Whew. Finally got a seat at a bar as I await my flight here in Ft. Laurderdale as I begin my journey to the Teva-JNF Ambassadors’ seminar. I’ve been mulling over the next few days – what can I expect, especially in this past week of Zionist maritime adventures? This whole conference, initially meant to […]
Flotilla Thoughts…
I am troubled by the proliferation of (facebook) postings of Fox News clips from people I know consider Fox News to be something short of journalism. My friends we must ask ourselves some tough questions. Fox comes at every issue from the same point, they don’t change. We have to ask ourselves, why do we only agree with Fox when it comes to Israel? How could it be that they get everything else wrong, but get this one right. Or maybe we are not viewing Israel with the same eyes we use to see the rest of the world…
Choosing to Squeeze the Trigger
Yesterday was a difficult day. As Daniel Gordis described it: A yom kasheh – a tough day. It’s irrelevant if the decisions of the Israeli government regarding the flotilla were right or wrong. There are as many articles being published in Israel by fathers and mothers of Israeli soldiers calling the operation a debacle as […]
Don’t be fooled…
In case you have been swayed by the recent “Sholom Rubashkin” did no wrong movement… “A former underage worker cried Monday while testifying she was exposed to harsh chemicals at an Iowa slaughterhouse where she and other teens worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. Yesenia Cordero Mendoza, now 18, was one of […]
First post of the year…
Sorry its been so long, but this was bigger than just a facebook post: So now I am “non-Orthodox?” The majority of the worlds Jews are to be defined by what we are NOT? I refuse to accept that. How can we be such a weak majority? Time to rise up people, we have the […]
Learning To Read All Over Again: Part 2
# 1. Our task as Jewish educators is to prepare and motivate students to use their power, talent, and passion to build their own Jewish lives, rooted in who they are and what they consider important. When through this individualized Jewish exploration, am’cha leads themselves into their own dreams, they will contribute in new and […]
Learning To Read All Over Again
It’s that time of year again. I’m not talking about Yom HaAtzmaut, or Shavuot. I’m not even referring to end of the year progress reports, Hebrew evaluations and confirmation services. This is the time that my thoughts focus on the next few years. What will my school look like in a year or two? How […]
Can “Lost” save the Jewish world?
I’ll just put it out there: I love “Lost”. It helps complete my Tuesdays, watching how Hugo, Jack, Kate and everyone else on the Island figure out what their purpose in life is. In the last episode, “Lost” gematria became a major theme. For those of you who seek direction let me explain. In the […]
Jump starting the week
Thinking about God today. I suppose it’s appropriate – it is Shabbat. Anyway, I just received a book by Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Ineffable Name of God: Man. It’s a collection of poems that this greatest of 20th century Jewish thinkers (though Buber is up there, too), published when he was slightly older then my […]
What’s the Point?
One of the hardest things I do is try to figure out what to teach my students, whether they are supremely unmotivated 8th graders or the teaching staff at the religious school I direct or my daughters. I find myself getting caught up in what I want them to learn, what I want them to […]