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The early American synagogue occasionally reflected its frontier environment. Fist fights, defending the honor of women congregants, and even duels were not unheard of. Perhaps the best known of these riotous events involved a rabbi and the president of the synagogue in Albany, New York, in 1850. And not just any rabbi, but the future founder of the American Reform Movement, Isaac Mayer Wise! The president was Louis Spanier, wealthy, charismatic, and the brother-in-law of Samuel Mayer, the chief rabbi of Hanover in northern Germany.

Let’s treat every person who connects to our communities like both a family member coming home and an honored guest. Here are six ways to do just that.

On my way to England, I took a trip to Prague's Jewish community, which has existed through periods of tolerance and extreme anti-Semitism for 1,000+ years.

Typically, at some point in my work on this project, my wife will lean over my shoulder and ask me, in her own style, “So. How are the Jews this year?” Some years that is a difficult question to answer. This year the answer is clear: The Jews are afraid.

As we’re preparing for our first Rosh Hashanah with our 8 month old son Solomon, I can’t help but to pause and wonder how my husband and I got here? My husband, Matt, is not Jewish, and from an early age I was encouraged to only date Jewish men.