As a 16-year-old in St. Louis, I began attending a small Reform synagogue in my neighborhood. I went alone, every Friday night, for two years. I wasn’t Jewish — I wasn’t much of anything at that time — but I felt a pull, a connection with Judaism....

(JTA) — Rabbi Arthur Green gave the commencement address last week at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative flagship where he was ordained 56 years earlier. His talk was mostly a response to political turmoil in Israel, but he also urged...

Story about helping Ukrainian family warms the heart  In this frightening world with so many upsetting issues in the news, it was heartwarming for me to read about Lynn Wittels and her generosity in helping the Ukrainian family whose son, Nikita, needed...

I love television so much that it inspired my home office décor, as you can see from this photo. Television can simultaneously be a huge waste of time, a way to stay informed, and educational, depending on what you’re watching.  Which category do...

Recently, a friend posted a video of a popular motivational speaker discussing why some children struggle to make friends. He concluded that it was a parent’s job to “maximize the social attractiveness of your children — because they need friends...

“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”  — Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan As you have probably heard, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson is off the air. In my judgment, Carlson and his former colleagues...

Exactly 23 years ago on Mother’s Day, I marched in the Million Mom March alongside numerous Jewish organizations in Washington, D.C. after my first-grade daughter went on national television talking about her fear of guns in her school.  Nothing...

You’ve seen the photograph.  Three Israeli paratroopers, their eyes glistening with tears, gaze up at the ancient stones of the Western Wall in awe and wonder.  Jerusalem is ours! On June 5, 1967, with enemy tanks massed on Israel’s borders and...

I signed up months ago to write this week’s d’var Torah. I remember thinking what a fun parasha this would be to share with you all. I love the discussion of the jubilee year and of the gifts made to the sanctuary, and of the idealism that closes...

Troubling history  The online article published April 3 about Holocaust rescuer Varian Fry (“New Netflix show ‘Transatlantic’ chronicles an effort to save artists and thinkers from Nazis,” by PJ Grisar of the Forward, reprinted with permission...

A recent New York Times feature about a troubled World War II veteran has inadvertently shed fresh light on the Roosevelt administration’s refusal to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz. The story also implicitly undermines one of the major themes...

Isn’t it interesting how buzz words become popular? Somehow someone somewhere coins a catch phrase, blabs it to everyone who owns ears, and then it gets repeated over and over until it becomes part of regular conversation. Often people use these...