April 30, 2021
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A few weeks ago I was at the playground with my kiddo and my wife. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and the place was hopping. If you want to know where the party is on a weekend in Bed-Stuy, I can tell you — it’s at the playgrounds. Kids of all ages raced around […]
Continue readingApril 23, 2021
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My toddler knows how to say the word “no” now. To be completely fair, he also knows a lot of other words. Actually, this week he said his first full sentence — when my wife asked what he was doing (building a Lego tower), our little one slowly said “Ani boneh!” (I’m building!), and we […]
Continue readingApril 22, 2021
April 20, 2021
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To the Minnesota Jewish Community and Beyond: We have counted 330 days since George Floyd was killed by former police officer Derek Chauvin. Today many of us are counting the minutes and hours with enormous heaviness and unease as we anticipate a verdict in the trial that could convict Derek Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, […]
Continue readingApril 16, 2021
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Welcome to a world of disease. This week’s double Torah portion features dozens of verses detailing skin maladies — ingrown hairs, oozing pustules, discoloration, and a whole lot more. Every year, when Tazria-Metzora rolls around, anyone in the congregation who speaks Hebrew grimaces. The first quarter of 2021 has wrapped up, and we’re living in […]
Continue readingApril 15, 2021
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Maybe next year will be the time we can all get together to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut as a community, but as long as we’re all going to be together virtually, the JCC and their community partners are determined to make the best of it. Steve Mintz, the new director of programming at the Minnesota JCC, […]
Continue readingApril 9, 2021
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Shemini, or ‘eighth,’ is not a portion about Crazy Eights. It does start by telling us what should happen on the eighth day (unusual for the Bible, wherein so many things happen on the seventh day), and dives right into some more sacrifices, in case you hadn’t had enough yet. Then the book of Leviticus […]
Continue readingApril 2, 2021
April 2, 2021
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You know those ‘flashback’ episodes of TV shows, the ones that are basically all old footage loosely connected with one or two lines of text? They’ve always seemed like a lazy cop-out to me. Maybe the writers weren’t inspired that week. Maybe the network had more important things to figure out. Either way, it’s disappointing. […]
Continue readingMarch 31, 2021
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Apiece of art can evoke an array of emotions and a variety of interpretations from different people, but one thing is clear: art appeals to nearly everyone, uniting people of various cultures and religions. This common thread was the artistic force behind a current virtual exhibit called Visual Prayer. Parts of the exhibit feature the […]
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