TBS News and Information

The terrifying attack yesterday at Temple Israel of West Bloomfield, Michigan, hits very close to home. It is literally 4 minutes down the road from the congregation where TBS alum Janet Christensen is the musical soloist. One of the rabbis on staff at Temple Israel is a rabbinic school classmate of mine. Another of the rabbis (there are 7 on staff) was my unit supervisor when I was first a counselor at a Jewish summer camp. Several TBS...Read more...

Nuance and complexity are not our current cultural strengths. It feels easier in today’s world to be rigidly and simplistically binary. Either you are for something or you are against it. Either you agree with me or you are my mortal enemy who is maliciously misguided and eternally wrong. But our world is seldom so separable into clear-cut choices of one or the other. Situations are complicated and in need of context to be fully understood....Read more...

I never want to live in theocracy, a society where the state law is religious law and the government is led by religious leaders. But I do believe that Judaism has important values that can come to bear on the great issues of the day (immigration, health care, individual rights and responsibilities, and more) and can help shape public policy. That is why we take our 10th graders each year to the L’Taken Social Justice Seminar to learn about...Read more...

Our ancient Israelites ancestors did not invent the idea of a code of law. Archeologists and historians have uncovered systems of laws adopted by other ancient Near Eastern civilizations. But our Torah portion this week contains perhaps the most famous expression of a basic set of laws – the Ten Commandments. Immortalized in texts, paintings, statues, films, and more, the Ten Commandments are fundamental to Judaism and broader...Read more...

I was at the L’Taken Social Action Seminar this weekend with our 10th grade students this weekend when I heard about the arson attack at Beth Israel Congregation (BIC) in Jackson, Mississippi. The synagogue, which had been bombed by the KKK in 1967 for its involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, was set on fire in an act of hatred, destroying the administrative offices and the library, including two Torah scrolls. I know three rabbis who...Read more...

It’s an occupational hazard, but when people talk about “the holiday season,” my mind automatically goes to the time period between Rosh HaShanah and Simchat Torah, not Thanksgiving to New Year’s. And when I get emails that say, “Donate now before the year ends,” I think about the end of Elul and the start of Tishrei, not the end of December and the beginning of January.

So my notion of “New Year’s” centers around...Read more...

Resilience is “the ability to adapt, cope, and bounce back from adversity, stress, trauma, or significant challenges, allowing one to recover and even grow stronger.” Or so Google’s AI tells me. Resilience is the word that has been on my mind most of this week, as I have seen resilience in multiple places.

There is resilience in the Chanukah story. As we tell it, King Antiochus forbade the Jews in the Land of Israel to practice...Read more...

I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, home of lake-effect snow. I went to college in the New England of Currier and Ives snowscapes, and I was a rabbi for a dozen years in the Boston area, where blizzards were no match for determined B’nai Mitzvah families. So I am not intimidated by the idea of handling the roads in wintry weather. Watching this first snowfall of the season, I’ve also realized that lessons from driving in the snow...Read more...

Thanksgiving is soon upon us. This secular American holiday reminds us of the importance of cultivating an attitude of gratitude, even in the midst of everything going on in our lives and the craziness of the world around us. In his book, This Grateful Heart, the poet Alden Solovy offers us this prayer to help us remember to give thanks:

To whom shall I give this grateful heart,
This joy that shines through the center of my...Read more...

At TBS, every gift—large or small—helps sustain the vibrant community we’ve built together. Whether it’s supporting religious education, worship, or community programs, your generosity ensures that our Temple remains strong today and for generations to come.

One powerful way to give is through appreciated assets, such as stocks, bonds, or other marketable securities. For many people, this option provides a significant tax...Read more...

WTBS/Sisterhood is off to a great start this new year and looks forward to getting together throughout the year.

August was a busy month as we came together socially and again to begin our reflection for the upcoming High Holidays. We enjoyed great food, conversation and camaraderie at Anita Buchheim’s home for Summer Salads at the beginning of August. We shared a variety of salads and desserts and enjoyed sitting out on the patio...Read more...

Thirty years ago this week – November 4, 1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish extremist who was opposed to the peace process Israel was pursuing with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. Rabin was gunned down in Tel Aviv as he left a massive rally for peace. His final public words were ones of peace.

Thirty years ago this week, I was living in Jerusalem for my first year of...Read more...

The government shutdown enters another week. No matter what your political stance on it may be, I hope we can all agree that real people are suffering real effects from this: missed paychecks, loss of SNAP benefits for food, escalating health care costs, and more. Add to the furloughed workers and military members those who have been affected by federal layoffs, loss of government-adjacent jobs, the impact on private businesses, and the...Read more...

In the Book of Exodus, when the Israelites were freed from Egypt, they did not make the journey to the shore of the Sea of Reeds all in one day. They camped along the way, including stopping at a city known as Sukkot (Ex 12:37).

Rabbi Tali Adler connect this Biblical fact with the circumstances of the present moment, as we wait for the Israeli hostages to be released. She writes:

There's a place you land after you've left...Read more...

The story is told: it was just about this time of year, somewhere around the High Holy Days, and a religious school teacher was taking the opportunity to teach her class about sin and repentance. On and on she went about doing teshuvah, returning and repenting, for Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur. She wanted to remind the students that in order to truly do teshuvah, you first had to ask for forgiveness from people you had hurt....Read more...