Rabbi Barbara In the News
DIASPORA AFFAIRS: AN ITALIAN JOURNEY
CALABRIA, Italy – No, you will not get a matzah ball recipe from Rabbi Barbara Aiello, but she will share her grandmother’s recipe for Italian wedding soup right next to an extra-large serving of a history lesson about the earliest Diaspora of Jews to southern Italy (in 267 BCE), specifically to the region of Calabria in the “toe of the boot.” And, yes, she keeps a kosher house and doesn’t eat pork or shellfish even outside her home. This is not so challenging in Italy, where the cuisine is so diverse.
WHY WOMEN DESERVE A CLEAR PROFESSIONAL DRESS CODE
Like Marcy Kaptur, I have seen the effect that wearing a uniform can have on daily discourse. As far back as high school where the uniforms girls and boys wore created a visual balance between the sexes, to today’s television personalities like Greta Van Susteren, Rachel Maddow, Christiane Amanpour and Maria Bartiromo whose business suit “uniform” exemplifies equality in professional dress, clothing has the power to redirect attention from sex to substance.
MY FATHER’S VERY JEWISH WISDOM AT THE SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PAGEANT
The year was 1955 and I was eight years old. Back then Christmas was a magical time, even for us Jews. I recall that nearly every school held a Christmas pageant that featured stories, carols and the grand finale — a living Nativity scene with boys and girls dressed as the kings and angels, wise men and shepherds, Joseph, and the star of the show, the Virgin Mary.
ITALIAN CONGREGATION JOINS RECONSTRUCTIONIST MOVEMENT
Rabbi Barbara Aiello is proud to announce that Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud, serving the b’nei anusim of southern Italy has been accepted as a member synagogue in the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement. As the fourth largest movement of American Judaism,Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud becomes a part of the Reconstructionist stream which includes more than 100 affiliated ongregations throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.
