Dear congregants and friends,

Just this past Sunday a hundred of you joined us to march against anti-Semitism along with what was reported to be 26,000 other justice-minded people.

On Thursday, our Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Joshua Davidson addressed the Fieldston Upper School assembly to present the mainstream Jewish community’s perspectives on the recent explosion of anti-Semitism in our country. Video of the rabbis’ presentation at Fieldston is here, and the full text of Rabbi Hirsch’s prepared remarks is here.

That same day, Fieldston fired an outspokenly anti-Zionist (Jewish) teacher — whose final gesture was an obscene one. The story was covered widely by the media, including The New York Times, The New York Post, JTA and The Washington Free Beacon.

At Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday, Rabbi Hirsch spoke about his experiences there.

And on Sunday, January 26, teens and parents of children of all ages are invited to hear from Rabbi Hirsch, Rabbi Samantha Natov, Rabbi Shira Gluck, Rabbi Rena Rifkin and Miriam Kalmar about how we discuss and handle anti-Semitism — with an emphasis on anti-Zionist attitudes in the classroom. Teens, parents of younger children, and parents of teens and older children will have the opportunity to talk in groups. Please RSVP here.

We wish you all a shavua tov! May the coming week be less dramatic than the last.