Recent Opinions

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and for me, this is not an abstract idea or a passing calendar moment. It is core to my rabbinate and to how I understand sacred community.

After a deadly hate crime shooting in 2014 at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, our community was devastated. From this act of pure hatred, a silver lining emerged.

Mental illness does not discriminate. It touches every family, every community and every corner of our lives — often quietly, and too often alone.

After a deadly hate crime shooting in 2014 at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, our community was devastated. From this act of pure hatred, a silver lining emerged.

Before the Enlightenment and modernity (circa 1800), Jews never had equal political rights anywhere. We were physically persecuted at the will of the government.

Jewish people are told that in every generation, we must see ourselves as if we personally left Egypt. If Jewish journalists saw themselves in the midst of the Exodus story, what angle about the story should they report on? The Chronicle asked community rabbis, and the following had some advice:

At the Seder, we all sing “Dayenu” and list what would’ve been enough for G-d to do, then revel in the fact that He did more.

The following is an abridged Passover sermon.

I have always been fascinated by museums, by the quiet decisions behind them.

With the exception of the Chumash (the Five Book of Moses with haftarah and often commentary), the Haggadah is likely the most opened book in the pantheon of Jewish literature.