Tips for Using the Kehilla Home Seder
Tips for Using the Kehilla Home Seder HOW TO HAVE A SURPRISING SEDER USING THIS HAGGADAH Can you have a seder where no one person, no leader, knows exactly its content in advance? This Home Seder for Kehilla folk is short on words allowing space to invite people to bring in their own readings, stories, […]
Me and the High Holy Days
A Note from Rabbi David How unusual. I’m writing from an August vacation. Maybe that doesn’t seem unusual to you, but I haven’t had an August vacation in more than 20 years. Rather, I would be up to my elbows with work prepping for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But this year, even though I […]
The Retreat Always Was An Advance Forward
by Rabbi David J. Cooper I find myself thinking about the many Kehilla annual retreats we have had these last 33 years. It’s on my mind as I will be attending the retreat for the first time in my new emeritus status at the upcoming annual on July 14-16. I remember the sensation I had […]
Still in Israel/Palestine: Report Back Coming June 10
by Rabbi David J. Cooper By the time you read this, I will be back in Berkeley, but I am writing from a hotel in Bethlehem and on the road in the West Bank. Jim Haber and I will do a report back in greater detail on June 10 (see p. 9) about the trip […]
Facing my Return to Israel/Palestine
by Rabbi David J. Cooper It was only three years ago that I wrote in Kol Kehilla in regard to the 50 years since my celebration of becoming bar mitzvah. Now I’m writing that it is 50 years since I arrived in Israel as a 16-year old a few weeks after the Six Day […]
The Prophet’s Warning
Remarks by Rabbi David J. Cooper at the celebration, February 12, 2017 I think my path to social activism began in a moment when I was about eight. I remember being in a car going through the Bowery in Manhattan. We stopped at a light and looking out the window, I saw a man eating […]
Two Stories of a Rabbinic Activist
by Rabbi David J. Cooper As I was applying for the position in 1999, the Rabbi Search Committee interviewed me. They asked, “What do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?” Huh? I guess this was what they asked all the candidates. I stumbled for a second and then said what was obvious to […]
High Holy Day Sermons 5777/2016
Our High Holy Day Sermons are now available to read online: Erev Rosh Hashana Sermon by Rabbi Dev Noily: “A River Goes Out From Eden” Rosh Hashana Sermon by Rabbi Avi Rose Kol Nidre Sermon by Rabbi David Cooper: “God, the Covenant, and the Inside-Outsider” Yom Kippur Reflection by Scott and Rose Gelfand Yom Kippur […]
Kol Nidre Sermon by Rabbi David Cooper: “God, the Covenant, and the Inside-Outsider”
Ellis Island Story Referenced in Sermon Introduction to Hagar & Ishmael Torah Excerpt (Genesis 21:9-21) A few years ago, I was dropping my son Lev off at college. I helped set up his part of the dorm room and it was time for me to leave. I turned to look at him and I thought, […]
