Wednesday December 25, 2024 | 23 Kislev 5785
Have you traveled to Israel? Maybe more than once. Also bought a State of Israel Bond or planted a tree there. All good, but what did your grandparents and great-grandparents do to support the country, well before it existed? My mother handed me a faded brown folder, stuffed thick with old family photos. One antique […]
The abortion issue raises raw emotions on both sides of the political spectrum. Strong feelings are often backed up by strong words, from both sides of the aisle, red and blue. When it comes to what the Torah has to say about the issue, oftentimes people might assume that the approach is open and […]
Three years ago, I was grateful to ascend to the bimah of this loving and warm 100+-year-old shul in the heart of the “Driftless Area” of southeastern Wisconsin. I knew this was a special place. The Driftless Area is so-called because it never experienced the drift of glaciers during the last Ice Age. It […]
I feel like I knew Jeff German, the Jewish Milwaukee boy who moved to Las Vegas. I know the type, the fearless journalist who lives in the job. When I was an editor at a daily, I felt like I worried about that reporter on my staff more than they worried about themselves. They […]
I read with interest the article by Alan Wolkenstein, “Antisemitism remembered.” This was a well written article bringing back many memories of my youth. I’m sure that many long time Milwaukee residents recall stories from their parents or grandparents with similar experiences. My parents faced the same housing discrimination when they searched for housing in […]
My folks would take me along when they visited family who were buried at Mound Zion Cemetery. When we arrived, usually between the High Holidays, dad would park the car and we would walk to the family plot. Dad would have picked up two small stones and then placed them on the monuments to […]
Our name is the first thing we own when we enter the world. Names honor ancestors, recall favorite characters, evoke nature, and bring joy to those who bestow them. We write our names in crayon on our kindergarten drawings. We scribble it on receipts, carve it into trees, wear it on necklaces, display it […]
As another High Holiday season is upon us, I can’t help but recall what I thought about as we ended last year’s High Holiday season. “I am so hungry!” We all hunger for “things” in our lives. We have physical hunger – such as after a 24-hour fast. We have hunger for loving relationships; […]
I attended my first pride parade when I was 10 days old. On the corner of 15th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, my sister, Emily, and I napped in our shady stroller, which was absolutely covered in miniature rainbow flags. Countless LGBTQ members and allies stopped to take in what appeared like a […]
Depending on circumstance, Halakha regards prospective abortions as permissible or not, advisable, or even required. Halakha takes a balanced view, as it weighs many considerations in play. As an American and a Jew, I have found proper the latitude American law has – from Roe until now – given Americans to approach abortion from […]
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