You’ve probably seen it in a photo or been there. The Hotel de Ville in Paris. Right next to the Seine River on the right bank. You know the famous post-war photo ‘Le baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville’ by Robert Doisneau? It was up on my wall when I was in university, as it was for many Gen …
I’ve got a number of responsibilities at the Federation. Among them is reaching out to members of other vulnerable and minority communities to enhance relationships between us. In the past, I’ve spoken out to console members of the African American community after the terrible mass shoot…
Like many if not all of you, I was overcome with joy when I heard last weekend of the rescue of four Israeli hostages from captivity by Hamas and its ‘civilian’ accomplices in the Nuseirat district of Gaza. Though several dozen Israelis remain in the hands of their brutal captors, this w…
Last year at about this time, I wrote about how, if the love and respect many of us have that informs our support of our friends in the LGBTQ+ community didn’t immediately resonate, that support could also be seen through another prism, of Jewish values espoused by Rabbi Akiva explaining t…
As a member of Generation X, my brain is hardwired to generate pop culture references from the 1980’s when I grew up. In 1986, the British band Genesis released a great album titled Invisible Touch. One of the best songs on that album was Land of Confusion. One of the lyrics was “There�…
Today, the International Court of Justice will render a response to a request from the murderer-coddling representatives of South Africa to demand Israel stop its operations in Gaza. As I wrote this message yesterday, I don't know for certain how their decision will go. But I have a sense th…
A concern has been growing on my mind and the minds of a number of us for some time now. Though we at Federation have strived to bring meaningful programming and opportunities to actively engage in supporting Israel and the Jewish people, there has been a continuing diminishing of participat…
A few days ago, I was spending some time with my elder children, who were visiting from Canada. Later in the evening we sat down to watch a movie - The Old Guard - starring Charlize Theron as an immortal who becomes tired of trying to save the world from itself again and again, until she is …
And the water was for them as a wall, from their right and their left.
Exodus-Shemot 14:29
On these latter days of Pesach, tradition tells us that the Children of Israel approached the Reed Sea, pursued by the might of the Egyptian Empire. Of course, the miracle of the splitting of the sea…
Many of us head into the first days of Pesach having spent the previous couple of weeks cleaning and preparing. We are drained, exhausted.
When I was about 12, our family was in the kosher food business, and we had just opened a second location a few months before Pesach. It was always a b…
You may have noticed that sometimes my message titles have pop culture references. Today I am referencing, of course, Elvis Presley. I reference him because even though he was omnipresent while he was alive and a fixture in popular music, his influence still remains, in many ways still infor…
Those of you familiar with Bob Marley will recognize the refrain. Stand up for your rights. Don't give up the fight.
Earlier this week, I stood up with 3,000 of my neighbors in Teaneck outside of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, when a few dozen anti-Zionist agitators came to disrupt an event fo…
This week, I received a bit of “anti-fan mail” for a previous newsletter, within which I stated, as part of a longer discussion of Israel’s justified campaign in Gaza that “Israel has an obligation to do more and better to protect non combatants.” (words, I should add, that I used …
Almost 400 years ago, in 1629, one of my ancestors, Rabbi Yom Tov Lippman Heller (also known as the Tosefot Yom Tov, after his well known commentary on the Mishnah) was arrested in Vienna, where he had become the Jewish community’s Chief Rabbi in 1625.
Rabbi Yom Tov was one of the preemin…
The name, for many of us, evokes the embodiment of evil attack, unwarranted persecution, and unprovoked violence that our Torah commands us to remember and never forget. It is our anti-talisman, that which we hold up to remind ourselves that our existence has historically and in the present …
