June, 2026 Megillah
WITH LOVE
Sometimes a word comes towards me over and over until I start to notice it and then, every once in a while, invite it in for a visit. Sometimes this word will hang around, and we get to know each other better over time. Back in October I bumped in to a beautiful blog post by Rabbi Ebn Leader and it just lit me. It is called “Van Gogh, Rabbi Nachman and Imagination” (https://ebnleader.substack.com/p/van-gogh-r-nahman-and-imagination). Now the word imagination keeps bugging me, asking for my attention.
It’s not a word I’m particularly familiar with. I don’t think of myself as especially imaginative. I’m not a fan of sci fi or fantasy novels or films. My dreams and daydreams are usually pretty prosaic. On matters of the practical world, I like to think I’m kind of a realist. I don’t tend to “believe in” things. I either know them or I don’t. Usually the latter.
But the other day I was catching up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. We were having the usual conversation about “things these days” and how we do or don’t cope with the headlines. He said something to the effect that it’s important to just be in the moment and not project into a fearful future.
In the moment I agreed with him. But then that word imagination started flitting around the sides of my consciousness. I half-thought about the aleinu we sing at the end of every service: “And so we put our hope in you, our God, that soon we may behold….” I usually fill in the blanks a little differently than the traditional prayer: I like to hope for “food and shelter ample for everyone, an end to war and violence,” and so on. Whether in its classical form or my re-do, it’s an imaginative projection into a hopeful instead of a fearful future.
I don’t know that imagination even necessarily needs to be about the future. The great community organizer Saul Alinsky says that imagination is one of the crucial traits he looks for in an organizer, in part because it allows one to put oneself in the shoes of another person: “this abnormal imagination that sweeps him into a close identification with mankind and projects him into its plight.”
Rabbi Leader writes, “Imagination and intellect cover different territory in the search for what is real. According to R Nahman, the intellect is useful as long as details can be ascertained, measured and replicated. Such things I can know intellectually. Yet many aspects of life, essential to its real nature, are not covered by such intellectual knowledge. The real experience of emotion, hope, inspiration, art and creativity for example, cannot be contained in intellectual categories.”
So as I encounter a piece of dreadful news, with the aid of imagination, I can burrow down below the headline; I can allow myself to be swept into deep identification with another person or another circumstance. I can be curious about what it is really like to be in that experience—not to assume that I already know, but to try to feel deeply into that person’s or those people’s life in this moment. I can explore there.
With the help of imagination I can also telescope out from that news item. I can imagine the possibility that the world is larger and more resonant than the specific piece of sorrow I have encountered. Right now I am meeting weekly with my brilliant and astonishing hevruta, Rabbi Jhos Singer, and we are laboriously translating and trying to understand Sha’ar Ha-gilgulim, a wild kabbalistic treatise on reincarnation. It’s a long story how we happened on this particular text, but on Tuesday mornings we delve into the intricacies of five layers of soul, wheels of all five spinning within each layer (maybe you understand this, but I don’t). But the picture begins to emerge, even in the six paragraphs we have waded through to date, of each soul as connected to ALL, to the Mystery, to Echad. So that this person I read about in the newspaper and know one sentence about is not just a tragedy but a whole, intricate, interconnected reality, part of the great Oneness. “Imagination and intellect cover different territory in the search for what is real,” writes Rabbi Leader. Indeed!
Thinking further into my conversation with my friend about how to cope with the day’s headlines, I would agree that it is good to be in the moment and not to tee up a bunch of awful prognostications about what is likely to happen in the future. But a moment is quite capacious. We might imagine that even a person we read about who is far away, in a circumstance we will never fully know, has a whole life, of which this moment is a part. They have feelings and hopes and inspirations of their own that we can only imagine. We might imagine that they have a soul, with all its intricacy, both uniquely their own and also connected with layers of mystery and meaning. We might imagine that they are connected with the Divine, that they experience Shechinah, the Divine Presence, even in a situation of great suffering or injustice.
By following the path of imagination we might even be inspired—to use another huge word—to reach out in some way, to offer a prayer, to dedicate a bit of learning, to give a gift of tzedaka, to try something that we imagine might be of help.
I wrote this much of this column yesterday and then went to bed. I had a very un-prosaic dream: I was driving with a beloved, probably Mickey, along the Coast, when I heard that a dead whale had washed up in the cove we were just passing. We got out to see the whale corpse, which was lying on the sand in front of us, when just to the south I noticed a gigantic school of dolphins leaping and frolicking in the water. The dead whale, the leaping dolphins and the beloved were all present in one moment, even though I was only expecting to see the whale. The moment was more than I thought it was.
Who knows where this new acquaintance with imagination might take me? I can only begin to imagine.
SHABBAT MORNING SERVICES
A full Shabbat service is led by community members, with singing, chanting and silence, Torah teaching and reading, blessings for healing and peace, and time for mourners to say Kaddish. The teachers for June are listed below. We have hybrid services, so come to the shul or Zoom in from 10:30 AM until about 12:30 PM. The Zoom address is below.
| 6/06/26 |
Beha'alotcha |
Raven Deerwater |
| 6/13/26 |
Sh'lach |
Margaret Holub |
| 6/20/26 |
Korach |
Andrea Luna |
| 6/27/26 |
Chukat-Balak |
Hunter Rook |
If you would like to give a Torah teaching during Shabbat services, or want more information about what’s involved, please contact Raven Deerwater at raven@taxpractitioner.com or (707) 813-7951.
ZOOM ADDRESS
We are using the Zoom address below for many MCJC events. Password is shalom. Disregard the numeric passcode at the bottom of the invitation unless you’re dialing in on a landline. If you have questions or problems, contact susan.tubbesing@gmail.com.
Join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7071836183?pwd=NzFaTkpjOXVYMDNnNnprOXlnZjVhQT09
Meeting ID: 707 183 6183
Passcode: shalom
Numeric Passcode: 776001
KABBALAT SHABBAT
Kabbalat Shabbat in June is at the home of Tracey and Shalom Green in Fort Bragg on Friday, June 19th at 6:00 PM. For directions and to RSVP, contact them at (650) 274-4305 or email shalomgreen9090@gmail.com. Following a short service, we will share a vegetarian potluck.
Sarah Nathe and Susan Tubbesing in South Caspar will be our hosts in July. We need a host for October. To host a gathering, contact Mina at (707) 937-1319 or mcohen@mcn.org.
We still have some vegetarian chili in the shul freezer if someone needs it. Contact Mina at (707) 367-3390 for instructions to get into the freezer.
ART OF LAMENT
Tisha B’Av, the day traditionally given to mourning the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, falls this year on Thursday, July 23rd. Over millennia of observance, this date has come to hold the grief of social violence of all sorts throughout history. This year we invite our community’s artists, musicians, poets, dancers—anyone who would like to share a lament in any medium—to come together on this date. We will offer space for creating together as well as sharing works that our artists have already created. If you have art of lament that you would like to share, please contact Margaret. Details in next month’s Megillah.
PHILOSOPHY CIRCLE
Continuing the wonderful exploration that Rabbi Paige created for us, the monthly Philosophy Circle will meet on Wednesday, June 3rd, 5:30 to 6:30 PM at the shul. Each month we delve into a topic, stimulated by a couple of passages from Jewish teachings and our own and each other’s wisdom and inquiry. This month’s topic will be conflict. Margaret will facilitate and all are most welcome to come, whether it’s your first time or your nth. It’s surprisingly, delightfully fun!
“SABBATH QUEEN” COMING TO THE SHUL
MCJC’s Justice Group is celebrating Pride Month by showing the gorgeous and inspiring documentary “Sabbath Queen” on Thursday evening, June 25, 6:00 PM at the shul. The film follows the life of Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, descendent of 39 generations of prominent Israeli orthodox rabbis, who is himself queer and sometimes performs in drag. He created and leads Lab/Shul in New York. Directed by Sandi Dubowski (who also made the documentary “Trembling Before G-d”), the film depicts Rabbi Lau-Lavie’s joyful way of being his whole self and growing as the world changes. It also documents his family’s efforts to come to peace with his identity. The film does a beautiful job of showing Judaism’s aliveness and capacity (not without struggle) to grow and change in the direction of liberation. There will be a discussion following. A $10-15 contribution is requested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
BIRTHDAYS
Please reach out to the celebrants noted below and spread love. If you would like your natal day listed, email sarah.nathe@gmail.com with your birth date. (We list the day, but not the year, and your name will be featured only during your birthday month.) Below are the June birthdays:
6/2 Gary Levenson-Palmer, 6/3 Benna Kolinsky, 6/5 Wade Gray, 6/8 Rosalie Winesuff, 6/11 Gowan Batist, 6/16 Reesha Katcher
ELDERS’ CONVERSATION
The Elders’ Conversation meets every second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 3:00 to 4:30 on zoom. This month’s dates will be June 9th and 23rd. Check the twice-weekly MCJC announcements for topics.
The Elders’ Conversation was born about 15 years ago as a place for people in our community to reflect together on all aspects of life and how we experience them as we grow older. It has long been a beloved place of honest expression and deep connection. It is an open table: new people come as they wish, and others stay as long as they like. For many years we met in the shul kitchen; since COVID we have moved to zoom, which has enabled people who live outside our geographic community to join the conversation. The facilitators are Rabbi Margaret and Joy Lancaster.
Periodically we check in to make sure its structure and themes are meeting the needs of people who would like to participate. We’re in such a phase now. We’ve shared some questions with people who come regularly to the Elders group. But maybe you have wondered about coming, or you came for a while and decided it didn’t work for you. We’d love to hear from you as well. Here are our questions:
What do you most hope to get from participating in our group?
How are you feeling about the themes we have been discussing lately? What would you most like to be talking about?
How does the format work for you? Beginning with three-minute statements and then continuing with an open conversation; finishing up with the “voting” process to come up with the next topic.
How are you feeling about meeting on Zoom? Would you like to have some in-person meetings?
What about social activities, like dinner at a local restaurant or an easy hike?
Are the second and fourth Tuesdays from 3:00 to 4:30 a good time for you or would you prefer another meeting time?
And a slightly larger question: some people have talked about desiring more specific kinds of support from our group as we all get older. This might mean speakers about issues like Medical Aid in Dying, help with end-of-life planning, arrangements to talk one-on-one for support outside of meetings, or referrals for in-home care. When you think about our Elders’ Conversation, how do you imagine that it can support you?
Please e-mail us (Joy & Margaret) with your thoughts at mholub@mcn.org and ajoylancaster@gmail.com. We both love this group and want it to be everything it can be. Thank you so much!
JUSTICE GROUP
The Justices meet on the last Monday of each month at the shul, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM, in person only. At the June gathering on the 29th, we will cover the following topics: updates on Justice projects (Citizenship Scholarship and Native Plants Healing Garden); updates from the Rapid Response Network and Accompaniment Group; and an after-action report on the screening of “Sabbath Queen.” Were the movie and panel discussion a positive way to learn about the struggles and triumphs of justice-seekers? As usual, we will incorporate the joy of song, prayer, poetry, and snacks! With a question or for more information, contact Donna Medley at dmthebeez9@gmail.com.
BOOK GROUP
The book group meets Monday, June 15th on Zoom to discuss Heart of a Stranger by Rabbi Angela Buchdahl. Buchdahl was born in Seoul, the daughter of a Korean Buddhist mother and Jewish American father. Profoundly spiritual from a young age, by 16 she felt the first stirrings to become a rabbi. Despite the naysayers and periods of self-doubt—would a mixed-race woman ever be seen as authentically Jewish or be chosen to lead a congregation?—she stayed the course, which took her first to Yale, then to rabbinical school, and finally to the pulpit of the Central Synagogue, one of the largest, most influential congregations in the world.
Though the book charts the events of her life, it’s no ordinary memoir. Each chapter is thematic. It first looks at a person or episode in Buchdahl’s life; these vary from early spiritual experiences hiking with her mom, to Buchdahl’s childhood encounters with Jewish folk music, to challenges she has faced running her congregation. Paired with each of these personal reflections is a sermon, focused around a single Hebrew word, that sums up the major theme of her anecdote. She does not shy away from difficult topics, from racism within the Jewish community, the sexism she confronted when she aspired to the top job, to rising antisemitism today. Buchdahl thinks that these challenges, which can make one feel like a stranger, can ultimately be the source of our greatest empathy and strength. If you are not currently in the Book Group, please contact Fran Schwartz for the Zoom invitation at franbschwartz@gmail.com. The book is at Gallery Bookshop.
THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL JEWISH WOMEN’S RETREAT
Plans are underway for this year’s Jewish Women’s Retreat on August 6-9th at the beautiful River’s Bend Retreat Center in Philo. The theme and program are still being finalized as of the Megillah deadline, but you can anticipate beautiful and original ritual and teaching, art-making, song and prayer and Torah, the river mikveh, fabulous food, time for rest and renewal, play and swimming in the river and the company of a warm and wise circle of women and people who enjoy being part of women-centered sacred space. For more information and to register, please contact our indefatigable registrar, Harriet Bye, at bysawyer@mcn.org.
THE YIDDISH SHERLOCK HOLMES
Early twentieth-century readers of Yiddish wanted to enjoy the pulpy thrill of the new detective novel that had taken the world by storm, according to the new Adventures of Max Spitzkopf, the Yiddish Sherlock Holmes, translated by Mikhil Yashinsky. The craze started in 1842, with Edgar Allen Poe’s story “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and grew with the more famous “Purloined Letter” two years later. Inspired by Poe’s work, a struggling ophthalmologist named Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes in the 1880s, writing dozens of stories that became the paradigm for the classic detective tale. The stories reached Central and Eastern Europe in translation to French or German during the 1890s
However, Jews in these regions who wanted to read such novels had to do so in languages other than their own. One early attempt to address this was a Hebrew edition of Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris. A classic novel of the crime genre, set in a seedy underworld filled with butchers, prostitutes, and dark alleyways, the 1858 translation was published by Vilna’s Romm Press, an esteemed institution better known for producing the standard edition of the Talmud.
According to Nathan Cohen’s 2012 article on the history of Yiddish detective stories, “Sherlock Holmes in the Pale of Settlement,” printers couldn’t keep up with the demand. However, it wasn’t until 1909 that a Jewish detective appeared at the scene of a crime. The homegrown hero was Max Spitzkopf, a brilliant, multilingual detective who tore across Europe, cracking cases involving the wealthy Jewish elite of Vienna and salt of the earth Jews in Galician shtetls. The brainchild of a jack-of-all-trades publicist named Yoyne Krepl (Jonas Kreppel in German), the Max Spitzkopf detective series was an immediate hit. Kreppel wrote dozens of books and worked as a spokesman for the Austrian government as well as a publicist for the Orthodox political party, Agudath Israel. Born on Christmas 1874 to a Hasidic family in Drohobyc, he started out as a typesetter and printer and also had a hand in publishing Der yid, the first Yiddish newspaper in Cracow, as well as that city’s first Hasidic newspaper, Der emeser yid (The Real Jew).
Kreppel was eclectic. Among his writings were Hasidic tales; tkhines (women’s prayers); and pop historical accounts of Maimonides, the Spanish Inquisition, and the discovery of America. But Kreppel had a penchant for lurid crime stories. A sensationalistic weekly magazine he published in Cracow, the Yidishe ilustrirte tsaytung, was full of sex and violence. The Satmar Rebbe himself criticized the immorality of Kreppel’s detective fiction. But Isaac Bashevis Singer recalled being enthralled by the “heavenly music” of the stories as a boy and, in 1955, the Yiddish poet Mendl Naygreshel lauded Kreppel as a major figure in the development of Yiddish literature in Galicia. He also called him “one of the weirdest journalists to ever live in Galicia” and “a 100% opportunist.” Interestingly, Kreppel never put his own name on the stories, but his authorship was, as Mikhl Yashinsky writes in the introduction to his new translation of these stories, “an open secret.”
Spitzkopf and his trusty Watson-like assistant, Fuchs, lead the reader from city to shtetl, sussing out crooks, deciphering clues, and solving all manner of crimes, from the kidnapping of a Hasidic rabbi’s daughter to grotesque murders, and all within a deeply Jewish context. There are desperate midnight rides, Purim celebrations, Pesach preparations, and a surprising number of evil priests, not to speak of dynamite sticks and distressed damsels. Has there ever been a hard-boiled detective novel that intimately described preparations for Shabes-hagodl, the Sabbath before Passover?
One quickly becomes enamored of the brilliant Spitzkopf and bumbling Fuchs as they travel around solving crimes for Jews in need. That, perhaps, is one of the more historically salient aspects of the book—that Yiddish-speaking Jews were given a hero they didn’t have in real life. Kreppel himself died in Buchenwald in 1940 after two years of forced labor in a limestone quarry.
Condensed from the Jewish Review of Books, Winter 2026, written by Eddie Portnoy.
MCJC BOARD MEETING
The MCJC board will meet on Wednesday, June 10th at 5:30 PM on Zoom. If you wish to attend part of the meeting, please contact Susan Tubbesing for the Zoom address at (707) 962-0565, or susan.tubbesing@gmail.com.
THANKS TO THE MAILERS
Mary Lacy Gibson prepared the last Megillah for mailing. She’s a neighbor of Nina and Terry’s, and her willingness to take on the job was downright neighborly. Even if you don’t live next door to our Circulation Manager, you can volunteer. We get the materials to you and the mitzvah is yours! Contact Terry Clark, the Circulation Manager (at paintedpony64@yahoo.com), or Sarah Nathe (at sarah.nathe@gmail.com).
MEGILLAH SUBSCRIPTIONS
The Mendocino Megillah is published monthly as an emailed PDF and an online version. The online Megillah is posted on the newsletter page of the MCJC website: www.mcjc.org/newsletter. Any information on changes in email address or in email notifications should be sent to Sarah Nathe at sarah.nathe@gmail.com. If you choose not to be a contributing member of MCJC, we request a $54 annual fee for the Megillah.
EDITORIAL POLICY
The Mendocino Megillah is published monthly, except for August. The deadline for article submission is the 20th of the month before publication. The editor will include all appropriate material, space permitting, with the exception of copyrighted material lacking the permission of the author. Divergent opinions are welcome. Material printed in the Megillah does not necessarily represent the policy or opinions of the MCJC Board of Directors.
TODAH RABAH
THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING DONORS:
Donna Weintraub, Frieda Feen, Ronnie James, Esther Faber, Myra Beals, Bob Evans, Sally & Lee Welty, Kelly & Steve Kalus, Laura Goldman & Dennak Murphy, Tracy Salkowitz & Rick Edwards, Leora & Les Rohssler, Mina Cohen & Jeff Berenson, Kath Disney Nilson, Donna Feiner, Benna Kolinsky & Danny Mandelbaum, Ellen Saxe & Ronnie Karish, Richard Louis Miller in honor of Edward Isaac Miller.
Annett & Jonathan Lehan in memory of Frances Lehan
Madeleine Lansky to the Adele Saxe Tzedakah Fund
Richard Louis Miller to the Citizenship Scholarship Project in Honor of the Miller Family: Sarana, Evacheska, Aaron
Please Support Our Generous Underwriters
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| Chevra Kadisha |
Clare Bercot Zwerling |
956-571-0945 |
clarebercot@icloud.com |
| Cemetary |
Donna Montag |
707-877-3243 |
montag@mcn.org |
| Outreach (new to the community), Finance Committee, Announcements |
Susan Tubbesing* |
707-962-0565
|
susan.tubbesing@gmail.com |
| Justice Committee, Security |
Donna Medley* |
707-962-9493 |
dmthebeez9@gmail.com
|
| Women's retreat, Annual dinner |
Harriet Bye |
707-937-3622 |
bysawyer@mcn.org
|
| Kabbalat Shabbat Coordinator |
Mina Cohen |
707-367-3390 | mcohen@mcn.org |
| Volunteer Coordinator |
Joy Lancaster* |
||
| Building Maintenance |
Marnie Press* |
707-937-1905 | marniepress@gmail.com |
| Treasurer, Finance Committee |
Raven Deerwater* |
707-813-7951 | raven@taxpractitioner.com |
| Landscaping, Library |
Nina Ravitz* |
||
| Secretary, Finance Committee |
Alix Sabin* |
415-238-1342 | |
| Communications |
Neal Davis* |
neal@group5media.com | |
| Yahrzeit Notifications |
Bonnie Mahoney |
631-466-0156 | bonniemahoney2015@gmail.com |
| Book Group, Bikkur Cholim |
Fran Schwartz |
707-937-1352 | franbschwartz@gmail.com |
| Web dude |
Gus Mayeno |
webmaster@mcjc.org | |
| Megillah Editor, Name & Address & Subscription changes |
Sarah Nathe |
707-962-0565 |
sarah.nathe@gmail.com |
| Circulation Manager |
Terry Clark |
paintedpony64@yahoo.com | |
| Rabbi |
Margaret Holub |
707-734-0311 | mholub@mcn.org |
