This Shabbat–Shabbat Bereshit, is the yarzeit, (the anniversary of the death) of the first ordained woman rabbi,  Regina Jonas.  She died in Auschwitz at the hands of the Nazis.  Born in Berlin in 1902, Jonas died in October of 1944 after being deported from Terezin Concentration Camp to Auschwitz Death Camp.  Jonas was ordained…Read more »

It has been a long Jewish month.  The Jewish holy days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shimini-Azeret, Simchat Torah and Hoshanah Rabbah are now behind us for 5779.  The intensity of the Jewish Holy Day Season is a marathon of the soul and sometimes the body too.  For those of us who are clergy,…Read more »

Here is an interview with me that appeared in VoyageLA!  Thanks to the staff there! It was fun! http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-rabbi-denise-eger-congregation-kol-ami-west-hollywood/

The pictures are heart wrenching. The separation of families seeking asylum in the US is a heinous policy that will no doubt do severe damage to the children who are separated from their parents.  Currently there aren’t even plans to figure out how to reunite those children who have been forcibly taken from their parents…Read more »

.שְׁמַע בְּנִי, מוּסַר אָבִיךָ;וְאַל-תִּטֹּשׁ, תּוֹרַת אִמֶּךָ Hear, my child, the instruction of your father, and forsake not the teaching of your mother; (Proverbs 1:8)   On this Mother’s Day weekend, we give thanks for our mothers who gave us life. We thank you Holy One of Presence for her gifts of heart and mind, time…Read more »

I had the honor of giving the invocation at the annual “Stoney” Awards of the Stonewall Democratic Club here in Southern California. This year was the Year of the Woman and they honored Congresswoman Karen Bass, Assembly Member Laura Friedman, the Women’s March and their member of the year Alana Roshay Here is my prayer:…Read more »