Picture this. Two fathers stand with their children on their shoulders at an airport in the US. The boy on his father’s shoulders’, wearing warm jacket on his back and a kippah on his head, holds a sign saying: “Hate has no home here.” His father, a rabbi, has a sign which reads “We’ve seen…

Where am I The world shifts Shapes fade Who am I in this new tapestry of events of moments shaped by fear by love Who am I a new individual in a collective frightened by the shape of things yet to come? What am I? The world contours itself into acrobatic twists and turns of…

Sermon given at Temple Oheb Shalom on January 27, 2017    A few short weeks ago, as I sat in a conference room in Chicago, my phone began to buzz incessantly. Eventually I dug in my purse to turn it off, but found to my dismay what all of the noise was about. A swastika had…

Questions fill my head Swirling and spinning in never ending circles and cycles Cycles of history; what to be or not to be— The ultimate question What do I stand and what do I fall for? Who am I to speak truth to power to rise up, rise up, to greet this new but not…

For many years I have prided myself on my ability to write American Jewish History which breaks the “New York Jewish” model. In grad school I threw myself into exploring the impact of epidemics and natural disasters on Jewish communities in the South as well as the experiences of Southern Jewish women in the Civil…