News Highlights Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld quoted Jewish Standard article, “Do we need to kvetch?”

“At a virtual teaching for alumni, Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld asked us to write our own and our congregants’ complaints in the chat. Many people wrote about the losses we’ve experienced during the pandemic — loss of life, loss of community, loss of joy. Finally, someone said, ‘These don’t feel to me like complaints. They feel like laments.’ This led to a deep and rich conversation about the difference between complaint and lament, and whether complaint is ever useful. . . . Rabbi Anisfeld suggested that ‘there are times when complaint feels understandable, necessary, and even fruitful. And there are times when it feels the opposite. Complaint can open things up, and it can shut things down.'”

Hebrew College President Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld is mentioned in a Jewish Standard op-ed, “Do we need to kvetch?”, written by Hebrew College Rabbinical School alumna Rabbi Hannah Orden `10.

Rabbi Orden is the rabbi of the Reconstructionist-afliated Congregation Beth Hatikvah in Summit, N.J. She is a past president of the Summit Interfaith Council and is a founding and active member of the council’s anti-racism committee.