When Rabbi Dov Baer of Lubavitch (1773-1827) was a young father, he and his wife and children lived in the same house as his father, Rabbi Schneur Zalman (1745-1813).…
My great-grandfather William (left) and his “friend” In honor of Pride Month and Father’s Day, I want to share a 2018 blog post of mine I’ve updated, a post…
As we prepare to enter Pesach, let us not forget that our Ukrainian brothers and sisters are living the horrors of a modern-day Exodus. While many Ukrainians are…
Following the death of former Miss USA and television personality, Cheslie Kryst, our dear congregant, Shari Wallack z”l, posted on Facebook: I know what you are thinking – “she had everything” – but…
My congregation, Ramat Shalom, was founded 46 years ago as a Reconstructionist synagogue. Lots of people are unfamiliar with the Reconstructionist Movement, the theology it embraces and the…
In honor of Shabbat Shirah and Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I have put together the video above. This Shabbat, Shabbat Shirah (Shabbat of Song), we read Mi…
The Talmud says: “Teach your tongue to say: I do not know. If you don’t, you will become entangled in a web of deceit.” (Berakhot 4a) At the foundation of…
Last Friday, I got to witness something so beautiful. We had grandparent’s Shabbat in our Early Childhood Center. As I looked out at the children, who were so…
There are a reported 15,166,200 Jews on the face of the earth. While this might seem like an impressive number, we all know that we Jews make up a tiny…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmBibh16vUQ&t=4s As events at home and abroad, including the court cases that are making headlines, the attack in Wisconsin and the murder of Eli Kay z”l in Jerusalem,…
A glimpse of the damage of KristallnachtUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The words of Sofoni Herz, an educator at the Jewish orphanage in Dinslaken, Germany, written on…