The Holiness of Separation
As a kid, Shabbat meant brisket. I loved that. Every once in a while, my mother would get inspired and feel the need to… cook? No, she always cooked in those days. It wasn't until many years later that dinner was more likely to be ordered than made.
"Men Can Be Rabbis?!"
“Who’s that guy?” I asked my mom.
“He’s the rabbi,” she answered. I stared up at my mom, with a blank gaze on my face.
When I was eight years old, my family joined a synagogue for the first time.
Are We Right to Blend Hanukkah and Thanksgiving This Year?
As you’ve undoubtedly heard, the Jewish calendar and the secular calendar offer a strange convergence in the United States this year as Hanukkah and Thanksgiving coincide. The Jewish media has been full of humorous articles about combined menus (like this one from Jewish cooking expert Tina Wasserman) featuring foods like latkes with cranberry sauce, and the term “Thanksgivukkah” has been coined to describe the merged holiday.
How to Engage Your Members Beyond the Synagogue's Walls
Learn how one congregation with geographically dispersed members maximized its reach in a world with increasing competition for people’s time and energy.
Hard of Hearing, but not of Living Jewishly
Hanukkah Confessions of an Interfaith Kid
I’m pretty sure my family coined the term Christmukkah. We were interfaith hipsters, once we realized that the alternative, Festivus, wasn’t really for the restofus.
Musical Settings: Adon Olam
In Toledo, Asleep in the Room of the Moneylenders
We took advantage of our empty nest status to take a week-long trip to Spain this month, the first time in almost 20 years that we could travel at a time when schools weren’t on vacation.