Opinion

All was well on the second floor of the synagogue in my early childhood. My father, praying in the men’s section, was comfortable with Orthodoxy. My mother was one of those spouses who went to...

Can it be a coincidence that as Rosh Hashanah approaches, President Joe Biden convened a Washington summit to examine the effects of hate-fueled violence on American democracy? Can it be simply by chance that less...

Rosh Hashanah begins this Sunday night, and Yom Kippur starts the evening of Oct. 4. You don’t have be an observant Jew to feel the shift. As humans, we are sensitive to all changes in...

A few months ago, some members of our community’s leadership and staff went on a mini-retreat to begin to plan the new year of 5783. Like everyone else, we didn’t know what was going to...

T’shuvah, repentance/return/restitution, is our focus during Elul and our High Holy Day observances. Toch’chah, sincere and productive rebuke, is its catalyst. Toch’chah might come from ourselves; it might come from our community; or it might...

Since Ahavat Olam means an Eternal Love, or an Unconditional Love, in my first column as rabbi of Congregation Ahavat Olam, I’d like to welcome all of us to the Jewish New Year of 5783...

At this season of the Days of Awe, we pray for a good year. What chutzpah! What audacity. Prayers are not meant to be shopping lists for God. Most of us have so much to...

This summer, I have been going back and forth to Philadelphia to help my parents with their big move to Crown Heights. I am inspired by their courageous choice to begin anew in their senior...

As one of the signature prayers of the High Holy Day season, we come before God declaring: “Avinu Malenu, “Our Father our King – aseh imanu tzedakah vachesed, relate to us with justice and lovingkindness...

David was 11 years old and was preparing for his bar mitzvah. His father came home one day, all white in the face. He told his family his job had been eliminated by his boss....