There’s an old Jewish song that says that the world is a very narrow bridge and that the important thing is not to be afraid. It’s a great song, but I disagree. Following the attacks on Jewish gathering places in Michigan, in Amsterdam, in Toronto and on Bondi Beach, fear is a perfectly reasonable reaction. […]
Anti-Jewish terror Read More »
You may feel that this is a time to lay low, to downplay your ethnic identity, to keep quiet and blend in. This is a way for an individual to survive. The Warsaw ghetto needed the blonde girls to travel through the sewers to the outside and to smuggle guns and bread back into the
Every response is needed Read More »
The night of November 9, 1938 saw the horrific pogrom known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, signaling a new phase of the oppression of the Jews in Germany that had begun in 1933. Jewish homes and stores were vandalized and over 1,400 synagogues were burned. The world had swallowed all Germany’s earlier violence
A Lesson from Kristallnacht Read More »
Do I have to … ? Short answer, no. Almost assuredly no. There is very little that you have to do for your wedding. What do you actually have to do? Get a marriage license, if you want your marriage to be legal.If either of you is Jewish, you probably also have to stomp on
My Jewish community, Tri-Valley Cultural Jews, has issued this statement: As Jews and as Americans, we decry the Trump/Musk administration’s attempts to deport a green card holder for expressing opinions opposed to the current government’s. As Americans, we support the rights of everyone to speak peaceably about controversial subjects without fear of retribution. As Jews,
unAmerican and anti-Constitutional Read More »
The New York Times had a lovely article about how some couples prefer private vows. If you have a subscription, you can read it here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/style/private-vows-weddings.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Here are a few ways my couples have chosen to say private vows: Sometimes, they want to say their vows during the ceremony, but just to each other. If
Private Wedding Vows Read More »
Here’s what I wrote for the last Jewish New Year. It works for the Gregorian New Year as well. Well, another new year is upon us. And, as I do every year, I wonder “what’s so new about it?” The world continues to turn on its axis. The sun continues to rise each day (although
What’s New About a New Year. Read More »
Sunday, September 15, 2024 is the 61st anniversary of the racist bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young girls. Three of them were fourteen years old – just my age. They’d be 75 now if they’d been allowed to live. You’d think we’d be better than this by now, but it
Shavuos/Shavuot is one of the three festivals of ingathering, some of our most ancient holidays. On these holidays – Succos/Sukkot, Pesakh and Shavuos/Shavuot, Israelites brought offerings to the Temple to support the priests. Those who had no animals, fruit or grain to bring could buy sacrificial animals at the Temple. (In the Christian Bible, the
Shavuos/Shavuot: Our Holiday of Welcome Read More »
Counting the Omer – the 50 days between Pesakh and Shavuos – never made a lick of sense to me. How much the less so the holiday called “The thirty-third day of counting the days between Pesakh and Shavuos” – L’g B’Omer. (The Hebrew letters lamed – the “L” sound – and gimmel – the
