Enjoy a Virtual Tour: Biblical Botanical Garden
Join Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden Director Helena Nichols for a virtual tour of the garden - stay tuned for more videos and you'll see its amazing transformation!
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"Déjà vu for the Pittsburgh Jewish Community, 100 Years Later"
An Archival Zoom Event with Martha L. Berg
Wednesday, April 22 at 2 p.m.
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/93637832455 | By Phone: 929-436-2866 (Meeting ID: 936 3783 2455)

Join Archivist Martha Berg for a special presentation and discussion on how the Pittsburgh Jewish community came together during the 1918 pandemic influenza epidemic. This Zoom event is based on a recent blog post by Martha, which participants are encouraged to read here before joining!

"When I hear that nothing like the coronavirus epidemic has ever happened before, I wonder that our collective historical memory is so short. Just over one hundred years ago, in 1918, the world experienced a pandemic influenza epidemic that killed more than 50 million people. No place was spared, and in Pittsburgh, the combination of heavily polluted air, crowded housing conditions, and the city government’s reluctance to adhere to statewide quarantine measures led to a death rate per capita that was higher than in any other American city." Click here to read the full story.
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Counting the Omer
With Olivia Tucker - Day 13
Share Your Reflections
 
Already 13 days into the 49-Day Omer count! To guide our spiritual journey from Passover to Shavuot, we are turning to the Mishnah Pirkei Avot 6:6, which describes 48 Paths to Acquiring Torah.

Today’s way of gaining wisdom is בְּיִשּׁוּב , interpreted as “Through a Clear Thinking and Settled Mind” – I’ve found a poem from the volume  Sarah Daughters Sing  (ed. Henny Wenkart) which I believe reflects this theme. I invite you to explore the list and contribute your own thoughts , prose, poem, art, and more to be featured in our Omer Counting emails! Contact me at  tucker@rodefshalom.org
 
Susan Dances 
by Beth Joselow
 
Maybe it was in all of her dancing,
Those kneebends practiced so steadily,
Those back-breaking arches
Pulled back from a body that refused
To grow angles and kept to a
Motherly strength of curves –
A pigeon, all heart, all ribcage.
 
Maybe it was then
That she first learned what discipline
Can do. It can’t make you a sure winner,
Or get you into the best dancing academy
In New York, but it can teach you
What to do with yourself after that
 
Because after that
Susan found God,
And trusted Him enough
To arrange her marriage;
She arched her back once more
And had a baby
And then two more.
She dances every Saturday night
At the synagogue, holding her
Handkerchief she swings,
She kicks, she points her toes
And knows that practicing
Is all there is.