Author: Rabbi Stan Halpern

Tuesday evening a goodly number of Congregation Beth Shalom members braved the wind and the cold as we joined with the staff of Federation to…

Benjamin Kubelsky is walking down the street when a villain carrying a gun jumps in front of Benjamin and demands, “Your money or your life!” …

The city of Sodom is presented as the foremost example of evil in the world. Sodom is totally engulfed in evil. Not even Abraham’s plea…

At the end of Morning Service on Yom Kippur a number of people asked either for a copy of my sermon or else a list…

Congregation Beth Shalom is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism, an organization that represents more than 800 Reform Congregations. Rabbi Rick Jacobs is…

Remember this phrase from television many, many years ago? The robot warns Will Robinson that there is danger ahead of them. I offer this same…

Dear Lizzie – In more than 30 years of serving congregations, I have never missed a wedding or a Bar or Bat Mitzvah until I…

This last week, Karen Friedman, President of Congregation Beth Shalom, and I attended a meeting put together by the Jewish Community Relations Council. This meeting…

Jewish tradition teaches us about the notion of Derech Eretz, which is usually translated as “the way of the world”.  However, much more than that,…

Any Yom Kippur in Spokane, Washington, 50 years ago would have found the shul bursting at the seams for Kol Nidre, of course, and for…