Yesterday, I had an opportunity to speak with emerging leaders from many non profit organizations around Rockland. As I spoke about how the Jewish community is dealing with the shock and distress of October 7th, I asked how many of them had reached out to a Jewish friend in the aftermath, ju…
As our plane approached the coast of Israel, we turned north, and unlike the many times I have landed in Israel, we approached the airport from due north, descending rapidly, maneuvering to present the smallest and quickest profile to avoid incoming rockets from Gaza. Even before we landed, …
Are your kids or grandkids reporting hate, harassment, and violent rallies on their campuses? Justifications for Hamas’ butchery, murder, rape and torture? Don’t be shocked. Academics have been trafficking in these tropes for decades on American and European campuses. Franz Fanon advocat…
The world, our Jewish world, has changed. We are engulfed in tragedy and in anxiety. We are looking around, and we don't see as many friends as we had thought and hoped to have. Our students run gauntlets of pro terror groups at universities, and the presidents of the most prestigious of the…
This week, we stared into the abyss. And it stared back at us.
I’ve tried to articulate my thoughts several times, in social media posts, speeches, conversations. I can’t say I feel I have entirely succeeded.
I’ll start with my own ‘conceptzia’, that clearly was misguided. Severa…
This week should have been a time to continue to focus on the celebration of holidays and the highlights of our New Year, including Simchat Torah, the Festival we look forward to as we begin the cycle of Torah reading anew. I’d have written about renewal, tradition, different ways of celeb…
Many of us will be sitting in a Sukkah over the next week, eating our meals, enjoying time with family and friends, celebrating a festive time in the Jewish year. There are so many customs associated with the holiday. Some continue to use honey with their challah, while others return to usin…
Ever since I was a boy, the experience of Rosh Hashanah has had both physical and spiritual hallmarks. Everyone eats challah and apples dipped in honey, but every year I also always had my mom’s refined onion soup, and helped her make roast duck for the extended family (If I can dig it up,…
I’ve always loved to write. While some see it and foster it as an outlet for creativity and spirituality, I also see it in two other, very important ways. First, writing is a call to and an instrument of action. If you want to motivate others, to educate or enlighten others, or to express …
Several years ago, I was reading a very interesting book looking at archaeology and bible studies called ‘Return to Sodom and Gomorrah’ by Charles Pellegrino. (I later introduced Pellegrino’s work to a filmmaker friend and the result was a large part of a film executive produced by Jam…
Everywhere you look these days it seems that you see division, fractiousness, and conflict. War in Europe. Political brawls in the US. Tensions in places around the world that have been peaceful until recent years. Extremists of all kinds intimidating vulnerable communities. And we are all a…
I recently listened to a podcast in which author Colin Campbell was talking about his new book on grief, ‘Finding The Words’. It was a very moving conversation, as the author talked about the experience of losing both of his teenage children in a car accident. Campbell made a critically …
A couple of nights ago I was sitting, as is customary for many, on the floor at my synagogue, as we listened to the reading of Eicha, the book of Lamentations. It was the eve of Tisha B’Av, the fast day yesterday when we commemorated the destruction of our temples and the loss of our sover…
When I was a teenager back in the 1980’s, there was a man who began attending my synagogue with his young family. He was Israeli and he was doing a Doctorate at one of the great universities in Toronto (which I later attended). He was taking a break from professional army service as a seni…
This week, one of Rockland’s best known and much loved Jewish camps, Ramah Day Camp - Nyack, held its Zimriyah, its camp camp wide celebration of song. At this time of the summer, some camps across Jewish denominations are looking to build something very special among their campers.
…
