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AARC Welcomes Shlomit Cohen as Beit Sefer Director

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The AARC is delighted to welcome Shlomit Cohen as our Beit Sefer (religious school) director. Shlomit shares her background and her plans for the coming year in her own words (below).

My name is Shlomit. I am thrilled to be the director of the Ann Arbor Reconstuctionist Congregation (AARC) Beit Sefer (religious school). After teaching at the AARC Beit Sefer for five years, directing the program will be as natural as going back home. My son, Eli, had his bar mitzvah at the AARC. I am delighted to step into this position and give back to my community in the best way I can.

My vision for the Beit-Sefer is for the AARC to have a religious education program focused on supporting children in forging their unique lifelong Jewish identity. I believe that hands-on, student-centered education is the best way to shape identity while having fun.

There are so many different ways that a person can access their Judaism. As a native Israeli, archaeologist, and educator, I’m always eager to help people find opportunities to open many doors and explore the different ways of being Jewish. I grew up on a kibbutz, living Judaism as a hands-on (as well as brain- and hearts-on) daily experience. During my mandatory national service, I was in the education unit, teaching outdoor education to civilian children and adults.

I trained as an archeologist, and held positions at both the Ein Yael Living Museum and the Bible Lands Museum (in Jerusalem) as an archaeologist and the head of the education department. In these roles, I coordinated with both our professional development teams and other educational institutions to develop, plan, and implement educational programming.

Since coming to the United States twenty years ago, I’ve taught in a variety of settings, primarily focusing on Jewish religious education and Hebrew. I always seek to create cooperative education experiences that engage individuals and families both artistically and intellectually.

In 2019 I earned my masters in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). I also completed a year-long program in Israel education at The iCenter in Chicago. 

I have two children Eli (19), and Gabi (16), a dog (golden) and a white cat (retriever). I love the outdoors, gardening, cooking and entertaining. Yoga is big in my world – I have taught yoga for more than 30 years. I love arts and crafts, a good book or a movie. 

About the Beit Sefer

This year the AARC Beit Sefer program will be based on four pillars:  

  • Jewish time
    The year cycle which includes the holidays, Shabbat, seasons (we’ll meet a few times at the farm), and personal moments on the calendar – birthdays. 
  • Hebrew language
    as a means to connect to the reach literature. The students will learn the alef-bet (the Hebrew letters) as a preparation for the Bar- Mitzvah. Basic decoding, prayer words and phrases to be able to join the congregation services, including few modern Hebrew words. 
  • Jewish values
    The younger children will learn the Bible  stories. They will examine and practice values and mitzvah. 
  • Israel
    The geography, the land reach story since antiquity (archaeology and history), where our Jewish identity formed and the place where Jews first began to take shape as a religion and a people. Present Israel, its symbols: flag, anthem, currency, Independence Day, the reach diversity of people, and its amazing food! I will teach basic important facts only. No politics. 

My goal is to lead a supportive team with the Beit Sefer madrichim (teachers) to ensure that the kids will be happy and excited to go to school. I look forward to getting to know you and your children and having a great year together. 

– Shlomit

Tisha B’Av: Reckoning at the Narrow Bridge

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Tisha B’Av is the lowest point in the Jewish calendar, a day of mourning that mirrors the deepest ruptures in Jewish history—destruction, exile, dislocation. It is a fast day, not to punish the body, but to awaken the spirit. It is a time to feel the weight of what has been lost, and to recognize that, according to our sages—sinat chinam, “senseless hatred”—was at the root of these devastations.

Tisha B’Av asks us not to turn away. Not from suffering. Not from one another. Not as American Jews. Not as Israeli American Jews, who are entangled more intimately in the complexity of this hideous disaster. Not as our Israeli siblings, who live in this nightmare of war, grief, and national reckoning. Not as our Palestinian cousins, who endure profound loss and devastation.

This year, I am sitting with the Hasidic teaching that “the whole world is a very narrow bridge—and the essential thing is to not be overcome by fear.” It’s often sung as an anthem of resilience. But a deeper reading reminds us that a narrow bridge isn’t just scary; it is also a place of reckoning.

And so is Tisha B’Av.

As we sit in the dust of this day and read the anguished poetry of Eicha, we hear:  “You have veiled Yourself in a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.” (Eicha 3:44)

We bear witness to the human cost of hatred, arrogance, and indifference. But Eicha is not only about the past. It seeps into our present reality and awakens us to what happens when we stop listening.

This year’s grief feels vast. The continued echos of the horrors of October 7th. The hostages still held. The staggering loss of Palestinian life. The crisis of conscience for so many. The heartbreak in Israel and Gaza. The despair of war that rises without end, without clear end.

And here at home, fear is rising too. Masked ICE officers detaining people in our cities. A rising tide of authoritarianism and dehumanization. Many in our community are scared—for themselves, for their families, for the future of this country.

Tisha B’Av asks us to feel this pain. For many of us, it is impossible to turn away.  Many of us are struggling.   Many of us are struggling with our very Jewish identity. 

Reckoning with that is important. But disappearing from Jewish spaces—even when that impulse feels protective—will likely not heal the hurt or bring the clarity we seek.

Those who chose Judaism may feel especially disoriented by this moment, grappling with the collision of joy and trauma. Those of us supporting Jewish partners and children may be experiencing a new layer of grief in our bones. 

But all of us, regardless of path, are asked to remain present: to our sorrow, yes, but also to our souls and to our inner wisdom.  

This Tisha B’Av let us reflect on what we are building in the here and now. Let us reflect on the differences and the spaces between:

  • fasting and starving.
  • safety and slaughter.
  • ranting and reaching out.
  • restorative rest and avoidance.
  • the impulse to fix and the courage to listen.
  • knowing and learning.
  • what we know and what we can hold.
  • silence and abandonment.
  • the call and the readiness to respond.

This is a time to ask:

  • What are we preserving?
  • What are we destroying?
  • What are we passing on—to our children, our children’s children, our neighbors, our communities, and our world?

Our Reconstructionist impulse teaches us that to be “a light unto the nations” is not about superiority or being “chosen.” It is about participating in the great constellation of human dignity—offering sparks of justice, humility, and connection. Adding light, not claiming it.

Dear ones, I come to you as your rabbi—in the most Reconstructionist sense of that word. Not as a gatekeeper of truth, but as a fellow spiritual traveler. A facilitator, a meaning-maker, and someone who, like you, is trying to stay awake to the heartbreak and the holiness of this time.

Let us walk this narrow bridge together—not with all the answers, but with hearts open to the questions, to one another, and to the sacred work of repair.

For those of us who are fasting, may that fasting deepen our presence.
May our mourning awaken our compassion.
May we walk this bridge—carefully, courageously, and together.

B’ahavah,
Rav Gavrielle

_________________

Below are various recordings of Gesher Tzar Me’od (The Very Narrow Bridge) that may speak to your hearts:

Baruch Chait Version

Yosef Goldman Version

Yosef Karduner Version – with fuller Nachman text

Judith Silver Version, sung at a Concert for Haiti

Elana Arian Version  

AARC Creatives to meet August 28th

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All are welcome to join the “AARC Creatives” group on Thursday, August 28 at 7pm at the Eisbruchs’ house in NE Ann Arbor. This recently formed group provides a framework for folks in the AARC community to share and encourage each other on creative endeavors, very broadly defined. In our first two meetings, the group discussed projects including collage, print-making, pottery, painting, jewelry, ritutal objects, gem cutting, crafting, crochet, writing, and even developing special family events.

We are delighted that Carla Grayson will lead the group in a creative activity or discussion on August 28th. Please email Emily Eisbruch eisbruchs@gmail.com if you would like to join.

The AARC Creatives group began as the AARC Artists’ Collective in April 2025, when Rav Gavrielle invited congregants to discuss creative projects at a meeting that was hosted at the home of Idelle Hammond-Sass.

At the April 2025 gathering, Rav Gavrielle shared beautiful ritual objects, including Jewish amulets and a decorative and devotional document known as a Shiviti. 

Participants told about their creative journeys and expressed enthusiasm for collaborating together or in parallel on creative projects moving forward.

Idelle again hosted the group on June 25, for a session led by Leora Druckman. At that meeting, participants shared creative items and projects they’ve been working on.

AARC Creatives meetings will be approximately every other month and will feature rotating facilitators. We hope to see many of you at the next meeting on Thursday, August 28th.

A pit-fired pottery piece shared by Leora Druckman at the June 2025 meeting.

A cut Yooperlite gem shared by Dan Peisach in June 2025. Cutting gems – what a fascinating creative hobby!

Crochet fidget ball shared by Emily E in June 2025.

In Spite of Everything: The Art and Insight of Margot S. Neuhaus

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Written by: Janet Kelman

Margot S. Neuhaus is a versatile artist who has worked with different media including stone, wood, paint, and photography. Margot’s painting, “In Spite of Everything,” is part of the Summer Invitational 2025 at WSG Gallery, 111 East Ann, in Ann Arbor, through July 19.  It is a piece that expresses her joy, “in spite of everything”.

In her own words, Margot describes her work as an artist:

“As I set out to work, I often sit on the ground or the floor and surround myself with the natural materials with which I work, play. I order the materials in patterns that speak to me, I carve them in lines that go with the grain, or I draw them the length of a breath. Somehow a communication is established between the material and myself. When I am fortunate, I feel that the communication goes beyond the material, beyond me. I feel that I myself am a part of a pattern that speaks of a greater order. In turn, something in me changes, as does the work I do. The door has been opened a crack and a bit more light let in.”

You could visit Margot in her studio when she will be part of the new Ann Arbor Fall Art Tour, tentatively scheduled for November 8 – 9, 2025.

Margot’s website is www.margotneuhaus.com.

Rosh Chodesh Tammuz – June 26, 2025

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As we enter the month of Tammuz on the Jewish calendar, we step into a season steeped in myth, mourning, and memory. Interestingly, the name Tammuz comes from Babylonian tradition. Tammuz was a beautiful young vegetation god who died, was mourned, and then returned to life.

Also known as Dumuzi, Tammuz was associated with the fertility of the land—a corn god whose death marked the drying of the fields—the tears of those who mourned him were believed to fertilize the soil for future harvests. He was also known as Dumu-zi-abzu, Tammuz of the Abyss, a name that links him to water—not only through tears and the primordial waters of creation, but also through the rivers that sustained Babylonian agriculture.

The mourning of Tammuz was a ritual event, in which women gathered to weep for the dying god in acts of devotion that mirrored the agricultural cycle: the seed buried in the soil was symbolic of death, watered or revived by tears, to sprout and be reborn in the next season. A powerful metaphor for the life cycle (birth, death and rebirth) and moving through grief.

Tammuz in the Tanach

Tammuz makes a brief but pointed appearance in the Tanach, in the book of Ezekiel:

Then [God] brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the House of YHVH; and there sat the women, bewailing Tammuz.

The prophet Ezekiel is outraged. The weeping for Tammuz is framed not as sacred, but as idolatrous—a betrayal of covenantal faith. Here, Babylonian religious practice crosses into Israelite consciousness but is rejected and shut down.

Mourning in Jewish Time: The 17th of Tammuz to Tisha B’Av

Coincidentally—or perhaps not—the month of Tammuz also begins our own traditional season of mourning: the Three Weeks, which culminate in Tisha B’Av, the day of destruction. On the 17th of Tammuz, we commemorate the breach of Jerusalem’s walls—an ominous precursor to the fall of the Temple. By Tisha B’Av, we are fully immersed in mourning over the destruction of both Temples and other collective Jewish tragedies.

While distinct from the mourning of Tammuz in Babylon, echoes linger. Some scholars suggest that though official Tammuz cult practices were never sanctioned in ancient Israel, remnants may have survived “in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities,” as Jastrow writes—not in the Temple, but among the people.

What Do We Make of All This?


The human impulse to ritualize grief—to mourn what is lost in nature and in society—is still with us. Tammuz reminds us of the ancient roots of spiritual practice, and of the ongoing tension in Jewish tradition between integrating with the cultures around us and celebrating the particularity of our Jewish identities with their unique customs, rituals and folkways.

This year, we don’t have to look far to feel the sorrow this season invites. As we enter Tammuz, our hearts are already heavy—with grief for lives lost, for communities shattered, for the pain in Israel and Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, and other places torn by war and violence. We grieve also for the erosion of democratic values and freedoms closer to home.

May we learn from our ancient, cross-cultural spiritual roots and allow our tears to sow seeds of compassion, justice, and peace.

May not all hope be lost as we continue to keep our hearts open. May our tears flow together and form a stream of healing that irrigates the soil—so it becomes fertile ground for creativity, bridge-building, and repair. May we be patient and steadfast on this path and hold one another close.

Chodesh Tov!

B’ahavah,

Rav Gavrielle

Pride Liberation Shabbat

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Written by Robin Wagner

This Shabbat, on June 14 at 10 am, we will be holding a Pride Liberation Shabbat and we hope all will attend. The Torah portion is Beha’alotcha—Numbers 8:1-12:16—which recounts the story of people who requested a second chance to offer the Passover sacrifice. In essence, that’s what we are going to do on our Pride and Liberation Shabbat: we will have a second shot at Passover. Only, this time our “seder plate” will be full of symbols that bring some of the rich and important history of LGBTQ liberation to life.

What will be on our seder plate? 

Exotic Fruit. Queer people have demonstrated our strength in part by seizing words that have been used to disparage us and making them our own words of strength and pride. We embrace the “fruit” as a symbol that we are made in Ha’shem’s image: and that we are sweet and tart and unusual and creative and so many realities at once.

A Pink Triangle: just the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing, they forced homosexuals to wear a pink triangle. The pink triangle today is a badge of honor, resistance and identity. Similarly, the black triangle designated Nazi prisoners who were “asocial”—people with disabilities, Roma and Sinti people, and others. After WWII, lesbians claimed the black triangle as a symbol of defiance against repression. I have worn a black triangle earing in my right ear since 1995 for this reason.

Bricks and Stones: New York City, June 28, 1969. The Stonewall Inn Riot was the birth of the modern queer rights movement. Police came to the Stonewall Inn, a gathering place for gay men, lesbians, and transgender people, to break up the gathering and arrest employees for selling alcohol without a license. But instead of running in fear, the crowd held their ground, hurled bottles and debris at the police, and refused to take the harassment any longer. Bricks and stones can be both weapons and building blocks. We took these weapons and with them built a movement for liberation and pride.

Join us and celebrate the liberation of queer people and Pride month!

Pride Shabbat will take place on Saturday, June 14th at 10:30 AM, please join us earlier for an in-person meditation led by Anita Rubin-Meiller at 10:00 AM-10:20 AM for a pre-service meditation at the Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor. Light Kiddish to follow.

To join on Zoom:  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81318454149?pwd=UrfpVW2G0mRg40KdpGLZb09QhGpqmG.1 

Meeting ID: 813 1845 4149
Passcode: 397483

Volunteers Needed for Set-Up for Pride Shabbat Saturday Service. Please email me at aarctiara@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer.

Happy Juneteenth

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Happy Juneteenth! Juneteenth is a federal holiday (2021) that is being celebrated by African Americans all over the United States. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19th because of the significance the date has to African American history. June 19, 1865 was when General Gordon Granger came to Texas to announce the end of slavery-over two years after the emancipation proclamation was signed into effect. Juneteenth is now an important date in African American history because it represents the freedom that all slaves longed for. While we celebrate Juneteenth, we should reflect on what it means to be both jewish and black. We should reflect on what it means to have freedom, equality, justice, and the journey of black jews. 

Being both Black and Jewish means living in two very diverse and rich cultures. It also means having to navigate between the greatness of the two histories and the judgment and struggle of these two misunderstood and marginalized communities. Both communities have faced multiple hardships, but through the fog, they have also been resistant. Often having to make the most out of nothing, doing whatever they could for survival of self, pride, and history. 

For more information, consider visiting these websites:

If you’re interested in reading more about black and Jewish identity, these works tackle themes of race, religion, belonging, identity, and justice: