Inspired by a passage from the Mishnah - "Without bread there is no Torah; without Torah there is no bread" - Bread and Torah is a learning project and non-profit baking enterprise that seeks to provide the community and the region with a variety of educational offerings encompassing Jewish studies, arts, crafts, baking and cooking, nutrition and eating practices, health and wellness, creativity and change.

Bread and Torah is

• A learning project offering one-day workshops, weekend retreats, scribal arts demonstration and instruction, baking and cooking lessons, and after-school programs
• Slice of Heaven Breads (brochure), a non-profit, co-operative bakery that utilizes both community volunteers and individuals referred for employment by agencies such as VESID
• A workshop for traditional scribal arts (brochure), including the Community Torah Project.

The Bread and Torah project has been featured in several newspaper and magazine articles-

• 2009
  • December 2009 announcement for scribal presentation in NYC
  • November 2009 description of program in Bridgeport, CT
  • October 2009 photos of program in Providence, RI
  • October 2009 Albany Times-Union magazine article about Slice of Heaven bakery "
  • October 2009 article about Rabbi Linda's scribal program in Albany, NY
  • April 2009 flyer for program at Congregation Agudat Achim, Schenectady, NY
  • March 2009 article on Bread and Torah program in Great Barrington, MA
• 2008
  • October 2008 article on rabbis as artists-in-residence at the URJ Regional Biennial
  • Hadassah-Brandeis Institute 2008-2009 craft calendar - Rabbi Linda's scribal work featured among the work of just 16 Jewish women artisans from around the world
  • January 2, 2008 on-line article on Rabbi Linda's scribal work published by the Jewish Daily Forward
• 2007
  • Fall 2007 issue of the Saratoga Living magazine - article(p1, p2, p3, p4, p5, p6, p7) on spiritual crafts
  • July 18, 2007 article in the Times Union on the sharing of bread knowledge
  • March 24, 2007 article in the Times Union on the skills needed to be a scribe
  • March 8, 2007 article(p1, p2) in the Jewish World on Rabbi Linda's completion of the megillah of Esther
  • February 4, 2007 article(p1, p2) in The Sunday Gazette on Rabbi Linda's scribal work
  • January 4, 2007 article(p1, p2) in the Jewish World on Rabbi Jonathan's baking project
  • September 30, 2006 article in the Times Union on Rabbi Jonathan's baking project

Rabbis Linda Motzkin and Jonathan Rubenstein have been co-rabbis of Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, NY, since 1986, following their ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.

Rabbi Linda is the author of the four volume Adult Hebrew curriculum published by the Union for Reform Judaism, the textbooks Aleph Isn't Tough, Aleph Isn't Enough, Bet is for B'reishit and Tav is for Torah. She also serves as part-time Jewish Chaplain at Skidmore College and is currently studying the craft, methods and materials of traditional Jewish scribal arts. She completed writing megilat esther - a scroll of Esther - for Temple Sinai in March, 2007 and has begun writing a sefer Torah on parchment made from local deerskin

Rabbi Jonathan is a baker and the founder of Slice of Heaven Breads, as well as part-time Director of Pastoral Care at Four Winds-Saratoga, a private psychiatric hospital. He also serves on the Board of Saratoga Care (the Saratoga Hospital and Nursing Home).

Rabbis Linda and Jonathan are members of the Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Communities and are active in many local organizations.

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