Now is the time to be optimistic about the COVID-19 pandemic. Armed with vaccination and knowledge, you should plan to hug your grandchildren and grandparents, eat dinner with your neighbor and close friends, and see a return to some semblance of “normal life” in the very near future – maybe even now. Let’s clarify […]
Could there be anything more anguishing to a parent than the death – and a death by suicide at that – of a child? From my long experience as a psychiatrist, I don’t know what that could be. How do you, if ever, get over that loss in a productive way? Besides the incalculable […]
I am approaching the anniversary of my pandemic experience. On the second Friday of March last year, I was in the middle of giving a presentation in my AP psychology class when the anticipated announcement came suddenly over the loudspeakers: “The Whitefish Bay School Board has deliberated over every option … we have met […]
The sponsorship – by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center – of a giant menorah on the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge was an historic milestone. The lighting of public menorahs has inspired untold numbers, reigniting their Jewish flames. From the White House lawn to the Eiffel […]
In 2013 when I was in graduate school, I was walking to one of my classes in the business school when I saw a big sign calling to boycott an Israeli–themed lunch scheduled for that week. I looked at the sign and saw that it alleged the Israeli lunch menu was “expropriating Arab cuisine […]
When the pandemic began, I was shocked and disoriented at how abruptly our lives were shuttered. Restaurants, theaters, “non-essential” stores and businesses of every variety were suddenly closed. In short order, satellite images showed how the planet’s measurable heat, light and pollution plummeted in an instant when the tumult and consumption of human life […]
Reading is one of life’s great pleasures and for a lot of people, retirement means more time to read. But for some older readers, vision loss or other health issues can limit the ability to read a physical book. Before starting library school, I was vaguely aware of the options for readers with visual […]
I moved to Milwaukee in my mid-20s, for love, and knew very few Jews for the first three years. I worked in the nonprofit sector and we lived on the east side of Milwaukee. When I was pregnant with my first child, I started swimming at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community […]
An oft-repeated joke is of a passionate golfer who was battling the urge to play on Yom Kippur. Succumbing to his urge, he played early in the morning so he could still attend services. Miraculously, he scored a hole-in-one on every green — afterwards realizing in agony that he could not brag to anyone […]
Franklin D. Roosevelt is widely remembered as a strong leader who boldly led America out of the Great Depression and to the brink of victory in World War II. Yet when it comes to the Holocaust, some defenders of FDR’s record want us to believe he was not responsible for keeping Jewish refugees out […]