opportunities. Below is the list from this quarter with a few annotations.

B’shalom, Rabbi Jack

Fiction
The Prophet’s Wife* – Milton Steinberg – an extended Midrash on Hosea
Twilight and Other Stories – Shulamith Hareven – translated from Hebrew
Life is a Parable – Pinhas Sadeh – translated from Hebrew
Jewish Warsaw Between the Wars – Ephraim Kaganovski (tr. from Yiddish by Bracha Weingrod)
The Three Day Departure of Mrs. Annette Zinn – Mary E. Carter (not yet available, but you’ll enjoy it when it comes out)

Essays, Biography, Autobiography
Because G_d Loves Stories – ed. Steve Zeitlin
Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel* – Annie Cohen-Solal
Grand Things to Write a Poem On: A verse autobiography of Shmuel Hanagid – Hillel Halkin
Karl Kraus: In These Great Times – ed. Harry Zohn
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor – Yossi Klein Halevi
Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death* – Lillian Faderman
The Inveterate Dreamer*- Ilan Stavans
Report from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France* – Joseph Roth

Other non-fiction, Scholarly
Torah in the Observatory: Gersonides, Maimonides, Song of Songs – Menachem Kellner
The Great Partnership – Jonathan Sacks
Isaac Abravanel: Letters – ed., trans., and introduction by Cedric Cohen Skalli
Passover: JPS Popular Judaica Library – ed. Mordell Klein
Photographing the Jewish Nation: Pictures from S. An-Sky’s Ethnographic Expedition* – ed. Avrutin, et.al.

Poetry**
The Poems of H. Leivick and Others – tr. from Yiddish by Leon Gildin
Miracle – Amir Or – tr. from Hebrew
My Blue Piano – Else Lasker-Schuler – tr. from German

Among the things I believe I now understand is that for me, Judaism is designed to function in a (largely) non-Jewish world. For that reason, I was especially moved this past quarter by the continued support the Jewish community has received from non-Jews following the horrendous Pittsburgh shooting on October 27, 2018. Of course, it is my fervent hope that shootings never happen again; but when tragedy strikes, I hope I remember the debt we owe our neighbors. Their generosity, particularly to organizations like HIAS (formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), has been wonderful.

This past quarter I delivered the sermon for the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Santa Fe and spoke about immigration from a Jewish perspective. I appealed to those present to donate to HIAS, and I was moved by the positive response. An expanded version of my sermon was the basis for my presentation in November at the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society’s annual meeting.

I also had the opportunity to present a well-honed talk on Jews at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project both to the Placitas, NM Havurah and at a lunch-and-learn program at Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe. Leading and co-leading Friday evening and Saturday morning services both in Los Alamos and Santa Fe kept me quite busy, and these services allowed me to lead the congregation in blessing kids with the “Shabbat is Here” tune that I love so much from Kehillat Beijing. I also had the privilege of calling special friends up to the ark to lead a blessing on their 50th wedding anniversary.

Despite a series of snowstorms, Beverly’s hard work paid off with a wonderful turnout for a Friday night service and dinner which we sponsored in honor of our families, and we even held an Aufruf to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of a young couple. Arik and Maria were gracious enough to stand at the ark for many minutes while congregants showered them with sweets, and their reward was surprisingly warm weather two days later for an outdoor (!!!) wedding at which I officiated amidst a gorgeous, snowy Santa Fe background (see photo above). Worrying about how to conduct a ceremony in a (possible) snowstorm probably gained me some more gray hairs, but I now understand that miracles can indeed happen even today.

Below are titles of my reading list over the last quarter, with an asterisk indicating a particular favorite. I also was delighted to receive a copy of HaMakom congregant Dr. Joalie Davie’s new book entitled Healing the Power in You.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Only in America: The Open Society and Jewish Law – ed. Walter Jacob

Yehuda Halevi: Poetry and Pilgrimage – Joseph Yahalom

My Father’s Guitar and Other Imaginary Things* – Joseph Skibell

To the Heart of the Storm* – Will Eisner

The Eichmann Trial – Deborah Lipstadt

Lake Success – Gary Shteyngart

Popular Judaica Library – Germany – Stuart Cohen

Eternal Life – Dara Horn

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee – Wendy Mogel

The Orange Peel and Other Satires – S.Y. Agnon

Napoleon’s Influence on Jewish Law: The Sanhedrin of 1807 and Its Modern Consequences – ed. Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer

The Day I Met Father Isaac at the Supermarket* –Jack Riemer

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections – Walter Benjamin

Moses and Monotheism – Sigmund Freud

The Algarrobos Quartet – Mario Goloboff

Levi’s Vindication: The 1007 Anonymous “as It Really Is” – Kenneth Stow

Between Life and Death* – Yoram Kaniuk

Warner Bros – David Thomson

Judgment – David Bergelson

How to Cure a Fanatic – Amos Oz

May the memory of those slain be a blessing, and may their families be comforted by the outpouring of support around the country and the world).
I do not have a particularly broad vocal range, so the title of this regular, quarterly message about my rabbinic exploits does not refer to my singing. During this past three months I occasion to offer the Jewish perspective as community members cycled through the emotional highs and lows of life. I did some counseling (I always recommend that people seek professional help, as I am not a trained therapist) and made multiple trips to the cemetery where I officiated at a headstone unveiling and helped prepare myself for the solemnity of the High Holidays in a ceremony called “Kever Avot,” visiting the graves of our predecessors. I also led a mincha/maariv (afternoon/evening) service on my Dad’s Yahrzeit (anniversary of death) and shared a teaching from the mystical Jewish text called the Zohar on whether we are obligated to continue to honor our parents after their death; we are, and acknowledging the Yahrzeit is a way of fulfilling this obligation. On Tisha B’Av, the date marking the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem, I chanted chapters of the Book of Lamentations (known as Eicha) both in Los Alamos and at HaMakom in Santa Fe.
Balancing out life’s “lows”, however, have been some wonderful emotional highs – I assisted a young adult as she led services in Los Alamos; and I offered a birthday blessing for a beloved senior member of HaMakom. I also had the opportunity to speak about an amazing Los Alamos, Manhattan-era Jewish scientist and his unique connection to Israel during a New Mexico Jewish Historical Society event in Albuquerque. In conjunction with High Holidays, I blew the shofar at the beginning of Elul, the month preceding the New Year, at a Yom Limmud event in Santa Fe and co-led HaMakom’s Selichot service only a few days before boarding the plane to Beijing. My home-away-from-home community of expats at Kehillat Beijing again welcomed me most generously and graciously as I led High Holiday services there for the fifth year in a row. We had a lovely retreat near the Great Wall of China over Shabbat Shuvah, the sabbath that comes between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and I was glad to see long-standing friends and make new friends as well. Sukkot followed immediately after my return to New Mexico, and I helped usher in the holiday with HaMakom as well as leading a family-oriented “Pizza in the Hut” event in Los Alamos. The holiday season ended with Simchat Torah which I again managed to celebrate both in Los Alamos and Santa Fe, and it’s great to be back in the book of Genesis!
Speaking of books, my long plane flights afforded ample reading time this past quarter. Starred items below were especially enjoyable, and I’m always excited to hear your suggestions.
B’shalom, Rabbi Jack
Fiction
The Heart is Katmandu – Yoel Hoffmann
The Far Side of the River – Yaacov Zipper
Barrel Fever – David Sedaris (OK, no Jewish content but it contains SantaLand Diaries)
Waking Lions* – Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
From Many Countries – Sholem Asch

In anticipation of a production of Dr. Atomic in Santa Fe, an opera which depicts Los Alamos as it prepared for the Trinity test, I served as emcee for the showing of a documentary called The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, conducted under the joint auspices of the Los Alamos Jewish Center and the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society. I chose to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Israel at that showing (which fell on the secular calendar anniversary) by reading from Ben-Gurion’s Declaration of State of Israel. The Manhattan Project and its Jews were also the subject of a recent article in the San Diego Jewish Journal by Judie Fein (http://sdjewishjournal.com/sdjj/june-2018/jews-and-the-atomic-bomb/) in which I am quoted extensively.

At HaMakom where much of my rabbi-ing takes place, I offered a blessing and wishes for Chazzan Cindy as she celebrated a birthday anniversary by conducting a “Beatles Shabbat”. I also led a Bet Din to welcome two new members into the Jewish community; their conversion to Judaism will forever be celebrated on the eve of the anniversary of our receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai on Shavuot. In two synagogues separated by over 1300 miles, my brother Ted and I each had the 3rd Aliyah on Shavuot and got a close look as the Decalogue was chanted. That day was bittersweet; it also marked the anniversary of what would have been my Dad’s 94th birthday.

I continue to share a story each Friday night that I lead services in Los Alamos. During this past quarter, I gave a talk on Judaism and Immigration entitled “Jews Are No Strangers to the Strangers in Our Midst” and a mini-lecture and demonstration on tefillin at a Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, a late-night study session on the holiday of Shavuot. I also conducted the funeral for Evelyn Frank Krems who knew many of the great physicists associated with Los Alamos and I spoke at a memorial for long-time New Mexico resident Frederik Weindling. Balancing those sad events was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a synagogue, when one of our HaMakom congregants proposed to his now-fiancée at a Shabbat morning service. I hope the couple will soon have a date they’ll want to mark as their wedding anniversary. Which reminds me – September 2 and/or 15 Elul are coming up soon, so not only are the High Holidays around the corner, but I need to buy a wedding anniversary gift for Beverly!

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Reading list of the past quarter (special mention for those with an asterisk):

On the flip side, congregations without buildings are a significant part of my rabbi experiences this past quarter. HaMakom, the progressive, renewal-ish group in Santa Fe, recently began renting space in the beautiful Beit Tikva shul, and the arrangement has been beneficial to both groups. We’ve even held a few joint activities including a Tu Bi Shevat seder and a Yom HaShoah Remembrance event. Liturgically, my regular rabbi work has involved co-leading Shabbat morning, occasional Friday night, Purim, and community seder services with Hazzan Cindy at HaMakom, and leading Friday night services at the Los Alamos Jewish Center the rest of the month. I’ve also had the opportunity to make a few remarks at various events, both sad and joyous. I struggled a lot with the right words I delivered at a non-denominational candlelight vigil following the Parkland, Texas, shooting, eventually closing my speech with a responsive “Dayenu – it should have been enough” as I listed schools where children have been slain by someone with a gun. I had fun speaking at an upshirin (first haircut for a Jewish boy, traditionally at age 3), at the opening of a session of the New Mexico State Senate, at our farewell HaMakom event in the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Santa Fe, at a Life and Legacy event in Albuquerque hosted by the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, and at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Beijing, China. The last was a whirlwind (literally weekend) trip to share in the simcha with my family away from home, Kehillat Beijing, another congregation that is without its own building,

Perhaps it’s this wandering that makes Jews so sympathetic, in general, to immigrants and refugees. In response to recent events, I prepared a talk entitled “The Jews Are No Strangers to the Stranger in our Midst: Jewish Texts on Immigration” and have delivered it both in Los Alamos and at the Moishe House in Beijing just before heading to the airport. Despite, or perhaps because of our collective immigrant experience, it’s truly a small Jewish world; I was startled at the Beijing airport on my return trip to hear someone say “Hey, that’s Rabbi Jack!” About 20 high school students from the Milken Community Schools Jewish Day School in Los Angeles were on their way home after a week-long service project in China; the group had attended Kehillat Beijing’s Friday night service. I guess even if we find ourselves without synagogue buildings, we manage to find each other, and that seems more important.

The long plane flights and a little down time during Pesach allowed me to expand my reading list. Many of the books deal with the Jewish immigrant or refugee experience, and my favorites are marked by an asterisk. I’d also like to take the opportunity to promote a book by my friend, Rahel Halabe. Her biblical Hebrew textbook Hinneh is availabe in the new revised edition published by Hebrew University Magnes Press at https://www.magnes-press.com/Authors/Rahel+Halabe.aspx?name=Rahel+Halabe

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack

Life cycle events, regular services, and some presentations kept me busy rabbinically this past quarter. We had a Bat Mitzvah ceremony in Los Alamos for Evia Alexander, marking a second-generation of Alexander B’nai Mitzvah celebrations. It was most enjoyable to see the whole Alexander clan together for this Simcha. We also had a truly remarkable celebration at HaMakom in Santa Fe as the entire community shared in the joy of Itai Rosen’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah. End-of-life events remind us to be thankful for our very lives; I participated in a tahara to help prepare a body for its final journey to the grave, led an unveiling ceremony at Guaje Pines in Los Alamos, and assisted Beverly in marking both the end of her 11-month kaddish recitation and first Yahrzeit for her mom, Justine Post.

I love to interject brief teachings at events, and opportunities for such teachings occurred at the general membership meetings for both the LAJC and HaMakom as well as at the wonderful Matriarchs event honoring six inspirational women at HaMakom. Beverly and I were thankful to receive aliyot at Madison Jewish Center where we were married years ago and at Beit Tikvah in Santa Fe where we joined the congregation during our relaxing December break.

More extended teaching opportunities were presented by the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society where I spoke about “Fat Man and the Development of a Plutonium Bomb: A Crisis at Los Alamos and the Jews Who Solved It,” by Los Alamos National Laboratory which recorded my talk entitled “Sine Qua Non: Foreign-Born Scientists at Los Alamos,” and by my friends Ron Duncan Hart and Gloria Abella Bellan who filmed me delivering a talk on “Jews in Theory” about the Jews at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwLsS8gkpVw&index=4&list=PLmg8fwxbUbH38Ydd5AjftD7W9sxnVfBcl

I’m of course thankful for all the books we’ve acquired as well as those which I’ve read over the past quarter (my reading list is below), and I’m also appreciative for the books I’ve been gifted recently including “Just Call Me ‘Mr. Lucky’: An Ethical Will Entwined in an Autobiography” by HaMakom member Chuck Friedman and “Sholem Aleichem – Jewish Children” from the Gaon Jewish Classics by the aforementioned Ron and Gloria.

Both Dov and Orli were in Los Alamos for a brief spell, and I am thankful that we had a delicious and festive meal with them on Shabbat evening courtesy of Beverly. I especially liked giving both kids their traditional Shabbat blessings live instead of at a distance.

I look forward as always to hearing back from you, particularly if you try the thankfulness exercise I outlined at the beginning of this message. You might start by being thankful you enjoy the gift of reading.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack