Author: Congregation Beth El

Always be Celebrating

November 12, 2021

The life of a shul is often one of the hiker who plans his traverse of a stream by picking the firmest looking stones. The year is long but filled …

A Fresh Look at Ethel Rosenberg

October 5, 2021

In 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg went to their deaths in New York’s infamous Sing Sing prison, convicted of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. Ethel’s execution was …

A Haunted Museum in Paris

September 9, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  To Edmund de Waal, world-renowned ceramic artist and award-winning author, art objects are never just objects. They carry history, memories, and an uncanny power to stir emotion …

Empathy Diaries

August 2, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  If you catch yourself or see your child obsessively checking digital devices for messages, or living much of life online, M.I.T. Professor Sherry Turkle has some advice. …

Unlikely Allies: Historical Fiction for Middle Grade Readers

June 18, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  Historical fiction inhabits the sweet spot between history and fiction. It invites us to journey to the past and then return to our own time with new …

Anyone Out There?

April 15, 2021

By Robin Jacobson. The bestselling new science memoir, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by Avi Loeb, probes a thrilling possibility – that a mysterious object that …

Shtetl Stories of Danger and Suspense

April 14, 2021

By Robin Jacobson. Tevye the Dairyman would fit right in among the rabbis, matchmakers, candlemakers, tailors, and other shtetl types who populate two recent prize-winning novels: The Lost Shtetl by …

Reading Geraldine Brooks in 2021

March 9, 2021

By Robin Jacobson. Like many, I’m a longtime fan of the historical novels of Geraldine Brooks – Year of Wonders, March, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book, and The Secret …

The House We Inherit

February 1, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  As a child, learning in school about the American Civil War, I felt relieved that my family bore no guilt for American slavery. During the sad centuries …

Out of Egypt

January 12, 2021

By Robin Jacobson.  To many Jewish families with memories of hard times, Meyerland in the 1970s was the Promised Land. This Jewish neighborhood in Houston, Texas, was home to big …