God as Matchmaker: A Reflection on Adoption
Honoring Your Parents as You Empty Their House
Jews have blessings for almost every occasion. I recommend we recite one before emptying the contents of our parents’ home after they die.
Why the Ten Commandments Are Just What America Needs
Stricter adherence to the Ten Commandments might be just what America needs to restore trust in government and civility in political discourse.
Give Peace a Chance: Why All of Us Must Be Part of the Process
Israel’s peace process is frustrating, but if we are to survive here, it must be the one place where identity politics cannot shred our democracy.
What We Need to Know About Welcoming the Stranger
Like those Abraham welcomed into his tent, many in today’s world are without homes. Our Torah doesn’t allow us to pretend they are not our problem.
Communal Aid: How to Ensure No One Falls Through the Cracks
When we made aliyah in 1990, arriving at Shorashim, the community was a moshav sheetufi, a commune of 30 families. The economy was similar to a kibbutz – all salaries, whether from communal businesses or from work “outside,” went to the common bank account; each family received a house to live in and a monthly allowance based on family size. But not anymore.
Red and Blue and White: Being an American and a Jew
I know from conversations I have had with Israelis, they find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand how Jews can feel so at home, so safe, so self-assured in the United States. For so many of our co-religionists—those who were forced to flee from oppressive regimes in the former Soviet Union, or Ethiopia, or those whose parents and grandparents fled from or grew up in the ashes of state-sanctioned hatred—they cannot possibly understand how we can live so calmly and unafraid in this nation. They can’t quite understand what it means to be an American and a Jew.
My Son May Be Sheltered Now, But That Won’t Last Forever
For better or for worse, my son doesn’t yet know how scary this world can be – and I’m not eager to break it to him.
We Can Make an Impact for Immigration Reform
In the Machon Kaplan (MK) program, I have received a total crash course in Jewish social justice in Washington, D.C.