I was a little despondent when Nick Isgro was elected to be the Maine GOP’s vice chairman last week. I don’t know him personally, so I can’t say whether I like or dislike him, but I’m troubled any time someone with a profoundly milquetoast resume waxes “tough guy” on social media using a lexicon enjoyed
This has for us been the most engaged week of Chanukah in a long time. We had a friend’s family over for the second night, we went to Chabad’s lighting and party in downtown Bangor, we had 11 friends over last night, and after the Chanukah party at our shul on Sunday, we’re enjoying the
I received the death notice about Morris Merlin today from our synagogue, and my heart is broken. I couldn’t take Morris on social media. He was too much. He hated Donald Trump and the people that voted for them. He hated libertarianism. He hated that I ran as a Republican for State House. I didn’t
Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn’t give up, Ben; she’s still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her. She’s a father working while cancer eats away his insides, to bring home one more pay check. She’s a twelve-year-old trying to mother her brothers and sisters because mama had to
I’m never impressed by outside experts, be they corporate, legal, etc. Our synagogue recently retained the services of two people: a rabbi who specializes in reinvigorating congregations, and an academic who studies our kind of congregation and I gather offers some sense of direction. It’s one of those things I think the current board thinks
One of the many reasons I love synagogue is because even in my 40s, congregants still call me “young man.” After my Army Physical Fitness Test last week, I don’t feel like a young man. In what is becoming increasingly common for me, I struggled with and actually failed the 2-mile run. I have good
I’m back in our legislative district state house race. And you know what? I really think highly of my opponent. He’s a genuinely nice guy who is well-liked by people that know him. Whatever policies I may or may not share with him, that’s the important thing. We’re presenting sometimes overlapping, sometimes competing visions for
Our rabbi mentioned briefly in his dvar this week “hitbodedut,” the form of private Jewish meditation, associated most with Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and the Breslover chassidim. Rabbi Nachman urged forests or fields for this. Can do! Says I. Muir said, “Into the woods I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” I find
Photo credit: Paul Cyr After a week-long vacation in Florida, we returned to Maine to find that our tomato plants had been raided and one of our newly planted fruit trees had been savaged. As my children played outside yesterday, as we had some time to recuperate, I thought about the prophet Elisha sending some bears
I wonder how many other Jewish kids in schools where there isn’t even a Jewish minority (Minority: Population One or Two) face Holocaust studies with trepidation. My wife grew up in a big Jewish community and counted Auschwitz survivors in the family. Me, I grew up aware of my Jewish background in a community with
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.
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.
