Labor Day

This Easter was the first Barbra Long did not celebrate. No baskets of chocolate bunnies, no family dinner, no church services.
 
As she was doing her best to ignore Christianity’s holiest day, she noticed how many strangers wished her a Happy Easter.

Next Labor Day weekend, Rabbis Jeff Roth and Joanna Katz will carefully remove the Torah scroll from its home at Elat Chayyim, the Jewish retreat center they founded 16 years ago, and carry it on the first leg of the journey to its new home. Then they'll hand it off to pairs of friends who will take turns walking the holy scroll 62 miles, to the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.
Removing the Torah will be the final act by Elat Chayyim's leaders before they close the retreat center's doors, bringing to an end a grand experiment in the spiritual renewal of Judaism.