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Jewish life at Peabody’s Brooksby Village feels like home - Jewish Journal

One of the first things Susan Blau did when she arrived at Brooksby Village Senior Living in July of 2023 was to find the Jews.
Brooksby, a senior living facility in Peabody with over 1,800 residents, has a number of religious groups, with the Jewish community organized largely by the Jewish Council. It was a meeting of the council that Blau initially attended in her search for Jewish community.
“They are very open to new people coming in, and they work very hard,” said Blau, 76, who moved from...
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Boston Moishe Houses build community, home and personal growth - Jewish Journal

On a recent evening in Brookline, Andrew Barnwell sat in his living room sipping tea and discussing teshuva, the concept of repentance – or literally “return” – that is so central to the High Holidays.
It was part of a “Tea and Teshuva” event hosted by Barnwell, 27, and sponsored by Moishe House, an international organization that aims to help young Jewish adults build community. The organization provides rent subsidies and program stipends for houses to host five to seven events per month, rang...
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Temple Ner Tamid’s Rabbi Richard Perlman announces plans to retire - Jewish Journal

In 2016, Rabbi Richard Perlman came to Peabody to take over as senior rabbi of Temple Ner Tamid. At the time, the congregation was counting the years they potentially had left.
After the retirement of Rabbi Abraham Morhaim in 1995 and the passing of Cantor Sam Pessaroff in 2008, the temple, like many in the country, was struggling. The Hebrew school had merged with another congregation at a separate location, and there were 187 members of the temple.
Now, eight years later, the shul and school a...
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Shalev Biton, Nova festival survivor, shares his incredible story at Gloucester temple - Jewish Journal

Last Sunday, Tel Aviv’s Shalev Biton stood before the community at Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester and told his story of survival.
He told the 60 congregants gathered there that he attended the Nova festival to spend time with old friends he hadn’t seen in years following his post-IDF world travels. He told them how he’d gone to sleep on the evening of Oct. 6, planning to rise at dawn to continue dancing. He told them the increasing state of confusion that morning of Oct. 7, as festival-goers...
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At Pride of Lynn Cemetery in Lynn, no Jewish veteran is forgotten - Jewish Journal

For Mark Toplin and Barry Lischinsky, there are few things more noble than ensuring that Jewish veterans are remembered.
As North Shore Post 220 past commanders (Toplin and Lischinsky) and immediate past national commander (Lischinsky) of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, the two have spearheaded an effort to memorialize and remember those of our nation’s fallen who are interred in Lynn.
They do this through flagging – the act of placing American flags beside the graves of...
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Oy, vey! It’s almost time for noshing at the Topsfield Fair’s B’nai B’rith Booth - Jewish Journal

Marc and Laura Freedman have been making brisket for weeks.
This is good, because they’ll need 650 pounds of the stuff if they’re going to successfully feed all the hungry mouths that come seeking that delectable, juicy meat – Marc’s mother’s recipe – at the B’nai B’rith Booth at the Topsfield Fair from Oct. 4-14.
The booth, a staple of the 206-year-old fair, has been serving hot dogs, hot pastrami, and other Jewish delicacies for over 50 years. In 1970, a few men from the B’nai B’rith Peabody l...
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North Shore Hebrew schools ready to offer a joyful start to Jewish learning - Jewish Journal

With summer quickly coming to a close, colleges, high schools, and elementary schools aren’t the only learning institutions preparing to open their doors again. Across the North Shore, nearly a dozen Hebrew schools and religious organizations are getting ready to start the school year off strong.
At Temple Tiferet Shalom in Peabody, the religious school year will start on Sept. 8, with their J-School confirmation program beginning in October. Enrollment opened in early August, and the temple is...
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Beverly couple makes the leap from circus performers to funeral memorials in Salem - Jewish Journal

In 2019, Briana Rossi and Denis Gircha were flying, flipping, singing, and dancing in front of thousands each week. Their respective roles in the world renowned, Canada-based circus performing company, Cirque du Soleil, kept them busy, their lives full of excitement – and it brought them to each other. They were living big lives.
In 2024, Rossi, 40, and Gircha, 43, live in Beverly, have two children under the age of 5, and run the family business – O’Rourke Bros. Memorials, the Salem-based, all-...
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Record-breaking painting showcases humanity of Boston’s Auschwitz exhibit - Jewish Journal

At 10:30 a.m. on July 31, the world record for the largest watercolor painting was broken at the “Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.” exhibit when Sharon-based Jewish artist Eli Portman put the final strokes on a 180-square-foot work – the number 18 representing chai, life – inspired by the art of concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust.
As the exhibition approaches its final month on display at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston, its creators and marketing team wanted to ensure th...
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Fresh voices to help harmonize community at Beverly’s B’nai Abraham - Jewish Journal

Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly recently hired Emma Mair of Middleton as the congregation’s new learning engagement coordinator and Melissa Baden of Newton as the new music director.
“They’re both committed, passionate, and both connected to all ages. And they both love Judaism and want to try things out,” temple Rabbi Alison Adler said. “The three of us are committed to more multigenerational things, helping people to get to know each other and have relationships across generations.”
Mair, who...
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In Marblehead, Temple Sinai leaders sing praises of new cantor/spiritual leader Batya Ellinoy

Around age 10, her family began spending weekends in Palo Alto, Calif., to attend Shabbat services at Congregation Kol Emeth, about an hour and a half away from their home in Monterey. Some of her earliest role models were these rabbis and lay leaders.

“I would particularly look at a couple of the rabbis and be like, ‘I want to be like them when I grow up,’” she recalled. “And not necessarily in a rabbi way – they just embodied such chesed, such love, and patience. I was very inspired by them.”
Jewish Journal •

A match made in heaven: Rabbi David Wilfond joins Andover’s Temple Emanuel

From Kyiv to London to Jerusalem – and now, to Andover: World-roving Rabbi David Wilfond has been unanimously approved by Temple Emanuel as the next spiritual leader.

“We are so excited to welcome Rabbi Wilfond to Temple Emanuel,” said Dana Katz, president of the Andover temple’s board. “Because of his deep knowledge of and passion for synagogue life, he’s a tremendous teacher who brings warmth and experience to his rabbinate, he shares his passion for Judaism with his sermons, exceptional educ
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HBI to host Israeli leader in talk about gender-based violence on Oct. 7

“Such silence is not just deafening, it’s damning,” said Cochav Elkayam-Levy, international law and human rights expert, before the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. “It traces the haunting question: are Israeli women and girls protected under international law? Is there international law for them?” she asked. “I urge you not to look away.”

Elkayam-Levy recently founded the Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children. This
Jewish Journal •

‘Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.’ A groundbreaking exhibit coming to Boston

“When you were forced to undress in the dressing room of the gas chambers, that is, in some way, the last agency you still had,” said Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt, one of the world’s leading experts on the Holocaust.

He described the scene at Auschwitz: People gathered together, fingers on the buttons of their shirts, pants, removing their clothing with their own hands to make their deaths easier for their Nazi murderers.

This is a moment that, in concept, has stuck with van Pelt in his scholarship
Jewish Journal •

Chabad of Peabody offers a safe space for Jews to talk in a Jewish environment

Three years ago, Rabbi Nechemia and Raizel Schusterman of Chabad of Peabody found themselves seated in a folding-chair circle in a Peabody church basement. The church was playing host to Al-Anon, a 12-step fellowship program for those affected by another’s drinking, substance, or other addiction. They were the only visibly Jewish people there.

The Schustermans’ son, Mendy, was just beginning his journey of recovering from addiction, and as his parents, they were on a journey of their own. While
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Holocaust Torah scroll at Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly symbolizes resilience and hope

In February 1964, 1,564 Czech Torah scrolls were rescued from a warehouse in Prague, where they’d been stored during the Holocaust, and brought to the Westminster Synagogue in London.

On Feb. 4, 2024, one of those scrolls was cradled in the arms of bnei mitzvah students at Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly as they celebrated the 60th anniversary of the scrolls’ rescue. Around 1,400 are currently on loan at congregations around the world.

The people in the room – around 25 in total, ranging from
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Wayland temple carries out mission to go green

Sometime in 2020, a whole lot of people began to care about air quality.

The pandemic brought about a renaissance for puzzles and sourdough, but it also made “HVAC” a colloquialism – suddenly the efficiency and quality of our air filtration systems became a serious concern to many who had never considered such a thing before.

Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland was one such group with these concerns. But what started as a need to address issues around indoor air quality and comfort ended with a radic
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Mayyim Hayyim takes modern approach to ancient Jewish practice

Mayyim Hayyim, Boston’s inclusive, open mikvah, is gearing up to offer a program to help participants wrestle with the controversial topic of niddah. Starting March 6, “Sacred Bodies, Sacred Spaces: Exploring Niddah in Our Jewish Tradition” will take place in-person and on Zoom at Mayyim Hayyim in Newton.

The program is cosponsored by Keshet, Hebrew College, Hadar, Kavod, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, and BASE Boston. Participants will be asked to pay what they can on a sliding scale of $90
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A conversation in the laundry room leads to the chuppah for Dan and Mel Levin

It was 2013. Freshman Dan Levin found himself in the laundry room at Tulane University in New Orleans facing a dilemma: He did not know how to do laundry.

Thankfully, a fellow student was doing her laundry as well – Mel Ash (now Levin) took pity on Dan and helped him sort his clothes, despite a sneaking (and lasting) suspicion that his “ignorance” was really a ploy to talk to her.

To this day, Dan insisted, “It wasn’t a line! I wasn’t purposely hitting on her.”

Regardless, it still took a bit
Jewish Journal •

Local actor showcases mix of humor, family, and the Holocaust in ‘2.5 Minute Ride’

Allie Wittner, who grew up in Marblehead and Salem, is starring in playwright Lisa Kron’s one-person show about her family’s history, “2.5 Minute Ride.” The performances, directed by Mary Beth Brooker, runs through Feb. 4 at the Academy of Music in Northampton.

Wittner, who uses they/them pronouns, first got into the performing arts while at Lisa’s Dance Studio in Marblehead. The theater bug really took hold in high school, thanks to their theater teacher Barbara Whitney, and since, Wittner has
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‘The Einstein Effect’ reveals the humanitarian side of the genius

Somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia, there lives a rooster named Albert Einstein.

There’s also a chicken – Alberta. Both are Polish chickens, possessing a remarkable likeness to their namesake via a shock of white feathers on their heads.

The chickens’ namer and owner is Benyamin Cohen, who, in addition to being a chicken farmer with his wife Elizabeth, is the news director of the Forward, the man behind Albert Einstein’s very active social media presence, and the author of a recent bo
Jewish Journal •

These Hebrew schools have become joyful places where kids learn community

Sylvie Gordan and Noa Lewis are friends from temple. Sylvie, 10, lives in Beverly, and Noa, 11, in Gloucester, but on Tuesdays and Sundays, they find themselves in the same space at the Sylvia Cohen Family Learning Project at Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester.

On Tuesdays, it’s close to a 40-minute drive from the public school that Sylvie attends in Beverly, but it’s the only place that she gets to be with other Jews during the week. She knows only a couple of Jewish students at her school, and
Jewish Journal •

Tensions remain high at Harvard after Gay’s departure

Claudine Gay has resigned as president of Harvard University, but the tumult of her departure has only just begun.

The news came during increasingly publicized and heated allegations of plagiarism in Gay’s scholarly work, nearly a month after the former president’s tepid responses in the Congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, and after Harvard’s board assured the world she would remain in office. She is the second to resign of the three presidents who testified before Congre
Jewish Journal •

Donation helps North Andover synagogue welcome Brooksby Village residents

Earlier this year, Marc Freedman and Rabbi Idan Irelander went to Brooksby Village – a senior living facility in Peabody – to offer entertainment at the community’s Hanukkah luncheon. They left with $1,800 and 300 potential new members of Congregation Ahavat Olam in North Andover.

The two men are, respectively, the president and the rabbi/cantor of the inclusive synagogue. This was their second year performing at Brooksby for Hanukkah (some of their congregants’ parents are residents there, and
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