The festive meal and modern life
After the flurry of fall holidays, it may seem that the months between Sukkot and Passover lack opportunities for Jews to get together to eat, but this is not so. Of course there’s Chanukah, but our...
View ArticleHope is where the heart is
I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy, so it was hard for me to admit that my father, who was forgetting things and not acting like himself, wasn’t going to get better. The moment reality finally hit is...
View ArticleSpare change
I recently decided it was time to have The Talk with my son. He is nearly 6, after all, and had started to ask questions. Questions like: “Can we spend the money in our tzedakah box on Pokémon cards?”...
View ArticleKeeping the faith in wartime
In time of war — far from home, family and chicken soup — what helps a Jewish solider hold onto his identity? Looking for answers, and with Veterans Day approaching on Nov. 11, I recently went to the...
View ArticleA fabulous sports flop
My career as an athlete is undistinguished. I have no trophies, no medals, not even a ribbon to indicate one fleeting moment of greatness. That’s despite years dedicated to playing youth soccer and...
View ArticleSacred space and graven images
The first time I took my Jewish children to a Catholic church, I didn’t think to prepare them. Statues with bleeding hearts and paintings of anguished faces were so familiar from my Catholic childhood...
View ArticleDeep-seeded connections
When we think about special foods to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, apples and honey always seem to top the menu. But where among the new year’s daily specials do we place that seedy, sweet red ball of...
View ArticleSincerely sorry … seriously
Our mission at this time of year is clear — reflect and repent! But how exactly we should go about doing so is not. After all, as Elton John sings, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.” Our prayers...
View ArticleMe and Mrs. Brontosaurus
(Above) The author as a kindergartener in 1981. I still remember my first day of school — and how it went wrong from the very beginning. I was a freckle-faced 4-year-old with an Incredible Hulk lunch...
View ArticleWhat’s in a name?
Because I became a Jew as an adult, I got to (had to) choose a Hebrew name for myself. It was hard. I’d been drawn to Judaism by the way the tradition valued memory. I loved the way history was passed...
View ArticleWhen the angels are away …
Summer is almost here, and I’m geeked. Too bad Judaism doesn’t seem to share my enthusiasm. While other cultures have created major monuments to the summer solstice — think Stonehenge and Machu Picchu...
View ArticleTaking God on vacation
When you head out on the road, if you are like me, it seems that any old thing can happen. Too often when we get on a plane, a train or buckle up behind the wheel of a car, some outside force goes to...
View ArticleWonder women
I love strong Jewish women. You could say it started with one named Betty Lou Munk — I call her “Mom” — who in fact grew up Christian on a dairy farm in Paris … Ohio (Jewish population: 0). That was...
View ArticleLooking skyward, looking inward
Some 30 years ago, when Rabbi Karen Bender got her first pulpit, women congregants were eager to observe the rediscovered women’s holiday of Rosh Chodesh with her. “There was a hunger for it,” said...
View ArticleHow to Jew: Presents for Passover?
Above: The bracelet the author gave to his wife for Passover. Photo by Edmon J. Rodman What do we wear to celebrate the Exodus from Egypt? Casual, like we’ve been there, done that? Formal, like we’re...
View ArticleFrom Exodus to Israel in a month
During a recent Tot Shabbat at my synagogue, sometime between the kids “skipping, skipping, skipping” and “hopping, hopping, hopping” to the Promised Land, it hit me: This month, we mark the beginning...
View ArticleA special education
When Dina Garcia was born, she was blue and not breathing. Ten months later, her parents learned she has cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder affecting body movement and muscle coordination. That...
View ArticleHealing power
Tradition says the 150 psalms in the book Tehillim, or Praises, were written by King David and some other well-known, wise men. Scholarship says there were many poet-authors writing over several...
View ArticleFriends of a feather chavurah together
A small group of like-minded Jews: I like this Wikipedia definition of the Hebrew word chavurah, which comes from chaver, meaning friend or helper. Although the chavurah movement was a 20th-century...
View ArticleWe’ve always been a startup nation
Every day, I walk around my house thankful for Jews. I wake up and check the time on my cell phone, thanks to Martin Cooper, who led the Motorola team in creating it and placed the first call in 1973....
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