When my older children come to visit from Canada, one of our usual running jokes is how I am now pronouncing things differently, or spelling things ‘incorrectly’, or using Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. There are many overt and some subtle - and humorous - differences between Canadian an…
As we prepare to celebrate the wonderful holiday of Sukkot, I am hopeful that those in our community looking for ways to respond to those who arrogate the right to define Zionism - Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland - as something evil or illegitimate, will read this…
Today I’m sharing a short history lesson. Wednesday marked what is a little known footnote in the Jewish calendar, the Fast of Gedaliah. Who was Gedaliah, you may ask? Well, he was installed by the Babylonian conquerors of Jerusalem after they sacked the First Temple in 586 BCE. His role…
A few days ago I read an op/ed by Abe Foxman, Director Emeritus of the Anti Defamation League. In it, he wrote that what keeps him up at night, after decades of fighting antisemitism and hate, is the vulnerability of synagogues and communal spaces in our communities.
Last weekend, scattered reports of a Ukrainian breakthrough in their 6 month long war pushing back the Russian invasion took shape as a broad and successful counteroffensive driving the invaders out of Kharkiv Oblast. As a student of military history and a news junkie for the last 30+…
