Summoning the Strengths of My Many Cultures: A Story of Coming Out
My fondest memories of childhood existed within the confines of my grandmother's kitchen. I'd enter her apartment to the smells of traditional Argentine and Jewish cuisine, and it is through her empanadas and knishes that I first grasped the concept of deep family bonds.
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
I want to tell you a story. It's a chapter of my history at Greene Family Camp, a Reform sleep away camp in Texas. It's a lesson about Jewish learning at summer camp – the type of learning that often occurs way before we realize we are learning.
Becoming a Man: My Bar Mitzvah Speech, 30 Years Later
Esteemed rabbis, my dear parents, family, and friends: Shabbat shalom. Thank you for coming to celebrate with me on this day on which I become a man. My bar mitzvah Torah portion, Acharei Mot, is about laws and limitations. Laws, I understand, are necessary, because without them, things go wrong, and people can get hurt. The portion begins with the reminder of what happened to the two sons of Aaron the high priest, and how they died by a “strange fire” because they did not observe the law, and were not careful enough when they entered the holy Tent of Meeting. There are many different kinds of laws in this portion. These laws, I was taught, were given to us by God so that each of us can live a holy life, as part of a bigger, healthy society.
Leading the Way for Equality - Literally!
The occasion was the Santa Cruz Pride Parade in Santa Cruz, CA, in support of the LGBTQI community, and dozens of members of Temple Beth El in Aptos, CA, were there to march.
The Torah In Haiku: Chukat
Death of Miriam
Led the people to complain
"We have no water"
But when Aaron died
The people mourned, thirty days
No complaints mentioned
Separate is Not Equal
Schools in Israel are letting out for the summer. One of the great traditions in Israel is the end-of-the-year class trip. These outings should be an opportunity for students to have fun and relax after the stress of exams.
My Daughter Has a Girlfriend
Years ago I learned to say, “My daughter has a girlfriend.” But it wasn’t an easy transition for me – and it certainly wasn’t easy for my daughter, partly because of me.
Iran Prepares for Another Election - Time for Action
As Iran approaches another fraudulent presidential election on June 14, it is time to recognize that there is an inextricable connection between the human rights situation in Iran and the threat Iran already poses to world peace.
Even the Cats Know it is Shabbat in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is overrun with stray cats. Most of the week, they hang out on sidewalks and hide under parked cars, but on Shabbat they lounge in the middle of the street, baking in their patches of sunlight, daring you to move them or for a car to disturb their well-deserved nap.
Reflections on Turkey
In 1972, Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath sent me to Florida to organize Jewish students protesting the Vietnam War at the 1972 Republican Convention in Miami. In 1989, my wife, my father and I travelled through China just a few months before Tiananmen Square.