Rabbi Weill's Blog

January 8th, 2026

Dear Friends,

New year, new Board! At tomorrow night's Shabbat services, 7:30 p.m., we will welcome our leaders of 2026. 

Some Board members are concluding their terms of service. I am grateful for all they have done to sustain EHNT's strength and importance. 

I also eagerly look forward to working with our new leaders. As always, they...Read more...

Erev Chanukah 5786

Dear Friends,

Chanukah, a festival of light and hope, has been marred by darkness and hatred. Terrorists murdered at least 15 Jews celebrating the start of the holiday in Sydney, Australia. It was an attack against Jews and on the practice of Judaism.

The Syrian-Greeks’ decrees in the second century B.C.E. also targeted Jews and Judaism, for those who dared to adhere to Jewish traditions risked...Read more...

Dear Friends,

Chayei Sarah, this week's Torah portion, notes that Sarah died at 127 years old, but it is written strangely: "The life of Sarah consisted of one hundred years, twenty years and seven years -- the years of Sarah’s life." A traditional interpretation explains that her years are divided into three sections to indicate that at 100, Sarah was as innocent as she was at 20, and at 20, she was as pretty as when she was seven....Read more...

August 18th, 2025

Dear Friends,

We have been planning assiduously for the High Holidays, which begin on Monday night. In addition to services and sermons, we are taking care of other important business: launching a new year for our religious school, setting up chairs, acquiring a new laminated Tashlich service cards, creating new signs about silencing phones! 

Security is among the...Read more...

August 21st, 2025

Dear Friends,

I am very pleased to share with you congregant Bernard Black’s recent excellent column published by Times of Israel. TOI selected it as a “Featured Post.” 

Bernie, Northwestern Law professor and citizen of both the United Stares and Israel, offers a sound, sensible, and sensitive proposal to help alleviate the humanitarian situation in Gaza. His...Read more...

July 31st, 2025

Dear Friends,

Our annual Jersey shore vacation begins this weekend. The extended Weill clan is excited; the family group chat is lit up!

I will miss, though, the Ezra-Habonim, Niles Township community: our services, classes, kiddush, everything.  

Our congregational meeting on Sunday regarding our future was important and informative. A...Read more...

June 5th, 2025

Dear Friends,

We do not merely move on from Boulder, just as we must not move on from DC. To move on would be to turn our backs on the victims, and to ignore an ongoing threat to our community. So as we mourn, we are outraged. As we fret, we prepare. And we stand unified in the wake of these horrific, hateful attacks. 

I am heartened that several fellow clergy...Read more...

May 9th, 2025

Dear Friends,

Mind your PJQ's. Provocative Jewish Questions, that is. On frequent Friday nights, that's what we are doing. I am presenting a challenging topic and then inviting your responses. The topics range from communal to the theological. One recent topic challenged our community's focus on anti-Semitism; another challenged our understanding of monotheism.

To be honest, raising these questions makes...Read more...

April 3rd, 2025

Dear Friends,

This Shabbat morning, April 5, EHNT member Bernie Black, professor of law at Northwestern, will offer his second annual perspective on the current situation in Israel: "The Israeli Mood and What the Future Might Hold, Part II." Each year, Bernie and Kate spend several weeks living and teaching in Israel. 

March 6th, 2025

Dear Friends,

VOTE! Every five years, Jewish adults (18 and older) worldwide have the opportunity and privilege to participate in the process Theodor Herzl began in 1897: the World Zionist Congress elections.

These elections determine how billions of dollars are allocated in Israel and throughout the Diaspora. 

EHNT is affiliated with the Conservative and...Read more...

February 13, 2025

Dear Friends,

We recited "Yona Betzalel Brief" every day for more than a year after October 7, 2023, when Yona risked his safety to save his fellow soldiers from the terrorist onslaught. We recited psalms for Yona and held a special healing service for him. We raised funds for other wounded soldiers in Yona's honor. When he died at 24 years old, we grieved.   

Read more...

January 2, 2025

Dear Friends,

This year we celebrate the final days of Chanukah and the secular New Year together. This rare confluence of Chanukah, the celebration of dedication to Jewish life and values, and the secular New Year, a time of universal renewed hope for humankind may find some meaning in this week’s parasha.

Parashat Vayigash documents Joseph’s...Read more...

December 5, 2024

Dear Friends,

We at Ezra-Habonim, the Niles Township Jewish Congregation lift each other up during difficult times and rejoice with each other during happy times. This may sound trite, but it is true. EHNT is a community.

We have needed each other during this last challenging year. Antisemitism has risen. Israel is fighting a multi-front war. All Jews...Read more...

November 7, 2024

Dear Friends,

What a week. Some are despondent and some elated. But we’re all in this together. Let’s keep the following in mind:

Be united. Friends do not become enemies when they vote for candidates we oppose. People choose parties and candidates for all sorts of reasons. Diverse political opinions are represented within our congregation. We can still sit together...Read more...

September 26, 2024

Dear Friends,

We have always known about the horrors of Jewish history from books, movies, and museums. On October 7 we realized that those horrors are not historic or distant. They possess a shocking immediacy in our own lives.

The year 5784 was difficult. There has been so much sadness, so many assaults, so much hatred, so much confusion.

And...Read more...