Congregation Ohr Shalom - Summit JCC

10/01/2026

We are grateful for our partnership with Family Promise Union County.

A heartfelt thank you to Congregation Ohr Shalom for donating non-perishable food items to the Family Promise Union County Food Pantry!
Your generosity comes at an important time and will help provide much-needed support to our families facing the rising cost of groceries. We truly appreciate your continued support!

10/01/2026

Words

It should have been an easy story to tell. A Muslim co-pilot stabbed the Indian pilot on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv while screaming, “Allahu Akbar!” He then hijacked the plane and began steering it toward the ground—possibly toward an air force base in Jordan with American planes and personnel—which could have killed everyone on board. The wounded pilot and a handful of Israeli passengers acted quickly to disable the co-pilot, stop the descent, provide first aid to the pilot, and find an off-duty pilot who could safely land the plane....

It should have been an easy story to tell. A Muslim co-pilot stabbed the Indian pilot on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv while screaming, “Allahu Akbar!” He then hijacked the plane and beg…

09/30/2026

Join us October 9-10 for our first ever Shabbat in Community with guest scholar Kohenet Dr. Harriette Wimms.

On Friday night, she will be presenting “We Are Not Alone: Welcoming the Stranger Within” followed by a catered dinner.

Kohenet Dr. Wimms will speak again on Shabbat morning with her talk titled “Stranger, Self, and Community: A Journey.”

Learn more ➡ https://summitjcc.shulcloud.com/form/2026-shabbat-in-community

09/24/2026

Sukkah of Peace

We were fortunate and blessed to have beautiful and meaningful High Holiday services at Ohr Shalom. So many people contributed, and all of our plans came together. Then, within a few minutes of breaking the fast, I saw the news coming out of Belleville, Ontario. A man with a sh***un approached a synagogue observing Yom Kippur – just as our synagogue was doing at that very moment....

We were fortunate and blessed to have beautiful and meaningful High Holiday services at Ohr Shalom. So many people contributed, and all of our plans came together. Then, within a few minutes of bre…

09/24/2026

‘Kol Ishah’ – The Voice of a Woman

Yom Kippur Day 5787 Sometimes, by coincidence, two people die at about the same time. And even though at first glance they seem to have nothing in common, their legacies are compared due the the fact that they passed away so close together. And then, it turns out that they had in more in common than you would have expected. …...

09/24/2026

Speaking Up

Yom Kippur Eve 5787 This past Friday, two of the most prominent modern Orthodox Jewish day schools in the country – SAR (Salanter Akiba Riverdale) and Ramaz – sent a group of high school students to pray and sing outside Gracie Mansion in NYC. From the videos I saw, it looked like a couple of hundred kids davened shacharit outside the building....

Yom Kippur Eve 5787 This past Friday, two of the most prominent modern Orthodox Jewish day schools in the country – SAR (Salanter Akiba Riverdale) and Ramaz – sent a group of high school students t…

09/24/2026

Negativity Bias

Rosh Hashanah 5787 - Day 2 One day a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise assessment. He was an old-school professor and they knew the drill. They put their electronic devices away and waited at their desks for him to pass out the test. The professor handed out a single piece paper to each student face down as usual....

Rosh Hashanah 5787 – Day 2 One day a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise assessment.  He was an old-school professor and they knew the drill.…

09/24/2026

9/11 & Radical Kindness

Rosh Hashanah 5787 - Day 1 In 2001, Rosh Hashanah fell at sundown on September 17. Ordinarily, we would have joked that the holidays didn’t fall too late and they didn’t fall too early – they were just about on time. But, nobody was really in the mood for Jewish dad jokes that year. Because Rosh Hashanah fell just six days after 9/11....

Rosh Hashanah 5787 – Day 1 In 2001, Rosh Hashanah fell at sundown on September 17.  Ordinarily, we would have joked that the holidays didn’t fall too late and they didn’t fall too e…

09/10/2026

Kindnesses

There once was a boy who never seemed to have enough food for lunch at school, and he definitely did not have a snack to eat at snack time. The girl who sat next to him in class noticed and quietly started sharing her snack with him. Eventually, she started bringing two snacks with her every day – one for herself and one for the boy....

There once was a boy who never seemed to have enough food for lunch at school, and he definitely did not have a snack to eat at snack time. The girl who sat next to him in class noticed and quietly…

09/03/2026

Here and Not Here

This past Sunday, I had an unveiling ceremony at the cemetery in the morning and then a shivah minyan at the synagogue in the evening. I commented to another person who attended both events that it felt like a day of death. However, by the time I went home and thought about the day, I realized that it was actually a day of life....

This past Sunday, I had an unveiling ceremony at the cemetery in the morning and then a shivah minyan at the synagogue in the evening. I commented to another person who attended both events that it…