Kol Hadash

These are difficult times! In our Women's Chat Group, we have shared our difficulties staying positive, relaxing, sleeping, and even breathing due to the stress around us. Joyce Hirsch has been teaching Feldenkrais for many years and will be leading our class. Feldenkrais is a method that improves each person’s awareness for moving with ease and thus reducing stress and anxiety. The results are feelings of calmness and possibilities. Joyce will be offering a Feldenkrais lesson every other Monday at 1:30 pm. These are easy gentle lessons, on a chair or lying on the floor. The result is relaxation and easier more coordinated movement. We hope that you will join us and learn how your body can feel better through these difficult times. Contact Joyce Hirsch for more information at jah231@comcast.net. All are welcome.

The Jewish experience under Islam defines the Middle Ages. As a tolerated minority, Jews were generally more successful and comfortable than under Christendom. The Islamic Empire enabled Jewish trade, religious uniformity (and schism), and cultural and intellectual exchange. How far Jewish-Muslim relations were then from where they are now!

Our book selection this month is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Wildly original, funny and moving, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is an extraordinary story of a life lived again and again from World Fantasy Award-winning author Claire North. Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message." This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow. All are welcome to join us!

What is the best way to change something that needs changing – radical revolution or gradual evolution? Religion, politics, institutional culture, social injustice all provide evidence on both sides of the debate. To decide which is more effective, we must push ourselves to stretch past our own temperament and comfort levels. This shabbat following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we will explore this key question.