Adjusting to the new normal
I removed myself from all my high school’s alumni email lists long ago. I went to a competitive public high school in Virginia. I had little in common with many of those kids. There were only a few Jews in…
Op-Ed
Chavura celebrates 40 years
Chavura: A small group of like-minded individuals who meet regularly for prayer, Torah study, socializing or celebrating Jewish life, often serving as an extended family or an autonomous alternative to formal institutional structures. (dictai.org) We don’t have a name, and…
Empty nesting is a journey
We were new parents when we bought our house 24 years ago and settled our then-2-year-old son into his bedroom. The house seemed large and I remember wondering how the three of us would fill it. The solution came organically.…
Hamas’s intended genocides
Hamas is guilty of genocide inflicted on the Palestinians in the Gaza-Israel war following its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. It is doing so by engineering the death of Palestinians and destruction of their structures via both oppression and…
Jewish grief being dismissed
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Islamist extremist groups launched a brutal attack on Israel, massacring approximately 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, firing approximately 13,000 rockets, wounding thousands, and taking 251 people hostage into Gaza. Three years…
We need to wake up, now
When I was 7 years old, a group of boys on a Toronto playground swiped the kippa off my head and called me a kike. For decades I did not think about that afternoon. I never thought twice about my…
What it means to be chosen
Our household recently attended a Shabbat dinner hosted by the Asper Foundation. These initiatives are sponsored to boost cultural exchange, dialogue and collaboration. The events, which draw approximately 50 people, are typically hosted by a Jewish group, but the Jewish…
Finding what our limits are
Lawyers often describe how test cases work to define the boundaries in our laws. Politicians who create laws often go “back to the drawing board” when a piece of legislation is poorly written. Loopholes can still exist, so some people…
Musings … Netanyahu at UN
So, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently made his 15th address at the United Nations General Assembly. I get excited with every speech, preparing some lightly buttered popcorn and comfortably settling in front of the TV for some high-stakes geopolitical…
Need for historical context
As I write this, social media bombards me with 9/11 imagery as we mourn and memorialize what happened 25 years ago. Jews also have the High Holidays and then Oct. 7 to commemorate and mourn through Yizkor and memorials. The…
