The Holiness of Separation
As a kid, Shabbat meant brisket. I loved that. Every once in a while, my mother would get inspired and feel the need to… cook? No, she always cooked in those days.
It's Elul: 6 Ways to Get Ready for the High Holidays
25 Years of Pride: My Journey as a Gay Reform Jew
As the site of this year’s 25th Annual Long Island Gay Pride Parade and Festival, Huntington, Long Island, was a bright, sunny, and joyful place on Saturday June 13th.
Fighting Fire with Justice After an Act of Arson in Israel
The Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes was first built on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in 480 AD. It was set ablaze in the middle of the night early last Thursday morning. The perpetrators scrawled in Hebrew on the walls “והאלילים כרות יכרתן” - “foreign idols will be destroyed,” a quote from a Jewish daily prayer
Lessons from Balaam's Donkey: "We're All Dumb Differently!"
It should not surprise us that in this week's Torah portion, parashah Balak, the animal that saves Balaam’s life is female.
How Can We Forgive the Boston Bomber and the Charleston Shooter? Should We?
There is much talk of forgiveness these days, particularly in the wake of the sentencing of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombing, and the arrest of Dylann Roof
The Happy Tears of a Jaded Activist for LGBTQ Equality
I confess to being a bit jaded after 30+ years as a public policy activist (40+ years if you want to count my high school and college activism during the early era of the fight for Soviet Jewry).
Stronger Together: The Role of Women's Groups in Today's Reform Congregations
We were still wiping the tears of laughter from our eyes from the annual women’s retreat skit that had brought the house down just minutes before. It had been an evening of frivolity, costumes, and merriment.