On Sunday, May 19, 2024, Yale University President Peter Salovey spoke to the graduating class of 2024 about the importance of love and compassion, as well as forgiveness and understanding. As Tamar listened from her role as a dean, Naomi as a parent of a student, Finn as a soon-to-be graduate, and Mary as a [...]
For someone who loved to observe the interplay between the celestial and earthly rhythms of life, it seems appropriate that Rabbi Gendler's (z"l) yahrzeit occurred on the evening of a total eclipse of the sun. I hope everyone enjoyed stopping for a few minutes to observe something larger than themselves. May his memory be for [...]
It's hard to believe, but today marks the second secular yahrzeit of Rabbi Everett Gendler (z"l). I assume that many of you, like me, think of or are reminded of him often. Last week, Tamar sent me a photo of her daughter rolling Shabbat candles in Great Barrington. They had what she called "an Everett [...]
Tamar shared this beautiful poem, and it made us all think of Everett. It particularly reminded me of watching Everett walk down the hill toward the pond, with his wooden stick in hand. "Height" by Julien Strong (from the journal The Southern Review) Each year I lose a little more of it, the spaces between [...]
Today would have been Rabbi Everett Gendler's (z"l) 95th birthday. As the Earth displays its splendor and bounty, whether that be in the form of rain, sun, lush trees, colorful flowers, or a bumper crop of vegetables in your garden, I hope you too are reminded of Everett. I often think about how he moved [...]
A couple of weeks ago, Rabbi Gendler's (z"l) family and friends gathered in the Berkshires at the site where he was buried a little over a year ago. We were there for the ceremony to install his footstone. Due to various issues, the original ceremony had to be postponed. It worked in my favor, however, as [...]
Today is Rabbi Everett Gendler's (z"l) yahrzeit. I assume that like many of you, as I move through my daily life, I'm regularly reminded of Everett. It will happen in surprising and often unexpected ways. I'll think of him when I notice the first rhubarb greens as they begin to poke out of the earth, when a particularly bright [...]
Yesterday was the first day of Nisan. Everett (z"l) died on 1 Nisan last year. Naomi, Tamar, and I had a discussion about on which day we should acknowledge and share some information about Everett on social media - the first day of Nisan or April 1. I said that Uncle Everett would think it [...]
About a month ago, I learned that my uncle, Rabbi Gendler, was given one of the first five rainbow tallitot ever made. For those who don't know, before the 1960s, tallitot were white with black (sometimes blue) stripes. That was convention until Rabbi Gendler's friend, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, invented, designed, and commissioned the making of [...]
I'm doing some writing about Rabbi Gendler and am looking for vivid, detailed memories people have of him between 1971-1995. If you attended Phillips Academy and/or were a congregant at Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley, I would love to hear your detailed stories or memories about Rabbi Gendler and the impact he had on you. [...]
