Rosh Hashanah 5786-2025, Congregation Sukkat Shalom In early June, I stood with Missy and 17 Sukkat Shalom community members in the Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca in Toledo, Spain, where Jews were persecuted and expelled 600 years ago. I could see the pain in everyone’s eyes. For four days we had toured places where…
Category: Israel
Balancing Compassion and Anger
Friday, April 26, 2024. I’ll never forget the time I attended a major summit on racial justice in Denver as a young rabbi. I had been working with local clergy in the area for many months, and we gathered to codify a document charging our community to continue to fight racism. Wearing my kippa, I…
Our Hope For Israel Will Not Be Lost
Pedaling from one Reform Synagogue to another we learned that the government does not financially support Reform congregations and therefore they need to raise money to establish a true alternative to the ultra-orthodox rabbinic authority. A problem that persists today. Years ago I was once biking in Israel though the forests outside of Jerusalem. Wearing…
The Crisis in Israel
a sermon delivered on March 3, 2023 This past Monday, Elan Ganeles, who grew up in West Hartford was murdered on his way to celebrate the wedding of his best friend’s sister. He was traveling on a road through the West Bank that is one of the primary roads to get to the Dead Sea,…
Why Israel?
Rosh Hashanah Morning 5783/2022Congregation Mishkan Israel, Hamden, CT 75 years! Next April we will celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday. I’m sure our local celebrations will feature Falafel, Israeli Salad, hummus, and Israeli music. While we will acknowledge that Palestinians call this day their “Catastrophe, the Nakba,” and for them this is a day of mourning, we…
A Message of Hope for Israel’s Future
I was not born into a Zionist home. When Israel became a country in 1948 my grandparents in Cleveland left the Synagogue where Zionist Abba Hillel Silver was the rabbi and went to a new synagogue because they worried that if the Jews had a home, America would expel them much like the Germans. When…
Israel’s Worst Enemy
On the 20th yartzeit of Prime Minister Rabin and while Rabbi Ascherman heals from his wounds, we must not let their efforts towards peace be in vain.
Rabbi Brian Immerman 