Today's Life

Some people return to the places that shaped them simply to reminisce. Rabbi Jordan Shaner is returning to help shape the next generation. Years after sitting in the classrooms of Temple Sinai as a child, he has come home as the congregation’s new rabbinic director of Jewish learning, bringing his journey full circle.

The Kosher Jackson Hole Grill, which will run until mid-August, opened earlier this summer of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of Wyoming, directed by Rabbi Zalman and Raizy Mendelsohn.

It is lunchtime at Ramah in the Rockies, which is considered a sacred time for its camp director. Only a phone call from the supplier of a commercial vacuum cleaner can tear Rabbi Eliav Bock away from his campers. “We just got it, and it’s not the right thing,” says Bock.

On the horizon: a third anniversary since the Hamas horrors of Oct. 7, 2023. Eylon Levy remembers the Israeli war room like it was yesterday. “They needed people to talk to the media, and it was an atmosphere of all hands on deck,” Levy told the IJN. Levy became the English spokesperson for the Israeli government.

The countdown was on. It’s less than two days before HEA’s big fundraiser, featuring Cantor Azi Schwartz in concert, and CEO Steve Levine is unrattled by the relentless demands on his time and attention. “You know the story of the ducks,” Levine says, “where the duck that’s underwater is pedaling like crazy. But just above water, they look calm. Inside, right now, my mind is churning with everything I need to do.”

The patient is young, and squirming. After all, what two-year-old enjoys the ritual of annual inoculations and the needles that go with it. “All right, we’re done torturing,” says Dr. Rachel Fishman. Dr. Fishman happens to be a veterinarian, the medical director of VetCare Animal Hospital. Her patient is a young and feisty terrier named Boci.

A person carrying a Torah scroll in memory of a loved one on his yahrzeit tripped and dropped the Torah scroll during the procession around the Hebrew Educational Alliance sanctuary as the Torah was being returned to the Ark...

It was 2019. Life was good. Jay Siegel was four years removed from his retirement from Cummins Diesel after a long career as an engineer. Siegel, a gabbai at BMH-BJ, spent some time consulting, and was even a part-time barista at Starbucks — just to keep busy.

David Last’s book, Forged by Limitation, is aptly published by a company called Journey Institute Press. It is indeed the story of a journey — more like a roller-coaster ride — that starts with his cerebral palsy diagnosis at the age of 11 months and meanders through his childhood, high school and an attempt at college. 

The path to Ilene Rosen’s office is easy to navigate, as long as you shuffle to avoid the line of wagons filled from the latest Costco haul: Bubbie’s pickles, condiments, plastic cups, hot dog buns — all essentials for a carnival. Purim was on the horizon when we met.