Learning and reflection on "A Blessing for Bad News: The Dignity of Response" Our Bet Midrash/learning and reflection gathering will take place this Thursday evening, November 1, at 730 PM in Beth El's Freedman Center.

Larry Greenberg received his M.D. from Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in 1986, after living in Israel since 1974. He completed his psychiatry residency at UNC in 1990, and has been in private practice of adult psychiatry since then. He and Stephanie and family have been Beth El members since 1987.

Bull City Craft and The Mad Popper

We recommend you read the book in advance. Books are available at local book stores and online book stores.
"An Egyptian Novel" by Orly Castel-Bloom

The protagonist has Egyptian roots going back many generations: on her father’s side, to the expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492, when seven brothers of the Kastil family (from Castilla) landed on the Gaza coast after many trials and tribulations. Her mother’s side goes back even further, to the only family that Jewish history has ignored: the ones who said “No” to Moses and stayed in Egypt. After migrating to Israel in the 1950s and settling on a kibbutz—from which they were soon expelled for Stalinism—this storied clan moved to Tel Aviv. In this unconventional family saga, Orly Castel-Bloom blends fact with fiction, history with legend, reimagining the lives of her forebears in unforgettable prose.

Orly Castel-Bloom was born in north Tel Aviv in 1960, to a family of Egyptian Jews. Until the age of three, she had French nannies and spoke only French. She studied film at the Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts in Ramat Gan. Castel-Bloom lives in Tel Aviv and has two children.

Born and raised in Israel, Rachel Ariel studied History, Political Science and Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew College in Boston. Upon coming to North Carolina in 1994, Rachel became one of the two founding teachers of the new Jewish Community Day School of Durham-Chapel Hill (The Lerner School). Rachel taught Jewish studies and Hebrew and served as Director of Jewish Studies and as the interim Head of School. Since 2006 Rachel is the Subject Librarian for Jewish and Israel Studies at Perkins Library, Duke University. Rachel has curated two exhibits at Duke Libraries; “Illustrating the Hebrew Bible” (2010) and “Capturing the Moment: Centuries of the Passover Haggadah” (2017).

For information and registration: contact Dr. D. Berger dsberger@mags.net , 203-984-7664 (c)

Bob Wechsler is a member of Beth El and moved to Durham 5 1/2 years ago after 41 years as a newspaper sports editor in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. He is research director of Jewish Major Leaguers Inc. of Boston, a contributor to the Chicago-nbased on-line jewishbaseballmuseum.com, and a member of the advisory committee of Jewish Sports Heritage Inc. of Long Island, N.Y. He is author of the 2007 book Day by Day in Jewish Sports History and last year’s Jewish Baseball Card Book.

Register here: http://jccfed.wufoo.com/forms/beth-el-author-series-bob-wechsler/

The concert starts at 3 pm and is followed by refreshments.

All money raised goes to Urban Ministries of Durham. The emcee of this year's event is Dr. Sheva Zucker, well-known Yiddish scholar and long-time member of the Beth El community.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Transportation is available. Contact Beth Berman at 919-682-7468 or yiddishsongfest@aol.com.

Remember: Good Music, Good Food, Good Cause = What's Not to Like? A Yiddish Songfest to Benefit Urban Ministries of Durham

For information and registration: contact Dr. D. Berger dsberger@mags.net , 203-984-7664 (c)

Sarah is a Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist, and has been in private psychotherapy practice in Durham for over twenty five years. She is also the mother of three girls, all of whom became Bat Mitzvahs at Beth El, and recently became a grandmother as well.