Sukkot: Festival of Voting Booths
Stop Cuts to Family Planning
Putting Down Roots: Why Our Jewish Family Needs a Yard Full of Trees
We celebrated the holiday of Tu BiShvat – the “Jewish Arbor Day” – way back in February, and we won’t celebrate it again until January. But no matter: I need to talk about the trees now.
Coming Full Circle: The NFTY in Israel Tikkun Olam Experience
We're a Multiracial Jewish Family; We Don't Have the Answers, but Here’s a Place to Start
Including Jews of Color or multiracial families for the point of “checking it off the list” needs to bite the dust. Multiracial families do not want to be ignored, but neither do they want to be seen as a way to achieve some sort of board directive
Inspired 5781: More Art, More Awe
I grew up going to services. A lot of services. I was adept at counting the ceiling tiles, reaching into the thousands as my grasp of numbers grew more sophisticated. The melodies became part of my life soundtrack; I hummed them as my mind wandered during the rabbi’s sermon.
60 Years a Rabbi: What I Learned from My Rabbinic Mentors
Six decades have not diminished my appreciation of the rabbinic mentors who symbolically escorted me to rabbinical school and upon whose shoulders I stand.
The New (Old) Jewish Diet: It's Not What You Think!
The weather is warm, the ground is green, and you long ago shed your heavy coats and sweaters for more fluid and arm-revealing clothing. But if you're still trying to shed a few pounds to fit comfortably into last summer's shorts, I have a suggestion: Why not try "the Jewish diet"?
Tishah B'Av: What's in a Name?
William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name?” The holiday of Tishah B’Av, which literally translates to the “Ninth of (the month of) Av” is so named to remember the destruction of the ancient temples in Jerusalem (in 586 BCE and 70 CE) said to have occurred on that day.
Reform Judaism, the Former Soviet Union, and the Next Great Jewish Renaissance
Many of today’s North American Jews can trace their family roots to the vast expanse in between Vitebsk, Belarus, and Khabarovsk, Russia. Today, there are more than 40 Reform Jewish communities in this region, and that number is growing.