When I sit with students to prepare for b'nei mitzvah, I ask them a series of three questions. The first is, "What do you like about being Jewish?" The answers usually include “being part of something larger than themselves or on tactile things like food, family, and holiday celebrations. The second is, "What do you find difficult about being Jewish?" Before October 7th, the answer was usually fasting-- or fear of fasting-- on Yom Kippur.  Nowadays their concerns have shifted

Yom Kippur Morning, 5785, Oct 12, 2024 Rabbi Daniel Gropper, DD - Community Synagogue of Rye This past Spring, a congregant came to see...