Blog

It is time to revisit a math lesson from long ago. Let’s take the number -5. If we add the number -3 to it, will the answer be -2, -8, or none of the above? The correct answer would be -8. When you add a negative number to another negative number that number increases. The only way to eliminate a negative number is to add to it a positive number. So too with the H word, as the continued rise...Read more...

How many of you know that this month is designated “Jewish American Heritage Month”? I did a bit of research, and learned that in May of 2004, the 350th anniversary of American Jewish history was celebrated, organized by the Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History. In 2006, President George Bush proclaimed May as “Jewish American Heritage Month”, and this has...Read more...

A deluge measured in feet. Nickel-sized hail. 82 degrees. Flights delayed for hours, if not days.  35 degrees. Possible snow. What an adventure it was. I took a 48-jaunt to Florida to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. Little did I know that this would include what some are calling the storm of the millennium. Just my luck, right? The airport had been closed because of, if I read it...Read more...

There is something powerful about the experience of the Passover Seder that transcends generations. Food, family, and ancient texts create generations of memories that carry across the ages. So many of us devote a great deal of time to the meal, even though that is only one step of fourteen that comprise the Seder. There is much more that we can do to enhance the other thirteen steps to elevate...Read more...

Last week I was privileged to attend the Jewish Educators Assembly conference, and I am grateful to my congregation for the opportunity to engage in professional development. The theme of Tradition, Transition and Change reminded me of the seminal work “Tradition and Change” written by Rabbi Mordechai Waxman in 1958. It spoke of the essential foundations of the Conservative movement and...Read more...