Lauren Kramer

Lauren Kramer

Healing and building relationships

photo - statue of two people hugging

As Yom Kippur approaches, teshuvah, forgiveness, looms large on Jewish minds. It’s a time to think about wounds we may have inflicted on others and fractured relationships. What’s our responsibility to apologize? Where should we be mending bridges? These fractures…

Picturesque Sao Miguel

photo - Thanks to its rich volcanic soil, Sao Miguel is a stunning mass of greenery, a dot in the Atlantic 1,815 kilometres from the Portuguese mainland

I’m looking at the stone floor of what used to be a mikvah (ritual bath), inside the Sahar Hassamaim Synagogue on the island of Sao Miguel in the Portuguese Azores. In the room next door, the synagogue has been restored…