Rabbi's Update 6/19/2026

Dear Friends:

We extend our condolences to Charlotte Strauss, Danielle Strauss, and their entire family on the passing earlier this week of Terry Strauss z”l. If you have been part of the extended Kehilat Shalom family at any time in the last two decades or more, you knew Terry. He had filled almost every office on the Kehilat Shalom board, was president of the Men’s Club, and he was ubiquitous around the shul. He will be sorely missed by us all. May his memory be a blessing and may his family be comforted among those who mourn for Zion and Jerusalem.

Today is Juneteenth which has been a Federal holiday only since 2021 but has been observed since 1865. The original Juneteenth took place on June 19, 1865, when Union troops reached Galveston, Texas and informed the enslaved African Americans there that they were now free. While President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it could only be enforced in Confederate states that had come under Union military control. Texas had a minimal Union military presence and the enslaved people in Galveston were the last slaves in the Confederate states to be freed by the Union army.

The legacy of slavery needs to be remembered by all Americans and not just those descended from ancestors who were enslaved. Even if your ancestors did not participate in the enslavement of African Americans, if you are a White American you likely benefit in some way from the material legacy of slavery.

In my case, the earliest members of my family did not arrive here from Eastern Europe until the 1890s. But I received my undergraduate education at Georgetown University. The Jesuits who founded and ran Georgetown owned plantations in southern Maryland which were farmed by enslaved labor. In 1838, due to a series of bad financial decisions, Georgetown almost went bankrupt and was only kept solvent through the sale of 272 enslaved African Americans to two Louisiana planters. Families were fractured, dividing people with generations of deep kinship ties in southern Maryland. To add insult to injury, the Jesuit superior who arranged for the sale until very recently had a building on the Georgetown campus named for him (it’s now named Isaac Hawkins Hall in honor of one of the enslaved African Americans whose name appears in the sale documents.)

We are a people of memory. We recall the Exodus in our prayers every day. We observe Passover each Spring. In a couple of weeks more traditionally-observant Jews will observe a fast day marking the date the Roman Legion first breached the walls of Jerusalem.  We observe all of these not just to commemorate what happened but to learn its lessons: “proclaim liberty throughout the land, until all the inhabitants thereof”; “you know the heart of the stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt.” In today’s United States, the average Black family has $15 in wealth for every $100 held by the average White family. We still have a long way to go.

If you or someone you know is in need because of having been laid off, or has  lost benefits of some type and needs immediate help, please let me know. I can access limited funds through the Jewish Federation almost immediately. For longer-term help, the Hebrew Free Loan Society will loan up to $18,000 interest-free and the Jewish Federation has set up a hotline to  access assistance at 703-JCARING.

As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building. 

As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by. 

Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Charles L. Arian