We are delighted to announce that Healy Slakman, our former rabbinic intern and soon-to-be rabbi, will be joining Temple Micah as assistant rabbi and director of spiritual arts. Starting this summer, Healy will oversee our musical endeavors, designing and leading our music in worship, collaborating with our choirs and musicians, and managing the b’nai mitzvah Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley Elijah’s role in tradition is to be the herald of the messiah. At Havdalah, when we link the Garden of Eden of creation to the Eden of Eternity, the liturgy asks for him to come soon. In Jewish lore, Elijah is thought to be a protector of children and a peacemaker. Continue Reading »
By Fran Dauth The Micah committee named to search for Debra Winter’s replacement as Director of Spiritual Arts was not looking to add another rabbi to the staff. But in the end, the committee did add a rabbi—and far more. Healy Slakman “was everything we were looking for—and more. Her voice is gorgeous, her guitar Continue Reading »
By Geoffrey Barron, Barbara Diskin, and Jan W. Greenberg In Spring 2023, a group of us met at Micah to talk about a tough subject: climate change. To examine climate change is to encounter forces that seem overwhelming: our whole society built on fossil fuels, the power and influence of the big oil companies, the Continue Reading »
by Rielle Miller Gabriel As you walk into Temple Micah this spring you will see a new addition to our lobby—a large poster showcasing our Roadmap Project’s drivers of our future, five levers that help us become a stronger home. As a quick refresher, the Roadmap is a living, forward looking framework intended to Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Josh Beraha In Spring 2020, we set our seder tables with all the typical accoutrements of the Passover holiday, but that year many of us added something new: a laptop computer opened to Zoom. If the addition of an orange on the seder table stood for women’s liberation, the addition of a computer Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel I am writing this letter on March 2. In six days, I will be leaving for Israel to lead our second Micah trip there in this Jewish year (5783). In all my years of traveling to Israel, I never have experienced the level of anxiety I feel today. I have Continue Reading »
Register The next session of our Adult Conversational Modern Hebrew class will begin on Wednesday, April 19th. Taught by longtime Hebrew teacher Evie Shen-Tal, the class will continue to learn the past tense and build vocabulary. This class is for experienced beginners; familiarity with reading Hebrew in print and conjugating present/past tense verbs in the Paal Continue Reading »
In partnership with URJ and Clal We want Temple Micah to be a place where everyone feels at home. We are proud to announce the launch of The Belonging Project in partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) and Clal to help us better understand what we as a congregation can do to ensure Continue Reading »
By Randy Tritell Half a year after leaving my job as Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of International Affairs and embarking on a new phase of life misleadingly called “retirement,” I find my Jewish identity playing a central role in providing direction and meaning in a way I never would or could have Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Josh Beraha The first time I remember longing to make aliyah, I was in high school spending a semester abroad in Israel. I lived some of the time with a family in Gilo, a neighborhood outside of Jerusalem, where conversations with my host brother, Yoav, awakened these feelings of longing that linger to Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley A number of years ago, I was sitting in a lecture with Rabbi Donniel Hartman of the Hartman Institute. On a large easel pad, he drew a tiny dot in the center. And around it, along the edges of the paper, he drew a large circle. This small dot, he said, Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Daniel Zemel I do not know how not to love Israel. The very street names sing the song of the Jewish story: Hillel, Shammai, Bialik, Ben Yehuda. Louise and I once lived in an apartment on Ahad Ha’am and was thrilled to be living on the street named for the early twentieth-century founder Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Stephanie Crawley On the first day of our New Year, I gave this blessing—for anyone who has had an abortion, or helped someone access one. You can learn more about our decision to offer the blessing in Rabbi Zemel’s column in the November/December 2022 edition of the Vine. What we originally thought would Continue Reading »
Office Coordinator Posted January 4, 2023 ABOUT THE ROLE: Temple Micah, a vibrant and creative Reform congregation of over 650 families in Washington, DC, is seeking an Office Coordinator. The Office Coordinator is a critical member of the administrative team and maintains the day-to-day operations of Temple Micah’s office. This work requires collaboration with all Continue Reading »
By Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel | Erev Shabbat, December 30, 2022 This Shabbat, as we prepare to leave 2022 behind, I want to thank once again—for the third year in a row for the very end of our calendar year–my dear friend Pastor Michael Bledsoe, the retired minister of Riverside Baptist Church in Southwest Washington Continue Reading »