Optimism

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer was recently named Ritualwell’s director of virtual content and program, a position she considers her dream job. In this role, she can weave together the multiple strands of her life: her passion for creativity and the arts, her focus on spirituality and writing, her experience in editing and mentoring writers, her commitment to children and families, and making Jewish community and experience accessible to all.

On Shabbat Sukkot, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism, spoke at Philadelphia’s Mishkan Shalom. The talk focused on how Jewish practices and rituals cultivate resilience within individuals and communities — sustaining the Jewish people through the centuries and millennia. S

When Shahanna McKinney-Baldon came upon the life and work of early 20th-century entertainer Madame Goldye Steiner, the dramatic soprano who performed Jewish liturgical music along the East Coast and in the upper Midwest as “the only colored woman cantor in the world,” she said she felt an instant connection.