Jewish Voices, Jewish Lives

It’s what we do every day. Whether it’s the food we favor…a bagel with shmear… or the drive to repair the world…tikkun olam, we Jews are there, especially in Rockland County. We plan to bring Doing Jewish to you every Friday. Sometimes it’ll be fun, sometimes it’ll be serious.

A Song of Ascents

Early on in the post 10/7 war in Gaza, I was listening to Yossi Klein Halervi, the Israeli author, journalist, and philosopher, describing how the horrors of that day and the subsequent war had influenced a wave of resilient, sometimes angry, always wistful, and quietly proud songs from arti…

Intentional Love

Last Sunday, we observed Tisha B’Av, which mourns the loss of our Temple, caused, our sages say, through our internal ‘Sinat Chinam’ -baseless hatred. I’ve read and heard many wise people declare that the antidote we must strive for is the opposite, ‘Ahavat Chinam’ - a kind of br…

They Didn’t Blink First

The images and stories coming out of Gaza these past two weeks have been awful. There’s no maneuvering around the situation that has emerged. Military victory has been all but achieved. There are no more significant military targets other than the hostages, and approaching them at this poi…

Crazy Train

Many of us will have seen the news this past week of the passing of Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of Black Sabbath and godfather of the Heavy Metal genre in pop music. Osbourne was known for his outlandish and controversial stage presence, which included an incident with a bat (I shall say no m…

Movie Star Morality

“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”

“I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.”

Like many of you, I’ve been a fan of Mandy Patinkin for a very long time. Of course, the famous q…