Thursday December 26, 2024 | 24 Kislev 5785
Imagine you’re a 17-year-old boy from abroad whose parents have both belief in the value of education and the means to achieve it — sufficient means to send you to a private boarding school in the United States for high school as the first step to an American university education. As your senior year […]
It was early autumn in 1964 and Kathy and I were engaged to be married on Nov. 1. We were caught up in the seemingly millions of things to do for the wedding. We were talking with my folks and her mom in Florida as we ironed out the details. All but one. What […]
My heart aches as my head panics. My child came home again from school with a play-by-play of sideline reporting from recess. Depending on the day, a peer got picked on for looking different, acting different or sounding different. Again. This feels like a conversation between a child and a 1939 war-torn Polish mommy. […]
I have always been a voracious reader. As a child I was a flashlight-under-the-covers reader. A buckled-up-road-trip reader. A rainy-day-cozy-nook reader. A just-one-more-chapter! reader. I gobbled up historical fiction, poetry, joke books, mysteries, Sunday comics, and a well-worn issue of Dog Fancy magazine my Papa bought me at the airport. I revisited the girls […]
At birth, I was given an English name along with the Hebrew name Tziporah. The English name (ask me sometime) was a name my parents liked. I always hated it. Tziporah was after my paternal great-grandmother, Faigel Weinberg. Faigel and Tziporah both mean bird. I always felt connected to my Hebrew name. I heard […]
As I write these words, I’m heartbroken by what Ukrainians — both Jewish and non-Jewish — have endured. On the news apps, and on TV, we watched the map of Ukraine change daily, a smidgen at a time. Red, which just happens to be the color of blood, slowly spread inward from the edges. […]
My memories of Judaism as a child are primarily composed of visceral and sweet moments. Sinking my teeth into a perfectly dense and crunchy bagel, with a bite of salty lox and a lick of cream cheese. Tightness in my chest as I resisted gasping for air holding the long note of “Ve’imeruuuuuuu…..” during […]
Many of you have probably never heard of the Secure Community Network, but it’s an important Jewish community watchdog, and I was glad to represent our Jewish community at the Network’s Homeland Security Summit. The Secure Community Network is the official homeland security and safety initiative of the organized Jewish community in North America. Founded in 2004, under the auspices of The Jewish Federations of […]
Maybe you already know that Monday, Jan. 17th, is both Tu Bishvat and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This rare confluence gives us an opportunity to see a connection. As the climate and ecological crisis worsens, the importance of Tu Bishvat is becoming better recognized. It is a day sometimes known as the “birthday of the trees” and has essentially been our Jewish Earth Day for […]
As the Jewish community, and the world at large, struggles to recuperate from the effects of COVID-19 and other challenges of the past two years – I participated in a meeting with nine Shluchim (Chabad emissaries) from across the US. After the high holidays, we convened to plan a course of action to lift […]
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