Dear Miriam, 

I was just diagnosed with a new food intolerance, right before I’m supposed to go to several meals with friends over the coming days for Shavuot. What’s the best way to handle sharing this information with hosts? 

Signed, 

GI-Challenged Guest 

Dear Guest,

Several years ago, I had a guest coming to dinner with a complex set of dietary restrictions. I meticulously planned a menu to meet all of her needs, only for her to get sick the day before and cancel. The day of the meal, I found out about some folks who needed a last-minute Shabbat meal, and they had literally the exact opposite food needs of the ones I was already accommodating with my planned menu. I moved some things around, changed a few ingredients, made clear who could and couldn’t eat which things, and we had a lovely time.

As the holiday is fast approaching (and by the time you read this, will have basically arrived), there’s a good chance that your hosts have already planned their menus and maybe even started cooking. You should approach sharing this new information with an attitude of wanting to bring your hosts into the picture without any expectations of them doing what I did!

The following script could work over text or email: “I’m so looking forward to our meal together over Shavuot. I wanted to let you know that, as of just a couple of days ago, I learned I can no longer tolerate eating x, y, or z. I’m not allergic, so it’s fine for them to be at the table with me, but I’ll just avoid those ingredients if they’re in anything you’re preparing. I’m also happy to bring food for myself to avoid inconveniencing you so close to the holiday or to bring a dish I can eat to share with everyone.” Hopefully, this won’t mean avoiding everything on the table, and hopefully, offering to bring something will prevent the host from panicking.

Another approach, assuming this is possible within the kosher observance framework of your hosts and your community, is not to say anything in advance and just to bring food you can eat. Pull the host aside immediately and say, “I just found out about some things I can’t eat and didn’t want to stress you out right before the holiday so I just brought things I knew were safe for me. If you can tell me ingredients for everything, great, and if not, I’m just so happy to be here.” 

This risks the host feeling embarrassed or annoyed about preparing things that you won’t eat, but it avoids advanced stress and spares you from having to send that text. The company and companionship really is the most important part, and if there’s a way to communicate extreme gratitude to your host while not eating the food they prepared, that would be a good exercise to explore.

Finally, this may be a terrible idea, but I’ll throw it out there: If this intolerance is not life-threatening, and you’ve gone to meals that didn’t accommodate it up until now, perhaps you can wait until after Shavuot to change your diet. This, of course, depends on a number of factors, and your health should always take priority, but perhaps there is a way to ease into this in two days rather than today. 

Be well, and chag sameach,

Miriam 

The post How To Deal With A New Food Intolerance Over Shavuot? appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

At a sold-out class in the Nordic Ware Factory Store in St. Louis Park, Heilicher walked the group through three different, no-bake Israeli cheesecake recipes – all perfect to celebrate Shavuot.

“I got some really lovely positive feedback from the participants,” Heilicher said. “I think it was lovely that people had questions and participated and seemed really engaged. I love that about the class.”

Heilicher talked about her Yemeni-Israeli background, as well as the roots of Shavuot being a dairy holiday.

“I try to engage people and create some humor and everything, and my classes overall tend to be sort of interactive,” she said. “I like to think of the class being a community for two hours.”

Heilicher said the Nordic Ware kitchen space lends itself to a homey feel.

“Nordic Ware was really wise in creating a kitchen that almost looks like a home kitchen,” she said. “It’s not as intimidating as the big ovens and the professional kitchens. This is inviting; at my house, the kitchen is the busiest place.”

Heilicher has taught classes at Nordic Ware for 14 of the 18 years that the store has been open, said LoAnn Mockler, who was the manager of the store until 2023 but still helps arrange classes.

“Zehorit makes the classes very approachable,” Mockler said. “The staff thought the class was wonderful. And the desserts were just fabulous. There were some leftovers that were really good.”

Israeli Crumb Cheesecake

Recipe Adapted from Keren Agam

Serves: 10

For Base and crumb

1 stick butter, melted

300 grams Petit Beurre butter or Osem cookies (or Nilla Wafers)

2 tablespoons almond flour (or extra cookie crumb) 

Cake Filling

200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons lemon zest

500 milliliters (2 cups) heavy whipping cream, very cold

1 package instant vanilla pudding (Zehorit prefers Osem to Jell-O brand)

200 milliliters sour cream

16 ounces cream cheese (2 packages), softened

Directions:

1. Prep: grease a 9-inch round springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. You can also line the sides of the pan. Make room in the refrigerator for the cake pan. (you can also use a 9×9-inch square pan.
2. Make Crumbs: Place Cookies in the bowl of food processor and pulse until fine Crumbs are created. add the flour and melted butter, and pulse until combined. divide crumbs into two even portions. set one half aside for the topping and spread the other half on the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing the crumbs in and creating a smooth and even bottom. set aside.
3. Make filling: Place sugar and lemon zest in bowl of a stand mixer and rub between your fingers until zest releases its oils and the sugar turns yellowish. add softened cream cheese and, using the flat beater on medium speed, combine cream cheese with the lemony sugar. Beat for three to four minutes until smooth and fluffy. Place the mixture into a clean bowl. In the same mixing bowl, (no need to wash) add the rest of the filling ingredients (vanilla pudding, sour cream and whipping cream). Whip mixture with whisk attachment on medium-high speed until fluffy, smooth, and stable. Reduce speed and add cream cheese mixture a little at a time until it is all combined, smooth, and stable.
4. Assembly: Spread the cheesy feeling over the bottom cookie layer evenly and smooth the top. Sprinkle the reserved half of cookie crumbs evenly over the cheesy filling, lightly pressing it into the cake. Cover the cake in place in the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours and up to 24 hours.
5. Serve: Slice the cake with a sharp, smooth knife and serve with fresh berries, chocolate or caramel sauce. Cake will keep covered in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. 

Note: If doubled, this recipe can be made in a 9×13-inch pan.

The post An Easy, No-Bake Cheesecake For Shavuot appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

My first thought was to ignore the remark. I mean, I pay my computer ‘geek’ 8 times what I pay my cleaner so I should take his advice, right?

But something made me ask: “Why?”

“It’s the old version.”

“How do you know?”

“In Sri Lanka, I had a computer business. That model was already old then and not very good. There are newer, better ones out now.”

“Could you get me a better one? I wouldn’t know what to ask for.”

“Sure, I’ll bring it next week.”

I could have missed out on that very useful information had I not remembered what Ben Zoma said in Pirkei Avot: “Who is wise? One who learns from everyone.”

Pirkei Avot, known as Ethics of the Fathers, is one of the 63 tractates of the Mishnah and the only one that deals not with laws but morals, wisdom and advice on how to live a worthwhile life. These chapters are learned in many shuls on Shabbat afternoon between Pesach and Shavuot. These are also the weeks of the Counting of the Omer, when we mourn the death of thousands of Rabbi Akivah’s students. We are told they died because they did not treat each other with respect, something that was unacceptable in such illustrious scholars.

It is also the time leading up to our receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai on Shavuot, and for both these reasons, it is a very opportune time for refining our character and improving our relationship with our friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

I have heard someone ask what he should do if he is davening as chazan in a community and his particular custom is to say something differently than the way this community does. The answer usually given is to quote Hillel in Pirkei Avot: “Do not separate yourself from the community.”

Have you ever heard someone say, “When I retire or when the children are all at school, I’ll write a book/go to shiurim/learn Daf Yomi/I’ll go back and study medicine…”

Many years ago, Hillel warned: “Do not say when I free myself of my concerns I will study, for perhaps you will never free yourself.”

Regarding the most important trait for a person to have, Rabbi Shimon suggests that it is Ha’roeh et ha’nolad; he who sees the consequences of what he is about to do.

Have you ever been asked to do some chesed for someone? Perhaps make a meal or babysit for a new mother, or make up a minyan, or join a group to pray for a refuah sheleima for someone sick? Maybe your first thought was oh gosh, I may have time today, but who says I’ll be able to do it next time I’m asked? Maybe I won’t have time then…perhaps it’s better to say ‘no’ now.

Rabbi Tarfon has the answer for you. He said, “You don’t have to finish the job, but nor are you free to absolve yourself from doing it.”

Perhaps you remember the 1980s fitness adage ‘no pain, no gain,’ which encouraged exercising until your body was aching.

Even that originated in Pirkei Avot, but with a different meaning. L’fum tzara agra is the idea that the more effort you put into something, the more you will get out of it. But I don’t think exercising was on their minds at the time.

Other important advice you will find among the pages :

• Always greet everyone with a smile.
• Treat other people’s property as if it is your own.
• If a person is pleasing to others, then Hashem is pleased with him. If he is not pleasing to others, then Hashem is not pleased with him.

Of course many of the pieces of advice are to do with Judaism and learning Torah.

Do not say your prayers by rote is something that applies to many of us today

Pirkei Avot is possibly the quintessential guide to living your life as a Jewish mensch. It is worth delving into at any time of the year.

The post ‘Pirkei Avot’ Offers A Guide To Living as a Mensch appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Havilio was named the American Conference of Cantors Ba’al Chazon Award for Vision in Social Justice at the organization’s May 11 annual meeting. Havilio is the first Minnesota cantor to be honored with the award. 

“When [Operation] Metro Surge and things were beginning to look really bad, I called my good friend (and classmate) Rabbi Jonah Pesner of the Religious Action Center, and I called [Union of Reform Judaism President] Rabbi Rick Jacobs, because he and I have known each other for 30 years,” Havilio said. “I said, ‘You guys have got to get here. The Reform Movement has to be a presence here.’ If you’re talking [about] walking the walk, this is it. We’re being attacked here.

“I was amazed by how many of my former students come from all over the country. It felt great as a teacher because that’s what I taught in my classroom. If you’re going to believe ‘Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof,’ Justice, justice, you shall pursue,’ you can’t just talk it,”

The award was first introduced in 2017 by former ACC president Steven Weiss as a way to ”recognize the wide range of ACC members’ cantorial talents” on and off the pulpit. A second Ba’al Chazon Award for Vision was given for sacred music. 

“Since relocating to the Twin Cities, she has established herself as an outspoken (outsung?) presence in public demonstrations of interfaith solidarity, racial equity, and human dignity,” wrote Cantor Josh Breitzer, the current ACC president.

Havilio said that working for social justice has long been a fixture in her work in the cantorate, and she said she sought positions where her fellow clergy also believed in that work. But that also extended to her time at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, where she was the head of cantorial studies and senior cantor at the campus, where she wanted to have a “street presence.”

“The prayer leader should be the same person in the pews are they are on the bema,” she said. “In Jerusalem, I went to the Kotel every Rosh Chodesh, from 2011 until I left, to bring students and bring people of all genders by the way to the Kotel to pray with Women of the Wall.”

Havilio reflected on the MARCH Minnesota training she was part of in January during Operation Metro Surge. She was sitting with Mount Zion Temple Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker, who, along with her husband, Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker, was a classmate of hers at HUC.

“Rachel and I were sitting together, and we were very teary [about being] 30 years into our cantorate, and this is what we set out to do,” Havilio said. “And as cantors, we really believe in this and [what it means] to show up.”

Breitzer said that Havilio is “a model of what it means to be a contemporary chazan.”

“Living in the liminal spaces, in moments of nuance and uncertainty, and working together with clergy partners to make those moments meaningful for everyone gathered,” Breitzer wrote. “We could not be happier or prouder to highlight Tamar in this way.”

The post Bet Shalom Cantor Havilio Honored For Social Justice Work appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Over the next year and a half, the organization expects to roll out improvements ranging from tech infrastructure and resources for staff to some facility upgrades.

“This investment is about strengthening the future of care at Sholom,” said CEO Jim Newbrough in an email. 

“By enhancing our clinical systems, technology, and community spaces, we’re giving our teams better tools to do their work and creating a more connected, responsive, and meaningful experience for the residents and families we serve,” he said.

The grant comes from the Sholom Foundation, a separate philanthropic entity that supports Sholom. The sizable investment comes as Sholom, like many long-term care organizations, has struggled with rising costs and cuts in federal and state support.

Over the past year, staff at Sholom took stock of the organization’s current and future needs and developed a plan for modernizing its operations. That plan led to the grant application for the foundation’s support.

“Our donors help bring our values to life in tangible ways,” said Etta Barry, president of the Sholom Foundation, in a press release. “Their generosity allows us to invest thoughtfully in the people, spaces, and systems that sustain our mission.”

While the $8 million grant is meant to support a range of improvements, there are few specific details about how the money will be spent and Sholom’s operations will change.

When asked by TC Jewfolk for more information, Sholom pointed to a new electronic health record system for residents.

“This will enhance care coordination, improve communication with healthcare partners, reduce the potential for errors, and allow our teams to spend more meaningful, uninterrupted time with residents,” Sholom said in an email.

Investments will also be made in communication tools and in streamlining operations.

“For residents and families, this means a more seamless, connected, and personalized experience where care feels more coordinated; communication is clearer, and daily life is enriched by a supportive, well-equipped environment,” Sholom said.

The upgrade initiative is being called “The Future of Sholom,” with a landing page on Sholom’s website to answer frequent questions and publish updates. Sholom will also host a public town hall about the upgrades on May 20.

The post Sholom Receives $8 Million Grant To Upgrade Operations For New Era appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Dear Miriam,

I love giving recommendations based on a job well done! Whether it’s painters, barbers, caterers, etc, I am always happy to share my positive experiences in my neighborhood/online communities. But what is your opinion on sharing negative experiences? If someone asks for a recommendation of a contractor, and I have a company they should avoid, should I tell them? Is this lashon hara?

Signed,

Rate and Review

Dear Review,

The following statement applies to any online comment thread: What will your comment accomplish? If you can answer, sincerely, that it will help someone, you’ve passed the first hurdle. Beyond that, you still need to consider how enmeshed you want to get in an online conversation, how strongly you want to defend your position if someone else disagrees with you, and whether you want your comment to be in writing on the internet for posterity.

If an online group is well-moderated and is confined in some way (people you know, people who live in a certain radius, people who have answered a certain set of questions before joining the group), your risk level is probably fairly low. But what if you post about your favorite coffee shop and then someone else comments that the owner is actually a terrible person and you shouldn’t support it? Or what if you post about a handyman who put a hole through your wall and didn’t come back to fix it, and then you find out he’s your co-worker’s brother? In short: Entering a conversation you don’t have to be in can cause unintended consequences, or at least unnecessary awkwardness.

And yet, giving recommendations is a great way to engage with friends and neighbors, a way that businesses build their customer base, and usually an overall feel-good thing to do, the above circumstances notwithstanding. So by all means, give the positive recommendations despite everything I’ve said so far. In my own experience, the best hires have come from recommendations, and I do enjoy the opportunity to pay it forward both to the people hiring and those being hired. 

If you have an anti-recommendation and you’re in an in-person conversation, go ahead and tell the person who not to hire. Almost any kind of information is easier and safer to share that way. Online, consider sending a private message saying that you didn’t have a good experience with so and so and encouraging the person to find another option. I especially encourage this course of action if you know the person seeking the recommendation. If you don’t know them, consider sticking to positive comments only, both so as to avoid entanglements and to avoid spreading negative feedback further than it needs to go.

Which brings us to your final questions. Lashon hara (literally wicked tongue, often translated as gossip) implies spreading rumors with no reason, telling tales for fun, or sharing negative information that’s none of your business. If you’ve been ripped off by a company and you want to prevent someone else from that fate, it’s not quite in the category of lashan hara, at least according to my standards. And, at the same time, unless there are very extreme circumstances, you don’t want to be responsible for tanking someone’s business or harming their reputation. Keeping your comments as private as possible allows you to share relevant information without being unnecessarily public about it.

Be well,

Miriam

P.S. If you are receiving recommendations for babysitters or other caregivers, the onus is on you to do the necessary reference background checks!

The post Is Sharing Negative Experiences Lashon Hara? appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

“My family and I came here in the hopes of freedom, civil rights, democracy, and it became very clear to me, even as a little kid, that the work of maintaining those underlying values and principles is something that is very active,” she said. “Like this event title speaks to, that it doesn’t just exist in the ether. You have to do the work every day to maintain it, to improve it.”

More than 130 people were at the annual breakfast, which honored volunteers for their work with the organization. Vaynerman and retiring State Sen. Sandy Pappas were panelists in a discussion with NCJW-MN board member Sami Saltzman Savin on how each of them interacts with democracy.

Pappas, whose last session in the legislature is scheduled to wrap up May 18, had been active in her St. Paul community and a DFL volunteer where her husband nudged her to run for office. 

“To quote him, ‘You’re pregnant with our third child and laid off from your job; why don’t you run for the legislature? You have nothing to do,’” Pappas said to laughs from the crowd. “My campaign slogan was ‘She will deliver.’” 

Pappas talked about how she was influenced by Reform Judaism and its stance on social justice.

“It was a perfect fit with my own personal values,” she said. “There’s a wrong, and you see that, and you want to right it, and that’s basically what we do in the legislature. We fight for justice, against injustice, and it can take a long time.”

Vaynerman said that her Jewish identity shows up all the time in her work.

“Whether it’s through litigation or policy work or a mixture of everything, or helping to support local and state government to do the right thing, that innate sense of what is right, what is just, what is fair, is instrumental in every decision we make,” she said. “About which case to bring, how to best represent a client, how to move any type of movement forward thoughtfully, especially because I know this work can’t be done alone.”

Vaynerman had been the deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights before starting Groundwork Legal, a public interest law firm.

“My parents immigrated – when they were in their 20s with two little kids and $20 in their pocket – to a country where they didn’t know what would happen,” Vaynerman said. “So when I’m tired, it helps me level-set what’s possible. I think the generational trauma that is very real and true for many of us, [it] can either break us or it helps to build this resilient sense at the cellular level.”

Honoring volunteer work

Lenore Blank Kelner and Lori Weissman were honored with L’Dor V’Dor Awards at the breakfast. Kelner joked that being named an “Emerging Leader” is usually for someone in their 20s or 30s. Margie Solomon, who introduced Kelner, said it shows that people can get engaged at any age.

“I’m really grateful to be at my stage of life and still be emerging,” Kelner said. 

Kelner is a long-time arts educator who was instrumental in launching the NCJW-MN Social Action Film series, which merges film and social action, focusing on women’s roles and issues and often featuring lesser-known films. 

Weissman was awarded for her more than 25 years of gun violence prevention work in Minnesota, including her co-chairing of the organization’s gun safety committee. 

“I joined NCJWMinnesota 26 years ago because its Jewish values resonated with striving for social justice, improving quality of life for women, children and families, in safeguarding individual rights and freedoms through action, advocacy and community service,” Weissman said.

The post NCJW Minnesota Celebrates Democracy, Local Leaders at Annual Breakfast appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Meet the Emcee

Jordana Green is an award-winning journalist, speaker, cancer survivor, and mom. Jordana started her career as a beat news reporter, then medical reporter, and over a couple of decades and many markets worked to become an Emmy award winning television news anchor. In 2012 she joined WCCO radio and is the co-host of the Adam and Jordana Show. You can hear her Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-noon. Learn more about Jordana at jordanagreen.com.

Meet the Producer

Galit Breen is the Director of Engagement for Jewfolk, Inc. Galit was the original Minnesota Mammaleh columnist for TC Jewfolk when it first launched over a dozen years ago. Galit is also the Co-Producer of Listen to Your Mother Twin Cities, the bestselling author of Kindness Wins, a guide to teaching your child to be kind online and the TEDx Talk, “Raising a digital kid without having been one.” Her writing has been featured on The Huffington Post; The Washington Post; Buzzfeed; TIME; and more. She lives in Eagan with her husband, three children, and two puppies.

Meet The Cast

Laura Abrams is a Minnesota native and lover of all four seasons. In a previous chapter, she was a corporate event planner. She now uses those same skills to manage all of the logistics for her three kids. She loves planning family road trips, reading three books at a time, and trying new coffee shops on her travels with her husband. Each year, she challenges herself to do something scary or uncomfortable. This year, it was submitting her story to “Stories from the Tribe.” She challenges you to do the same. You might just find something new you love!

Robyn Awend is an energetic advocate for the arts, curating and leading exhibitions and programs that explore the intersection of creativity, collaboration, and connection. A practicing visual and literary artist, she works with words and fragmented text as a source of inspiration and expression. Her storytelling has been featured on the Listen to Your Mother Twin Cities stage as well as the inaugural Stories From the Tribe event. Robyn lives with her witty husband and their three children, who inspire her every day.

Naomi Dean grew up on a farm in Minnesota. She has taught English and Spanish in Brooklyn, New York, and Palo Alto, California, and she currently teaches ESL at Cedar Island Elementary, a public school in Maple Grove. Naomi lives with her husband Ethan, son Noah, and daughter Elsie in Plymouth. You can find her gardening, reading, writing, or walking, as well as spending time with family, including her brother, Erik, who took over the family farm. You can check out her poems in publications such as Poetica, Sylvia, The Madrigal, Collateral, Plainsongs and JAMA.

Stacey Dinner-Levin is the mother of four boys — now adults — the eldest of whom has autism. For more than 25 years, she’s worked with children with disabilities including PACER Center’s “Count Me In” program where she wrote several scripts. Her play Autistic License was named one of 2007’s Ten Best Plays by St. Paul Pioneer Press and was featured in American Theater Magazine. Autistic License was remounted for film and won “Best Educational” at the IFFF in 2010. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Michael, her son Geordy, and the world’s strangest dog, her Chinese Crested, Birdie. 

Tamar Fenton grew up in her town’s only identifiable Jewish family. This inspired Tamar’s life-path, including her deep commitment to Jewish community. A long-time JCC professional, Tamar also loves volunteering, writing, decoupage dabbling, and is a “Care Activist” for The Patient Revolution, a non-profit working to bring careful and kind healthcare to all. Her family with David is her greatest passion – Aiden and daughter-in-law Aniko, Asher and daughter-in-law Shira and amazing grandson, Ronen, and Liel (z”l). Liel often told Tamar that she was a bad-ass, so she tries to be one every day. Learn more about Tamar here: tamarfenton.wixsite.com/lielslegacy.

Linda Fiterman is a wife, mom, Amma to 9 and Great Amma to 2. These grandchildren and great-grandchildren all just happen to be the most brilliant kids in the world; baffling statisticians for years. She volunteers for any organization that includes the word Jewish. She walks her neighborhood every day with Lester Holt as she listens to Dateline podcasts. She’s an avid reader, mahjong player, and blesses the day that texting was invented. You will never see her without wearing pearls, red lipstick, and barrettes. Her goal is to hit age 100. Only 23 years to go!

Robin Gale is in Act 3 of her life. Act 1: Surviving childhood and adolescence. Act 2: Surviving marriage, children, and work. Now in Act 3, she focuses on simply flourishing. Being a mother to her three adult children, two bonus children by marriage, and a Mimah to her seven grandchildren, fills her with nachas. When she’s not busy with family, she can be found writing, hiking, or on a new adventure.

Shalva Gale is a voracious reader, amateur gardener, and mother to three miraculous young children. She lives in Minneapolis and is just hitting her stride running around the city lakes. Along with her husband, she manages their business Blending For Good. When her kids tell people what she does for work, they say that she makes YouTube videos teaching people how to make healthy (but still delicious) recipes. She’s a big fundraiser for the Down Syndrome Association of MN on behalf of her middle kiddo. She was motivated to audition for this show after watching her mother-in-law perform in the last two performances. This is her first time storytelling on stage.

Cathy Gasiorowicz is a former mime, dancer, and marketing writer. As a storyteller, she’s performed at The Moth, Listen To Your Mother Twin Cities, Patrick’s Cabaret, TedX Fridley, Minnesota Fringe Festival, History Theater, Island of Discarded Women podcast, Comedy Through the Chaos, Truth Be Told, and WTF: Love, Loss, and Why I Swore. Since “rewiring” in 2025, Cathy has loved having more time to volunteer, travel, visit family, and plan adventures with her lovely husband, Bob.

Julie Jacobs is a 65-year-old Jewish lesbian mother of four and grandmother of eight. She is a former Marathon runner and triathlete. She once completed a Half Ironman Triathlon and won in her age group. She currently swims a half mile 4-6 times a week. Julie lives within 6 miles of all her children and grandchildren. After participating in a 12-step program for the past 43 years and studying/practicing Mussar for the past 10, Julie has realized that her purpose on the planet is to foment LOVE!

Debbie Rosen Lieberman grew up in Bismarck, ND, until she moved to Minneapolis at age 15. She has a business degree from the U of M and an MBA from Chicago’s Loyola University. Debbie worked for many years as a compensation analyst in the corporate sector, later switching to work for several nonprofits. After marrying Bruce, the couple moved to Chicago’s northwest suburbs where their three boys were born. When the boys were 7, 9, and 11, they moved back to Minneapolis for Bruce’s job. Now retired and a Grami to two granddaughters, Debbie continues to enjoy family, volunteering, swimming, walking, and reading.

Barb Weil is a mom to three boys, Matthew, Andrew and Evan. She has been a single parent for many years. She taught Preschool for 40+ years in Minnesota, California, Ohio and Wisconsin. The last 16 years she has taught at Beth El Aleph Preschool. She actually retired two years ago, but  flunked retirement and now is a sub at Aleph school for two days per week. She is also a volunteer for PJ Library.

Get your tickets today

Tickets are available right now! Get your tickets today by clicking right here.

About the show

An event by TC Jewfolk produced by Galit Breen, the original Minnesota Mammaleh and co-producer of Listen to Your Mother Twin Cities for the last decade+.

Stories from the Tribe features 12 women on the bima telling their true Jewish stories that have a thread to being a Mammaleh – whether that’s about their own Mammaleh or about being a Mammaleh – and includes all of the ups and downs, highs and lows, laughs and tears that come with the real-life experience of mammalehs in the Twin Cities.

During this time it’s even more important for us Jews to gather + tell our stories, loud and proud!

So this, is that!

The third annual show will once again be emceed by the incredible Jordana Green, co-host of The Adam & Jordana Show on WCCO Radio, and promises to be a stunning night of storytelling!

This show will be at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, and the show date is Monday, June 22, at 7 p.m. Seating is General Admission, and the doors will open at 6 p.m.

Get your tickets today!

The post Meet The Storytellers Bringing TC Jewfolk’s Third Annual Storytelling Show to Life appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Every week during our Sabbath services, we Jews offer a “Prayer for Our Country.” In part, it reads: “…may citizens of all races and creeds forge a common bond in true harmony, to banish hatred and bigotry, and to safeguard the ideals and free institutions that are the pride and glory of our country.” We expect that when our congregants walk out of our synagogues, they are living out their Jewish beliefs with love, not hate. That is why I am deeply disturbed and concerned by the lack of or minimal response from leaders in Minnesota to blatant antisemitism against Jewish community members seeking political engagement. 

Hate crimes are on the rise, and our political parties are overrun with targeted hatred disguised as purity tests – so much so that a Pennsylvania judge left the Democratic Party over antisemitism. The time to address antisemitism is now, not when it becomes physically violent or even deadly. 

This is a failure of leadership – from Democrats and Republicans – for not condemning antisemitic attacks as they do for individuals or groups of other religions and identities experiencing equally disturbing acts of hatred. 

On several occasions recently, during the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party endorsement process, a process that already attracts individuals with some of the most fringe political positions, delegates have spewed antisemitic slurs against Jewish candidates and those supportive of Jewish Minnesotans. Too many party leaders and statewide candidates have chosen to remain shamefully silent and refused to call out these individuals for hateful comments. I applaud those candidates who have set an example and called out these antisemitic actions.

Speaking out should be the bare minimum – but it’s a necessary first step. Now is the time for party leadership to take real action and Democrats and Republicans seeking elected office – especially the office of U.S. Senate, Congress or Governor – to forcefully condemn all incidents of antisemitism and hate in any form. Hate that is overlooked and neglected will only elevate into bolder action that will be greater and more detrimental. Silence is simply complicity.

Any person vying to serve our state and our country should be held to a high standard of morality. What I am seeing and hearing is a political system without a backbone to stand up to the most extreme individuals who use hateful speech to discredit the voices of people who have a different opinion from them or who are simply different from them.

The example our leaders are setting for the next generation of leaders is unacceptable and downright shameful. It is telling our future leaders that it is okay to ostracize a group of people based on their identity or their religion – if it serves you in your aspirations for higher office.

We are so deeply divided as a country, but we’ve seen some of the most beautiful illustrations of unity from Minnesotans coming together in community. That love and that community should bring us all together.

We all must do better to come together, and we deserve elected leaders who hold themselves and their parties to as high a standard as they hold their opponents or anyone else. It’s on them to show us the way, to lead in ways that are inclusive and welcoming for all who wish to live and grow their families in our state. While we keep setting the example for our congregations to love one another, I strongly encourage our leaders to have a change of heart and show real leadership by firmly addressing the antisemitic actions targeting Jews inside the electoral process.

Rabbi Morris Allen served as the first rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights from 1986-2019 and is currently Rabbi Emeritus. Rabbi Allen was a strong advocate on behalf of immigrants’ rights and was recognized by national publications such as Newsweek and The Forward.

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