Erev Sukkot 5787 I have some bad news about our sukkah. Actually, I have some bad news about all of our sukkot. There is a nor'easter coming this weekend. And apparently the weather gods have decided that the appropriate way to begin Sukkot this year is by conducting an experiment in the structural integrity of Jewish temporary dwellings. We have spent all this time building the sukkah — the walls, the schach, the decorations. We made it beautiful. And now the wind is coming.

We built a home here. And it built us. America was never perfect. But it was home.

Rabbi Jodie Gordon Kol Nidre 5787 I want to tell you two stories tonight. One about a small town in Portugal. The other, about Kol Nidrei itself. But first, I need to introduce you to a man named Samuel Schwartz Samuel Schwartz was born in Poland in the late 1800s. He studied in yeshivas, and his father was part of the intellectual movement known as the Haskalah and an early supporter of Zionism. Schwartz became fascinated by languages, history, and the Jewish communities