Sinai Stories

Temple Sinai Has That Welcomin’ Feelin’

Posted on July 1, 2018

It’s Friday night around 6:30. My husband, Frank and I enter Temple Sinai’s front lobby in anticipation of Shabbat services. We flip through the box of name tags and locate Continue Reading »

Torah and Travel

Posted on May 1, 2018

The story of how one New Yorker found friendship, support and a spiritual community in the outer reaches of Washington, DC Five years ago, when I decided to leave New Continue Reading »

Tradition and Innovation: Finding a Home at Temple Sinai

Posted on March 1, 2018

I grew up in the 1970s, the daughter of a progressive Rabbi who delighted in observing, reclaiming and creating Jewish traditions. Ordained Conservative at Jewish Theological Seminary, Dad had studied Continue Reading »

Tradition, Community, And The Progressive Jewish Voice

Posted on January 5, 2018

When I was growing up in Topeka, Kansas (yes, there are Jews in Topeka) I could never believe how much time my mother devoted to our small congregation, the only Continue Reading »

It Started with the Smell of Coffee

Posted on November 1, 2017

My husband, Peter Winkler, his parents, Joan and Ralph Winkler, and our children, Paul (now 33) and Hannah (29), brought me into the fold of Sinai.  Sunny Sunday mornings I’d Continue Reading »

Mussar: A Treasure from the Past

Posted on September 1, 2017

My story has been primarily about community.  From my first exposure decades ago to the Interfaith Couples Group (my on-ramp to becoming Jewish as well as a source of lifelong Continue Reading »

Sinai Live Streaming: What a Mitzvah!

Posted on July 1, 2017

On March 4, 2017, we had the blessing of partaking in a double mitzvah. Our daughter, Elana, co-led the Shabbat morning service and became a Bat Mitzvah. It was a Continue Reading »

Jews in Wyoming and Other Differences

Posted on June 1, 2017

Whenever someone learns where I grew up, they say “I never met anyone from Wyoming!”  And, when they learn I’m Jewish, I hear “They have Jews in Wyoming?”  So, to Continue Reading »

Moments and Encounters

Posted on April 1, 2017

On hearing that I had converted to Judaism many African-Americans — family members, friends and even recent acquaintances, have all basically asked the same question “How are you being treated…?” Continue Reading »

My Mother’s Gift

Posted on January 1, 2017

I loved my grandmother. I always thought of her as the typical Jewish grandmother. She worried and kvetched. She bragged about famous Jews as if she knew them. She used Continue Reading »