(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...

Following my transfer to a new elementary school in the fourth grade, I was offered the opportunity to play a musical instrument. Music had always been a huge part of my life, whether in synagogue, which I attended each Shabbat morning with my grandfather,...

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...

(JTA) — When my wife and I were planning our wedding, we thought it might be cool to hire a klezmer band. This was during the first wave of the klezmer revival, when groups like The Klezmatics and The Klezmer Conservatory Band were rediscovering the...

This story originally appeared on My Jewish Learning. (JTA) — The Shavuot holiday that we observed last month commemorates two different kinds of harvests. Originally an agricultural festival, Shavuot marked the culmination of the wheat harvest...

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....