The Books My Grandparents Kept
Some of you may know that I’m a descendent of Holocaust survivors… and not just one grandparent — four of my 6 grandparents were/are survivors. *Are because my [step]-Nana survived […]
January 27, 2025
January 24, 2025
Fulfilling A Higher Calling
“Please take off your badge as you leave,” the security officer mumbled to me under his breath. After attending the 2025 International Lion of Judah Conference in downtown Atlanta, I […]
January 10, 2025
When Do I Say Kaddish?
Some years ago one of my elderly relatives remarried. Her new husband Shimon, was a Holocaust survivor whose relatives had been deported from France and murdered in Auschwitz, but he […]
November 18, 2024
Just In Case
My wife and her family taught me how to encounter death. Before I met them, I had experienced predictable loss, like grandparents who died after living full lives. No one […]
October 24, 2024
A Time To Kill & A Time To Heal: Kohelet’s Wisdom In Times Of War
To most of the world, the date is the October 7. To me it will always be Simchat Torah. The memory of the juxtaposition of the joyful singing and dancing […]
October 7, 2024
Time Has Stood Still
Today is October 7, 2023. It has been October 7, 2023 for 365 days for many of us. Time has stood still. First we learned about the atrocities inflicted upon […]
October 7, 2024
One Year Later
YAFO, Israel – A visitor (of which there are very few these days) might comment on how relatively normal life looks in Israel, even after a year of war. The […]
October 1, 2024
Taking a Risk for a Sweet Year
The thing about honey is, it isn’t simple like sugar. Cultivating sugar cane requires a great deal of effort, tending to the fields in blazing heat, processing and extracting the […]
September 4, 2024
Why Do We Say This Special Psalm In Elul?
When we returned to my mother’s flat after she died, her siddur was lying on the table where she always sat when she davened in the morning. The bookmark was […]
August 16, 2024
Life is for the Living
One afternoon when I was in my early twenties, I was sitting with my dad by his and my mom’s townhome pool in Scottsdale, Arizona, lamenting over the fact that […]