Category Archives: Uncategorized
Stumbling Block
We started this week by observing Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day. As I pointed out at our community service on Sunday, the word “genocide” has been in the news quite a bit recently. Now, it’s never a good thing when genocide … Continue reading
Safe on Campus?
When I arrived on the campus of the University of Michigan in the Fall of 1987, there was already an anti-apartheid shanty on the Diag (the central pedestrian walkway and hangout space of the campus pictured below). It eventually came down … Continue reading
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Tagged antisemitism, campus, college, Gaza, Israel, politics, university
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Let My People Go
I remember very clearly adding a reading called “The Matzah of Hope” to our Passover Seders when I was growing up. It spoke of the 3 million Soviet Jews who could not celebrate Passover. It gave special significance to the words “Let … Continue reading
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Tagged hostages, Israel, Judaism, passover, pesach, religion
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Healing
Just a couple of months ago, I sent out emails to our fourth grade families with the date of their child’s B Mitzvah in three years. Inevitably, I get the same question from at least one of the families with a … Continue reading
You Are What You Wear
I’m old enough to remember having to dress up to travel by airplane. I have a very specific memory of a tan leisure suit that my parents made me wear to fly to Florida. Given all the videos of people putting their … Continue reading
A Little Piece of Israel
Every Friday morning, our ELC students march into our Sanctuary singing a song about the Torah. They march up on to the bimah and say “Shabbat Shalom” to the Torah scrolls in the Ark. Some of them notice the Lamp about the Ark – … Continue reading
An Upside Down World
It is astounding to me – but not the least bit surprising – that Israel is forced to appear at the International Court of Justice to respond to South Africa’s accusation of genocide. Basher Assad has killed over 500,000 people in … Continue reading
One Little Jug
If you go back to the Book of Maccabees and read their version of story of Hanukkah, there is no mention of a single jug of oil lasting for eight days. Even though it’s become the central part of the story … Continue reading
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Home
In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob has to get home. He can’t spend any more time with Lavan in Haran, where he was treated poorly. Lavan was constantly changing the terms of his employment and trying to cheat him out of his … Continue reading
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Not Alone
Every Jewish person has had the experience. You look around the room and you realize that you are the only Jewish person there. Maybe it was at school. Maybe it was at work. Maybe it was at some kind of social event. But, there you … Continue reading
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shalom RAF 