Sivan is the month in which we celebrate the giving of the Torah. In the community we celebrate this by gathering and studying all night on the first night and then hear the 10 commandments read from a Torah scroll during the daytime service. In prison the experience of Jewish prisoners is quite different. If there is night time study they will be doing it in their cells, on their own, with what books they have available. In some prisons, with a large enough Jewish population and volunteers who can help supervise, they will be able to gather to read from a Chumash for the daytime service. In other prisons with smaller Jewish populations they will be reading the ten commandments by themselves in their cell, again.In a conversation I had in this past month I realized

Iyar is a month of reflection. Every day of the month we count the Omer. In reflecting on the work of JPSI sometimes it is hard to see the impact we make as we try to make a difference. It is the letters that the inmates write and the successes that we do achieve in helping another Jew that keep us going. Your contributions to JPSI make a difference. This month I would like to share an excerpt from a letter from an inmate - so you too can know a bit of the impact that you make.

Note from the President

Nissan is the first of the Jewish months. Oddly it isn't when the New Year is, but it is the month when the Jewish people became a nation as we went forth, freed from Egypt. Passover is particularly poignant, impactful, for Jews who are in prison and those who work with Jewish prisoners. Each year we are commanded to recognize how G-d takes us out from bondage, and at that time we have to think about the nature of bondage.