January 21 - January 28 • Bo

Connect this Week

with Temple Sinai

Erev Shabbat Services - Friday, January 23, 6:00pm

Please join us this week for our Erev Shabbat services, led by Rabbi Andy Vogel, Rabbi Talia Stein, and Jacob's Ladder, in the main Sanctuary or on Zoom. To join Erev Shabbat services by Zoom, click here.

Led by Ariel Wyner, Jacob's Ladder is an internationally touring band seeking to push the boundaries of contemporary Jewish music and traditional bluegrass/American Roots music through Jewish communal singing and prayer, melding these worlds through Eastern European Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish traditions and their American heritage. Alongside our longtime klezmer-style Shabbat band on the 2nd Friday of each month, we will welcome Jacob’s Ladder to our Sanctuary on five additional Friday nights during the year, bringing a different musical style to Shabbat services. Funding is provided by the Howard and Arlene Weintraub Fund for Excellence in Music.

New Member Shabbat Community Dinner - Friday, January 23

There are some spots left for the dinner, please join us! Please email nessa@sinaibrookline.org if you would like to attend!

Celebrate Shabbat with your Sinai community, and welcome our new members! Join us on Friday, January 23 at 6:00pm for our Erev Shabbat Services. After, we will enjoy a catered Shabbat meal, and come together to connect as a community. All ages welcome.

Shabbat Morning Torah Study - Saturday, January 24, 9:00am

Twice a month on Shabbat mornings, Temple Sinai members gather to discuss the ideas presented by the week’s Torah portion. We begin with a light breakfast and singing and then then explore the Jewish ideas that emerge from the weekly Torah reading. In person or click here to join on Zoom.

Mussar Study Group: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Challenges

Every other week, beginning Wednesday, January 21

12:00-1:30pm at Temple Sinai

Mussar is a Jewish tradition that helps each of us cultivate and practice our ethical understanding. Come and explore Jewish teachings, through study, practice and conversation, traits such as gratitude, patience and compassion. We meet every other Wednesday at Sinai, noon - 1:30. Contact merry@merryarnold.com if you are interested in joining us.

Thursday Study Group

with Rabbi Andy Vogel

Thursday, January 22, 10:15am

Join us each Thursday for a lively and friendly class with Rabbi Vogel. We study a wide variety of topics, rotating to a new field of study about every six weeks or so. Thursday Study includes discussions, films, text study, and an occasional guest speaker. Join us each week or feel free to drop in just once! Contact the Temple office to be added to the email list for information about each week’s session and link. In person, or by Zoom. All are welcome! 

Healing Across the Divides

Saturday, January 24, 4:00-5:30pm

Healing Across the Divides supports community groups that promote the health of marginalized Israelis and all Palestinians. It encourages community group interaction where possible in an effort to further mutual understanding. HATD has funded more than 50 Israeli and Palestinian community groups, measurably improved the lives of over 200,000 marginalized Israelis and Palestinians.

As founder and CEO, Norbert Goldfield MD has focused for more than 20 years on peace-building through health in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Goldfield previously worked for 30 years as medical director for a research group developing tools linking payment for health care services to improved health care outcomes.

New England Jewish Poetry Festival

with Dr. Rachel Korazim

Sunday, January 25 at 11:00am on zoom only

Join us at Temple Sinai for the watch party!

Dr. Rachel Korazim is based in Jerusalem, and is a Jewish education consultant in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education. She is a beloved teacher of poetry, and opens for her audiences a window to Israeli society through literature; through stories, poems and songs of the best of Israel’s writers, she invites listeners to engage with Israel in an innovative way. She teaches at Israel’s well-known learning centers such as Pardes and the Shalom Hartman Institutes as well as numerous world Jewish communities.

In joining us, she will teach and explore Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian poetry since October 7, 2023 and the war that followed. Dr. Korazim will join us in a livestream study session from Israel via Zoom.

The annual New England Jewish Poetry Festival is supported by a generous grant from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), and is co-sponsored by Temple Sinai. It is coordinated by Temple Sinai members Deborah Leipziger and Andy Hoffman.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THIS EVENT ON ZOOM

Senior Seminar

Sunday, January 25 at 5:30pm (includes dinner)

Join Rabbi Stein for a few sessions with 12th Graders only to explore essential Jewish ideas and upcoming transitions during your last year of high school. Please RSVP to Rabbi Stein so we know how much food to order!

Jewish Ways in the End-of-Life & Mourning

A 3-session series Co-Sponsored by the Caring Network & the Adult Jewish Learning Committee

Sunday, January 25, 1:00pm-2:30pm

Join us for any or all of these three sessions to help our community focus on traditional and modern Jewish rituals and resources for facing the end-of-life and mourning.

“The Hevra Kadisha & Rituals of Tahara”

With a special guest from the Greater Boston Community Hevra Kadisha

• What is the ritual and the work of the Hevra Kadisha?
• Why would someone opt for tahara?
• What do volunteers do, and how can people volunteer?

“A Journey in Grief, Loss and Hope” with Jaser Abu-Mousa

Thursday, January 29 at 7:00pm 

Jaser Abu-Mousa is a native of Gaza, and is a 2025 Yale Peace Fellow. Previously, he was living in Gaza, working as a program officer for the Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC), until the breakout of the war in October 2023. During the war, Jaser lost his wife, Heba, and two children, Hmaid (age 18) and Abdulrahman (age 8), and he left Gaza with his remaining two children, Abdallah and Sham, to receive medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates, before coming to the US and the Greater Boston area. Upon his arrival in the US, amidst tremendous grief, loss and disconnection, he has been working to find resilience and hope for his surviving family, and for the future for Israel and Palestine. His professional focus is on how Gaza's postwar reconstruction can reflect Palestinians' priorities while repairing the social fabric of society. 

Sponsored by Temple Sinai’s Israel-Palestine Affinity Group & Temple Sinai’s Israel Committee, Co-Sponsored by J Street New England

Rainbow Committee Movie Night Series

For the next 6 months the Rainbow Committee of Temple Sinai will be screening movies that explore the intersection of Jewish and LGBTQ+ identities.

Yentl: Saturday, January 31 at 5:00pm in the Weintraub Community Room

On every list of the 10 to 15 must-watch movies that explore this theme is “Yentl” (the Streisand version). “Yentl” follows a bookish Jewish woman in an early 20th century shtetl in Poland who dreams of studying Torah. Women are banned from yeshiva study, so she does what any determined diva would: She chops off her hair, dons a suit, and reinvents herself as a yeshiva boy named Anshel.

Tzedek Sunday: Protecting our Democracy

Sunday Feb 1, at 1:00pm

Weintraub Community Room and on Zoom

Join Tzedek@Sinai for our next Tzedek Sunday focusing on Protecting our Democracy. We have the honor of hearing from Rachel Homer, Director of Democracy 2025 and Senior Attorney at Democracy Forward, who will be joining us by zoom. 

Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education, and regulatory engagement. They have been at the forefront of the largest and most successful legal efforts against the unlawful executive orders of the current administration. Come hear about the important work Rachel has been spearheading and how you can get involved! And of course light refreshments will be served!

Jewish Summer Camp Open House & Lunch!

Sunday, February 1, 1:00pm

at the Brookline home of Deb & Andrew Becker

[address provided upon request]

Come learn about URJ Camps Eisner & Crane Lake, and see why Jewish

summer camp becomes a lifelong home for so many children!

You’re invited to an Open House to:

• Meet the Camp Director of Crane Lake
• Learn how camp builds connections, confidence, friendships, and

Jewish identity

• Get a taste of daily camp life—fun, ruach, creativity, and community
• Learn about the availability of scholarship funding
• Ask questions and connect with other camp families

Open to families with children in grades 2-7

Pizza Lunch provided

Speak with Rabbi Vogel or Rabbi Stein to RSVP or ask questions

Temple Sinai/Ohabei Shalom Softball Registration

Registration for the 2026 Softball season has begun! The Temple Sinai/Ohabei Shalom team plays 8 games from April-June, Sunday mornings at 10am. Games are played primarily in Brookline and Newton, with a couple of other towns further away. ALL who are 25 years old and up are eligible to play, no gender restrictions. If you are interested please contact Jon Katz (jonckatz@gmail.com).

Cohon Lecture Weekend With Guest Speaker:

Dr. Arnold Eisen

We are proud to welcome as our 2026 Cohon Lecturer, Dr. Arnold M. Eisen, one of the world’s foremost authorities on American Judaism, chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary, and professor of Jewish Thought. 

Dr. Eisen is the author of a number of books, most recently Seeking the Hiding God: A Personal Theological Essay (2025). He is also the author of The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America (2000), and Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community (1998). Before serving at JTS, he was on the faculty at Stanford University.

During his tenure as chancellor of JTS, Dr. Eisen transformed the education of religious, pedagogical, professional, and lay leaders for North American Jewry, with a focus on graduating highly skilled, innovative leaders who bring Judaism alive in ways that speak authentically to Jews at a time of rapid and far-reaching change.

Friday night, February 6, 6:00pm: Shabbat service, Sanctuary

Talk and discussion during Shabbat services

Saturday morning, February 7:

9:30am Shabbat Minyan service

Followed by Lunch-and-Learn with Dr. Eisen

Discussion and Study in Weintraub Community Room

Sunday morning, February 8, 9:45am:

Theology dialogue between Dr. Eisen & Rabbi Andy Vogel

The Cohon Lecture was established in memory of Temple Sinai's founding rabbi, Rabbi Beryl D. Cohon, who served our congregation until 1964. The lecture established in his memory is organized and overseen by our Adult Jewish Learning Committee, and is funded by the Cohon Memorial Lecture Fund.

Tot Shabbat

Saturday, February 7 at 10:00am

Families with young children ages 0-5 are warmly invited to join Rabbi Talia Stein in celebrating Shabbat together. Rabbi Stein will lead families through a tot-friendly Shabbat service followed by a light Kiddush nosh. Together we’ll sing Shabbat songs and learn prayers, read stories and play!

Weekly Sunday Afternoon Mahjong

Weekly on Sundays, 3:00-5:00pm in the Weintraub Community Room

Join us to play at our weekly Sunday Sinai Mah Jong games! All who play are welcome to this friendly game. Come enjoy an afternoon of strategy, community and enjoyment. Whether you are a seasoned expert or still learning the game, you are welcome to join! If you are a complete novice, please contact Robin Orwant ahead of time. Mah Jong sets will be provided, but feel free to bring your own set, and please bring your own card, if you have one. Please note: this is not a class for learning how to play the game.

In the Community

Art For All Returns: Do Good! Buy Art and Support Immigration Justice

Saturday, Feb 7, 2:00-4:00pm

Brookline Teen Center, 40 Aspinwall Ave. Brookline, MA

Art for All is a ‘pick your price’ art sale where you shop for unique and original pieces donated by local artists. Find what you like and pay what you can. 100% of what you donate helps The Brazilian Women’s Group support families affected by deportations and ICE raids in our community. Learn more here.

Rashi School Admissions Open House

Wednesday, February 4 at 5:30pm

The Rashi School, the Reform movement’s Boston-area Jewish day school, invites parents to learn more about the gift of giving your child a Jewish day school education with Reform values. On Weds., February 4 at 5:30 pm the Rashi School Admissions office hosts and Open House for pre school and primary grades admission. This is for adults only. Join us at the Rashi School Campus, building 8000, Great Meadow Rd., in Dedham, MA (which shares the same campus as Newbridge Senior Housing.) To register or learn more, call Danielle Rettinger, Director of Enrollment Management at 781-255-7318 or email drettinger@rashi.org.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration

Lost Promise: Music in Memory of the Children of the Shoah

Monday, January 26, 6:30–8:00pm

Registration required

Presented by The Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University: an evening of live music honoring the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Shoah, featuring works by composers who perished in the Holocaust and created music under unimaginable circumstances.

More info and RSVP here!

Joining Temple Sinai as a New Member

Click here to fill out a new member application.

Rather than charging fixed amounts for member "dues," the SinaiPromise membership model provides information about the amount needed to sustain Temple Sinai each year and enables every household to voluntarily pledge and contribute an amount of their choice to financially support our synagogue. Your membership contributions are vital in helping us continue to offer enriching programs, maintain our facilities, and foster our vibrant community!

Want to learn more about Sinai Promise? Click here.