Growing Up is Hard to Do
My fiancée and I recently joined a congregation about a block from our home. We went to the new member Shabbat, were called by the rabbi, welcomed by members and Abby (my future bride) was called this morning to read an aliyah on Rosh HaShanah.
Thoughts From My First Selichot Service
I came to the 11 pm Selichot Service at Beth Emeth in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday night at the suggestion of Rabbi Grumbacher during Torah study. I came frankly, out of curiosity and to see if I could stay awake at that
The Immigration Stigma's Got to Go
Emily Schwartz is an intern at the Religious Action Center and a senior at The George Washington University.
83 is the New 13: Why Have a Second Bar Mitzvah?
Inspired by Stan, our congregation's 83-year-old bar mitzvah boy, I’m thinking that I may not wait until I turn 83 to recreate some part of my entry into adulthood, according to Jewish tradition, on an upcoming Friday night.
Galilee Diary: Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
(Langston Hughes, “Harlem”)
Recently I began to volunteer once a week, assisting the English literature teacher in a nearby Arab high school. I’ve known the teacher, and the principal, for many years, through arranging encounters for their students with Jewish visitors, and this seems like a good way to stay in touch and involved. My first assignment was to present a background lesson to two 10th-grade classes studying a poem by Langston Hughes (“the poet laureate of Harlem,” who died in 1967). This assignment meant covering slavery, emancipation, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and the civil rights struggle, in simple English, assuming almost no historical background, in 40 minutes. Interesting challenge.
The Israel/Syria Story No One is Talking About
This story of Israel’s diversity, coexistence and humanitarian aid as evidenced by the Galillee Medical Center community moves me, and especially now, I feel it is important to share it with others.
What We Can Learn From Savvy Women in the Bible
It’s a recurring biblical pattern: Time and again, it’s the woman who “gets it” and the man who does not.
There is much we can learn from these women, starting with Eve.
Can Pro-Gun Be Pro-Life?
I have come to the Newtown Congregational Church, less than a half mile from Sandy Hook Elementary School, to attend an interfaith discourse about guns in our society.
Freehof's Laws: A Guide for the Perplexed During World War II
“Showing up,” Woody Allen once noted is “80 percent of life.” Fair enough, but what about the other 20 percent?