All posts by Brian Kresge

On Veterans Day and Elections


I posted this on social media: …I don’t want anything after Tuesday anyway. I want everyone to think about these kids putting on the uniform now, for the first time. They’re so proud, so eager to serve this nation. In the wake of this divisive election, while we’re still talking about bigotry and stupidity, kids

Yanni, or I Miss My Dog


Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s most famous poem came to mind recently.  Laugh, and the world laughs with you, or something like that, cry, and you cry alone.  Grief has been bad.  It’s been isolating, I think, for all of us. I took Herschel to the vet on Friday.  He tried so hard to pretend to be

Seeing Things in the Woods


The cougar sighting appears in my forthcoming book, THE KOSHER BACKPACKER, a self-help book on being an observantly Jewish outdoors enthusiast.. In 2002 or 2003, I saw a cougar in the Adirondacks. Max, my black Labrador Retriever, and I were coming down Bennies Brook Slide from Lower Wolf Jaw, and in the middle of the

A Shabbos Prayer


Tevye and Golde sang: “May the Lord protect and defend you. May He always shield you from shame. May you come to be In Yisroel a shining name.” When it’s just us in the car, Amelia demands Manilow. There’s something disconcerting about a 12-year-old who likes Lorde and Pink and whatever else is contemporary singing

The Ship of Theseus


Plutarch, in Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, asked if Theseus’ ship, having had all of its component parts replaced across generations, was the same ship as it was when it was first constructed. The same paradox exists within our own lives. All of our cells will be completely replaced on a cycle of

A House in the Woods


I grew up in the City of Lancaster in Pennsylvania. I went to a city school. I had city friends. People tend to think of Lancaster as a bucolic Amish paradise, but the city itself is old with urban demographics. The neighborhood I grew up in is now predominantly multi-tenant, low income rentals, rather than

About Brian

Brian Kresge

Brian Kresge

Writer, President of Bangor's Congregation Beth Israel, retired soldier, programmer, father, musician, Heeb, living in the woods of Maine with three ladies and a dog. Brian is also a rabbinical student with the Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary.

About Leah

Leah Kresge

Leah Kresge

Director of Education for Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor, Maine, runs joint religious school with our sister congregation, special educator and former school board member, mother to Avi and Nezzie.

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