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On May 6, 2018

Traditional/Not-traditional

“We want a Jewish wedding – but..: I hear that a lot from my wedding couples. What they mean, is they want to honor the Jewish heritage of one or both members of the couple, but they don’t want to hear words they don’t believe or be tied to specific ways of carrying out these
On April 21, 2018

My Favorite Wedding

From time to time, I’m asked, what was my favorite wedding. Sometimes I think maybe it was the one I did for my next-door-neighbor. Or maybe my first one, my sister’s, 30 years ago this month. Or a lovely outdoor wedding in Ann Arbor where the couple recited the verse from Walt Whitman, “I give
On January 31, 2018

Tu B’Shvat

Lessons from the Seven Species we eat at Tu B’Shvat. The date: The date palm is a tree that has no flowers and no smell to draw attention to it. But the fruit is delicious. The date reminds us that there are so many places in our world we might think unremarkable, so many plants
On January 4, 2018

Toxic nationalism is not new

My great-aunt and grandmother lived through the Petlurya pogroms. Their stories would give you nightmares. When I remember this, I fear for our increasingly tribalized world, and our increasingly tribalized country. Pogroms have happened here – not against Jews – and could again. We Jews have the obligation to defend our neighbors. We’ve seen this
On December 25, 2017

Chinese Food

Is Chinese food on Christmas really a Jewish tradition?? Well, of course it is, just a pretty new one, born in America in the mid-20th century when ethnic food meant Italian or Cantonese. (For some reason, all the Cantonese restaurants had neon signs outside that said “cocktails.”) Jews didn’t have anything particular to do on
On October 17, 2017

Of course I do!

If you’re not involved professionally in the Jewish world, you might have missed the current tumult over people from different religious backgrounds marrying each other. (You’ve probably heard this referred to as “intermarriage” or “mixed marriage.”) The Conservative movement, in particular, has been recently in the (Jewish) news because rabbis are speaking out about defying
On October 3, 2017

A Little History

Here’s an article by the dedicated and accomplished Clare Kinberg that tells some history of our Secular Jewish movement. The Jewish Labor Bund
On September 26, 2017

“Judaism Says”

Here is a terrific article by my colleague Adam Chalom. Long and worth reading all the way through. Read it here
On August 29, 2017

Why do we do things backwards?

It seems backwards, the way we Jews do the fall holidays.  First comes Rosh Hashana, where we look forward and make resolutions for the new year.  Then comes Yom Kippur, when we look back and evaluate the past year.   This is the opposite of how we usually make plans.  Normally, we first look at
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