This is a true story. Several years ago at a school awards assembly, a teacher/administrator/principal type gave an opening speech. Said educator was known for being nervous when addressing big groups. That, combined with too many notecards, produced...

Despite significant progress in fighting antisemitism over the past decades, recent years have borne witness to an alarming increase in antisemitic incidents.  Jews around the world and across the United States have been targeted by acts of violence,...

Balance needed in coverage  I respectfully take issue with your reporting (June 7) on President Biden’s plan to combat antisemitism. To meaningfully combat antisemitism, antisemitism must be defined. The “gold standard” for the definition of...

It was 2 a.m. again, and I could not get off the computer. I scrolled through real estate listings and lists of Jewish communities around the country with day schools and welcoming synagogues, trying to imagine where my family and I could go. I...

(JTA) — “Although I was born in Germany, my formative years were spent in the early, idealistic days of the cooperative Jewish settlements, in pre-Israel, Palestine,” wrote Amitai Etzioni in his 2003 memoir, “My Brother’s Keeper.” In writing...

In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach L’cha, the Israelites find themselves standing on the border of Eretz Yisrael, the land promised to their ancestors by God. After suffering for so long at the hands of the Egyptians, they will finally have a home...

Responses to recent Rochester column   In the May 24 Light, columnist Marty Rochester tries to defend the indefensible conservative media (“What to make of Tucker Carlson — and other journalists today”). In the face of all the latest lawsuits...

One of the bigger shopping challenges has always been buying gifts for Dad. Since the pandemic changed work attire forever, it also eliminated the lame but reliable fallback of a tie.   So what can you do to show Dad you care on Father’s Day?  Donate...

Gloria Steinem has been a public figure since the 1960s, but there is much to learn and admire about her personal history in “Gloria: A Life.” The play by Emily Mann is fascinating and inspiring in the current production by the New Jewish Theatre. Steinem...

This story originally appeared on My Jewish Learning. (JTA) — Over the past few weeks, a lot of sad faces were peering at their screens as two popular television shows came to an end. Two HBO staples, “Succession” and “Barry,” aired their...

(JTA) — My 95-year-old mother knows a thing or two about trauma. Not only because she is a survivor of Auschwitz but also because she is a psychologist. “What worries me,” my mother says, “is that we Jews will succumb to our past trauma rather...

(JTA) — On the way home from the hospital where I was given my diagnosis of grade 2 invasive lobular breast cancer, I directed my husband, through my tears, to stop at the kosher store. “I don’t want to see anyone right now,” I said, knowing...