Jewish Ledger
It Was A Wedding For The Books
What do you wear to a wedding during a pandemic?
Blaize Levitan and Kristina Powell and their guests wore matching face masks – pink and red, custom made – in a Covid-conscious Valentine’s Day ceremony held Sunday, Feb. 14 at Book Trader Cafe in New Haven.
The wedding was a first for the popular cafe and bookstore at Chapel and York streets.
Book Trader was one of the couple’s favorite haunts during the four years when Levitan and Powell began a long-distance relationship. They would read and eat at the cafe while waiting for the trains that would take them back to their respective homes in New York and Hartford.
This is a roundup of current and upcoming virtual calendar events available in South Florida; includes entertainment, family, social and holiday activities.
UpdatedThu, Jan 14, 2021 at 10:56 am ET
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Ellis Tibere, who had then recently turned 18, was charged last year by Westport police with the stabbing of a woman in a beauty salon parking lot. His family said the random attack was a result of his serious mental illness. (Westport Police Department/Tibere family photo)
GUILFORD, CT A month before then-18-year-old Ellis Tibere was accused of the Jan. 6, 2020, attack of a woman in a Westport beauty salon parking lot, the Guilford High School senior had received his college acceptance and presidential scholarship letters.
Tibere was a high-performing student, a community and synagogue volunteer, and a Unified Sports ambassador, who spent his last two years in high school enrolled in the International Baccalaureate World School Diploma program.
Jannatul Hasan / Wikimedia Commons
Faith can play an important role in times of uncertainty - offering comfort and hope. Since COVID-19 hit Connecticut, many churches, synagogues and mosques have closed across the state. Faith leaders have moved worship online - and found new ways to bring people together.
It has not been easy. Leaders across religious traditions are under tremendous pressure guiding their congregations through grief and trauma - while helping their communities build resilience.
In a conversation recorded earlier this month, guest host Diane Orson talks with a pastor, a rabbi and an imam who have walked into a pandemic - and it is not a joke. They speak about what it has been like for clergy, where they turn when they’re feeling stressed, and whether their own faith has wavered.
Chion Wolf photo
With many churches, synagogues and mosques closed because of the pandemic, clergy across religious traditions have found new ways to bring people together.
The Rev. Jerry Streets said COVID-19 has called on faith leaders to be creative, “. which for me has meant alternative ways of connecting through weekly Zoom meetings with the congregation, online worship services. And what I’m sensing is a whole new model of ministry being forged as a result of responding to the pandemic.”
Streets is the pastor at Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church in New Haven and former chaplain at Yale University.
“Dixwell is about 110-15 people, the oldest African-American Congregational Church in the known world. And a significant number of our members are mature elderly. And so we’ve found the need to partner them with their grandchildren and younger people who’ve helped them to learn and to use the technology.”