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Sukkot 4
Brattleboro Area Jewish Community
Making decorations for the sukkah

Making decorations for the sukkah

Welcome to Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, Congregation Shir Heharim

Our mission is to provide a context and structure for people to be Jewish together in a rural environment. This community fosters Jewish pride and identity by participating together in religious, spiritual, educational, social, and cultural experiences. We welcome anyone interested in participating and learning.

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From the Union For Reform Judaism / Reform Movement

For Some of Us the Holidays Are Just…Hard

For Some of Us the Holidays Are Just…Hard jemerman

Death and Mourning
star of david starry lights
As we head into the holiday season, I am acutely aware of how much different this year is going to be than previous ones. I will be celebrating without my mom for the first time. My mother died in January 2021, and I'm still dealing with the unexpected waves of grief that wash over me, sometimes out of nowhere. As I head into this first winter holiday season without her, I'm not quite sure I know what to expect, other than everything is going to be very different.

The Cost of Free Land

The Cost of Free Land jemerman

Secular Holidays
The author's Great-Great-Uncle Louie Sinykin posing with men in Dakota garb in South Dakota's Black Hills. Date unknown.
When I was a child growing up in the 1980s, the story I learned about Thanksgiving followed the classic script: it highlighted amity between the Pilgrims and their Indigenous neighbors. Due to this connection, the hunger of the European settlers was met with squash and turkey.