Dear Reader, Today is Dec. 7th, the date President Franklin Roosevelt told us "will live in infamy" referring to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that killed 2,403 Americans. Since 2008, I've celebrated the life and the story of one Marty...

A year ago, we spent New Year's Eve together and with a few others. Before the clock struck Midnight, we decided as a group not to share our resolutions since we often break the vows, setting ourselves up for failure. We adhere to the atavistic adage:...

“Alexander the Great had a soldier in his army who bore his own name but was a great coward. The emperor, enraged at the soldier’s conduct, justly said to him, ‘Either change your name, or learn to live up to it.’ ” (From “A Complete Treasury...

Grief.  A concept one can’t fully know until it snakes around and pierces your heart like a rabid animal. I thought I was prepared for the inevitability of grief as I cared for my husband, Burt, with frontal temporal dementia (FTD) these past several...

“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will never harm you.” How many of us have heard this adage during our formative years? Usually it was the response to a complaint that so-and-so called us a (pejorative) name. It meant that as long...

Dear Reader, In the late 1970s, Spoede School let out at exactly 3:30 p.m. We would line up in the back and board our school buses for the ride home. I was on Bus #3, and Mr. Matt was our bus driver. Matt knew that he had exactly 30 minutes to get...

This week’s Torah Portion, Chayei Sarah, introduces us to Isaac and Rebecca’s love story. I have always been interested in Isaac and Rebecca’s relationship, and a few years ago, I used the medium of midrash to dive more deeply into their story....