Breathing a Post-Holiday Sigh of Relief: An Interfaith Story
The holidays are over, and with the start of the secular new year, I am no longer holding my breath and bracing myself for another round of “Merry Christmas!” After releasing an overdue post-holiday sigh of relief, my breathing becomes more rhythmic as I enter the present moment, the here and now
Those Who Plant Will Reap: A Tu BiShvat Lesson
Tu BiShvat is a reminder that we spend our lives planting seeds. Time and effort are needed for our efforts to bear fruit. Wait patiently. One day, like the seed, we will be blessed.
A Jewish Summer Camp Alum Heads to the Olympics!
What does Reform Judaism have to do with the Olympics? Chicagoan Jason Brown is an alumnus of URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, a Reform Jewish summer camp in Oconomowoc, WI - and last month, he came in second in the U.S.
Stopping Israel's "Kosher Police"
“Hold it right there! Put your hands where I can see them!” Picture men running into your store, checking the food and the official Rrabbinate documents on the wall that certifies your establishment as kosher. In Israel, this may not be an imaginary scene.
Ariel Sharon: May His Vision Never Die
As I try to sort out my feelings on a Sunday evening, the body of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is lying in state in the Knesset. My wife Resa and I won’t be among the thousands who are lined up there – but we certainly are among the mourners.
Galilee Diary: Fair Tourism
...The country that we traversed and scouted is one that devours its settlers. All the people that we saw in it are men of great size... We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.
An Apodosis for the New Year, in Memory of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John F. Kennedy
Last August 24 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Jeffrey Sachs, Nobel Prize-winning economist and passionate advocate for the world’s poor, spoke these powerful words on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech:
Women Are Back On the Airwaves in Israel!
Anonymity is a funny thing. Sometimes, when nasty remarks are posted on the internet under the veil of anonymity, it is a sign of cowardice. Other times, anonymity offers the cover needed to push back against oppression.