Tuesday August 03, 2021 | 25 Av 5781
During my 30 years as a pulpit rabbi, a major focus of my week was the Shabbat worship service. While it is true that we all do much during the rest of the week, Shabbat and holiday services are seen by congregants and clergy as the center of our congregational lives. Education and social […]
Hello, young Jews of the world! Honestly, I am somewhat concerned for your welfare. You’re under pressure. Supporting Israel is turning uncool in some quarters, and you’re being challenged, sometimes even without you having brought it up. People are pressing you on Israel, or I fear they will, just because you’re Jewish. I’m sorry […]
My first tallit was based on the second verse of Genesis. Inscribed on the atarah/neckband was: V’ru’ach Elohim mirachefet al p’nai hamayim – “And the spirit of God hovered over the face of the water.” All that existed was God and water amid the void. My teacher, Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank z”l, taught that this […]
There is a beautiful Yiddish expression, Ein mama dergreykht mer vi a hundert lerers, which translates as “One mother achieves more than a hundred teachers.” I was my mom’s (OBM) best pupil. I loved to learn from her and she loved to teach me. Our time together was priceless but as her health began […]
I’m astonished at how naïve I was as an undergraduate at Hofstra University on Long Island. I thought I was doing something. I now understand it as a nice memory, a little bit of action for the good, but so focused on a detail. I was lost in the woods and couldn’t see the […]
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 […]
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