Our Decades-Long Fight for LGBT Equality
October is LGBT History month, dedicated to celebrating the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals and the LGBT equal rights movement.
Does Talking About God Drive Others Away?
Several years ago, I launched an educational start-up. I left a wonderful position at a prestigious educational institution. It was a big risk.
It didn’t work out as I hoped.
The Rhythm of Jewish Time: Journeys and Dreams
Our tradition gives life to journeying. The Torah affirms wandering.
Only When We Tarry Can We Touch the Holy
I had the recent pleasure to be invited by a friend on a hike in Los Liones Canyon of Pacific Palisades. It was gorgeous summer day and the trail was steep. We pretty much hightailed it up as fast as our feet would carry us!
This Sukkot, Fostering Interfaith Relations in Israel
"At the edge of a valley so quiet and pretty stands a five story building far away from the city."
On Simchat Torah, We Turn and Turn Again
I like the symmetry of the concept of return.
I like the idea that, no matter how linear we think we are, or time is, or God is, we tend to find a way back. Even God recognizes this view: Why else create t’shuvah (repentance) before ever creating the heavens and the earth?
Waving the Flag of Egalitarianism in Israel on Simchat Torah
One of the great paradoxes of being an American Reform Jew who chose to make aliyah (move to Israel) is that the whole concept of majority and minority is turned on its head. One the one hand, as a Jew, I am culturally and ethnically now part of the majority.
Talmud Torah: To Study, Learn, and Grow
Following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, there was no central place for Jews to make sacrifices and worship God.
Simchat Torah: Celebrating God’s Precious Gift
Immediately after the High Holidays, we celebrate Sukkot, one of the most important biblical Jewish holidays. How do we commemorate the Israelites' journey from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land?