by Laura Miller

​We encourage every congregant to do an easy mitzvah this Christmas Day by doing what you do best on this holiday: Go to the movies!
 
David Corn is working at Studio Movie Grill now (thanks to congregant Joe Harberg), and his shift on Christmas Day starts at 10 am. Since the only family he will see that day is US, we are asking congregants to go see a film at Studio Movie Grill, 13933 N. Central Expwy. (at Spring Valley) to show support for David.
 
Please ask for the manager and tell him you only came to Studio Movie Grill because David Corn works there. This will be a big help to David since he is working hard to show SMG that he is an invaluable addition to the team. If you see David (he is currently one of the food servers in the theaters) be sure to tell him you are from Shearith Israel and came to support him.
 
It's hard for people who celebrate Christmas to be alone on that day. The holiday blues are a real thing, as we all know. You can personally make a HUGE difference -- in David's spirits and how he can be perceived as a rainmaker at work -- if we go to his theater that day to support him. This is such an easy way to show we care.
 
One more bit of good news for The Ladder Project: Congregant Arnie Stokol got in touch this past week to offer his free optometrist services to David. Thank you Arnie for your generosity! (And thank you for, coincidentally, officing just down the street from our other doctor donors: David's dentist, Dr. Rowan Buskin, and David's internist, Dr. Lawrie Friedman!) David will make an appointment soon.

​This past Sunday, I joined a dozen of our community members outside Literacy Achieves in West Dallas for the dedication of a Little Free Library, constructed by our social action committee. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept (and before they began this project, I wasn’t either!) a Little Free Library is a 6-foot, public space bookshelf.  It’s placed outside, in residential neighborhoods, where residents can freely borrow from and continue to stock a collection of books for all ages.  Our member, Mindy Fagin, who volunteers at Literacy Achieves, helped oversee the project from start to finish—building, painting, and installing the library in front of Literacy Achieves—as well as the collection of more than 200 books (so many, they couldn’t all fit!)

by Rabbi Shira Wallach
On Monday night, I participated in the Faith and Grief Ministries Multi-Faith Service of Comfort at Klyde Warren Park, an annual gathering of people who wish to pay homage to loved ones around the holiday season. The organizers of the service asked me to reflect on the aftermath of the Pittsburgh shooting and how we keep our faith intact after tragedy. I wanted to share my remarks with you: