Rabbi Michael Sternfield

10/04/2020

Here is a link to Temple
Beth El’s new YouTube channel where you can watch all of our High Holiday services.

Temple Beth El is a Reform Jewish Synagogue in Bradenton, Manatee County, Florida, its members are warm, friendly and inviting. We welcome people from all over Manatee County and its surrounding areas who are looking for a place to worship, study, socialize and learn. We would love for you to come s...

09/22/2020

How can America best pay its respects to this remarkable woman? I have a few thoughts.

September 22, 2020 By Rabbi Michael Sternfield A brief tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg On the very eve of this most unusual and bewildering Rosh Hashana, we received the deeply saddening word that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died. As I write this column, Justice Ginsburg has not yet been....

09/21/2020

Rabbi Michael Sternfield and Cantor Deborah Bard lead the Rosh Hashana morning service at Temple Beth El in Bradenton, Florida. September 19, 2020. Featuring...

09/20/2020

Shana Tova. We have launched a new Temple Beth El YouTube Channel to share our services. Here is our Erev Rosh Hashana service featuring TBE President Ron Eiseman, Robin Eiseman, Ryan Hoffman, and Cantor Alan Cohn.

We hope you will enjoy these videos and share them with family and friends.

Rabbi Michael Sternfield and Cantor Deborah Bard lead the Erev Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) service at Temple Beth El in Bradenton, Florida on September 18...

12/16/2019

Given the Evangelical churches’ steadfast commitment to the teachings of the Bible, particularly the 10 commandments, how can they possibly justify taking God’s Name in vain when all U.S. senators are about to take a solemn oath (“so help me God”) to judge fairly and impartially in the impeachment trial? since several have already precommitted to acquittal and some are even collaborating with the White House concerning strategy, are these senators and their Evangelical supporters really comfortable with raising their right hands and swearing an oath that they have already promised to violate?

Or are they safe if they have their fingers crossed?

Every oath in every court in the land will be rendered useless if U.S. senators can recite these sacred words knowing full well that they don’t intend to honor their own sworn promises.

Taken to its logical and irrefutable conclusion, the penalty for perjury in any court of law would be rendered useless and unenforceable. After all, if U.S. senators can brush off the meaning of those words, then why can’t any and every witness contend that senators have demonstrated that oaths are not to be taken seriously? And with that, there goes one of the great principles of our legal system right down the drain.

11/25/2018

If you continue on this course of blind loyalty to President Trump, the American people will remember. Your legacy will be of a spineless politician whose ambitions took precedence over all the values by which you have staked your career until now, and which will have led to a dead end.

Dear Mr. Vice President, I am writing this letter to you as the second most important elected official of our nation. Although you were selected by Donald Trump to be his running mate, you were elected by the people of the United States, of which you certainly well aware. Up until now, you have been...

10/28/2018

Are we really to believe that if teachers were armed, if synagogues were protected by armed guards, that the epidemic would end?

There are no words sufficient to describe the sense of shock, bewilderment and sorrow that is being felt by Jews throughout the world in the wake of the horrifying mass murder at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. That it took place at all is tragic in and of itself. For this to have …