Page 7 - Congregation Beth Jacob News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The Jewish News of Northern California

COURTESY OF CONGREGATION BETH JACOB PLYMOUTH — Congregation Beth Jacob has announced the coming retirement of Rabbi Lawrence Silverman after 44 years of service to the Plymouth area Jewish community.  He will be leaving his position as Rabbi at the end of July 2021. He and his wife, Meredith, will continue to reside in Plymouth. Silverman has been a member of the Plymouth Area Interfaith Clergy Alliance for many years. He is held in high esteem by both fellow clergy and members of their congregations, who have often expressed their appreciation for hearing him speak on occasions such as t...

Rabbi David Steinhardt of Boca Raton, Fla., confessed that he had never dealt with anything remotely comparable: in the last four months, five congregants or their close relatives have died by suicide. All were single men aged 20 to 60. In contrast, during his nearly 38 years in the rabbinate, Steinhardt – spiritual leader of the 1,200-unit B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, Fla. – said he had dealt with a total of four suicides. Convinced that these latest suicides were related to COVID-19, he decided to organize programs by mental health professionals and to address the mental he...

Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum, revered as much for his commitment to his congregants and the Bay Area Jewish community as for his passionate social activism on national and international stages, died at age 94 on Monday. The next day, about 150 people took part in a memorial service on Zoom in which the native San Franciscan was remembered for his participation in the U.S. civil rights movement, his advocacy on behalf of Soviet Jews and his love for Israel — but, above all, for his kindness and conviction that the true task of Judaism is to build community. “His was a Judaism about belonging,...

Max Silver, an 18-year-old at the University of Michigan who chose to sit out this semester at home in Los Altos, had been looking for a volunteer opportunity to stay busy. He checked out Vax Volunteers after he heard about it from his mom. “I’d searched online sporadically but couldn’t find anything I wanted to do that was related to Covid-19,” Silver said. “The Vax Volunteers site is easy to maneuver, so I filled out some of the registration forms for local sites, and I’m waiting to hear back.” That is exactly what Sharon Leslie of Los Altos had in mind when she launched vaxvo...