We met for shabbat morning service after a devastating week of living in/watching cities invaded by heavily armed, violent, murderous thugs who have been given permission to terrorize and murder. In this storm, we gathered within the power of our community, the welcome of a space where our grief and fear are holy, and the strength of Jewish tradition, which has comforted generations of our ancestors through times like this. Much of the liturgy was from words we prayed one year ago, in great fear of what was to come – one year in, the fear now has the weight of grief, and the responsibility of knowing we have a hard struggle for the foreseeable future.

“There must be those among whom we can sit and weep and still be counted as warriors,” Adrienne Rich wrote in Your Native Land, Your Life. Fringes has always aspired to be such a space.

You can download our liturgy here, and find links below to some of our songs and video.

For torah study, moving toward the start of our 20th year in February, we looked at how Fringes has developed our liturgy, then studied a new blessing for tzitzit that’s in development. Notes are in the slide deck.

And for kaddish, we recited the names of everyone killed by ICE since January of 2025, a list gathered from Immigrant justice groups across the U.S. Most have died of medical abuse in the torture chambers called “Detention Centers.” Others, like Renee Nicole Good were murdered directly, in cold blood.

Service Resources

Rachamana, a Hassidic song created for slichot. The version below is performed by Batya Levine

Tany Yitzchock’s Eich Nashir – how can we sing a song of the Lord in a land of misfortune?

Susan Rothaum’s Kol d’mama daka – a soft, murmuring sound

Our Blessing of Redemption was Cornelius Eady reading his poem “Proof” at Mayor Mamdani’s inauguration ceremony