Mishkan Blog
The Best Way Forward is Through
We want to bring you up to speed on the work we've been doing in the realm of race, diversity, equity and inclusion, over the past few years. We've been thinking about these issues at Mishkan from the beginning, but in the last year and a half we have begun...
Complicity + Our Imperfect History: A Pride-Inspired Drash
From Ash Levine When I first read this portion, I was deeply uncomfortable with the portrait it painted. Korach and his collaborators were living in a difficult moment. The Israelites had just learned that they wouldn’t be permitted to enter the promised land in their...
Honoring Our Collective Histories: A Pride-Inspired Drash
From Catherine Miller Shabbat shalom everyone. I’m excited to be on the “other side” of this Friday night shabbat stream for the first time. Now, I don’t know about you but saying HAPPY PRIDE right now feels strange. It feels inauthentic. Not only do we have a global...
An Exciting Update on Mishkan’s COVID Response Giving Circle
This spring, Mishkan welcomed a $25,000 COVID-19 Response Grant which allowed us to distribute funds to those in and beyond our community. In an effort to diversify our impact, we offered support to individuals, hospitals, healthcare workers, and vulnerable...
Fueling Change
I’m finding that many of my email exchanges are ending with sign-off’s like, “I hope you’re still breathing.” “Sending you breath.” Sending you breath. These words are well intentioned, of course– I’ve written them myself. And there’s something that twists in me when...
On Whiteness, Police Brutality, and Mindful Unlearning
A few weeks ago, seventeen of our Mishkan community members, including members of our staff and our rabbis, took part in the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs’ racial justice training for Chicago-area congregations on a rainy Sunday, over Zoom (like all things...