You know that thing when you pick up the leash and the dog runs to the front door, ready for his walk? That’s me when my wife asks if I want to go to Trader Joe’s. I’m not alone in this. The grocery chain has a big, almost cultish following....

Jewish organizations are in danger. Our charitable giving can help ensure they survive.ATLANTA (JTA) — My library has the popular book “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” in which Yuval Harari — a Jew, an Israeli and an acclaimed author — states...

America is a “medina shel chesed, a nation of kindness.” — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson Sunday was Flag Day. In the midst of a pandemic, economic recession, and crisis over race and policing, I am daring to call for Americans to recover a...

It’s 2020, a year we are not likely to soon forget. We’re barely halfway in, and the hits just keep coming: Australian fires, COVID-19, the killing of George Floyd, riots. We are people in emotional turmoil. The term for visual acuity is 20/20, the...

I received the email from Jewish Federation — the letter was dense and filled with ‘organization speak,’ a lot of words essentially saying nothing. The bottom line was clear: The Federation will close its educational opportunities offered for decades.I...

In the weeks following Marty Rochester’s commentary, “Foreign policy seems foreign to 2020 presidential campaign” (May 7, 2020), the worrying truth behind his observations was revealed even more clearly.The House of Representatives just passed a...

In May, the Missouri legislature passed a bill which, in the words of multiple opposed legislators, forces companies who have a major contract with the State of Missouri to sign a “loyalty oath” to the State of Israel (Senate Bill 739). A representative...

Did you notice that even before the coronavirus preoccupied us 24/7, foreign policy seemed virtually absent from any discussion among the 2020 presidential candidates? Although the coronavirus is a reminder of just how interdependent the planet is and...

In August 2018, I began a yearlong program called the High School Leadership Program at Cultural Leadership, an organization that focuses on understanding cultural differences and injustices through Jewish and African American lenses. Over the course...

I never thought half birthdays meant anything until I turned 17½ on April 1. It had meaning because this is when I am legally allowed to register to vote in Missouri. The only problem is, I don’t know if I’ll get to vote this November.Believe it...

It’s being called a social recession. A near collapse in human contact that is particularly hard on people who are most vulnerable to isolation and loneliness, which includes many older adults. The necessary steps taken to contain the coronavirus have...

I did not grow up with seders.By the time I became a Jew by choice, I was in my fifties.  I had been to a few seders, hosted by friends whose children and grandchildren turned them into raucous affairs.  I also attended one seder that was conducted...