In the early 1980s, when the AIDS crisis had already begun to cut its wide swath of devastation in the United States, the epidemic was just emerging in Canada. After my dearest high school friend died with AIDS in 1983, I vowed to do something to honour his memory. A few years later, while living […]
In January 2013, a group of American rabbis, including the president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, met with Vice President Joe Biden as members of the national Lifeline to Healing Campaign organized by PICO – People Improving Communities through Organizing. Fast forward to this moment, these weeks of the summer of 2016. Images and stories […]
The devar torah and discussion took place on the Shabbat during Sukkot, the Festival of Booths. I was a rabbinical student, and my primary “davening” community was at Minyan Dorshei Derekh, one of three such prayer groups that meet at Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia. Along with the Jewish Renewal congregation that met nearby, the […]
Last month, many of us attended or hosted Passover seders that featured a song towards the end that sounds suspiciously like one of those summer camp memory games, with a numbers twist, like: “When I went on my camping trip, I brought three lamps, two sleeping bags, and one tent….. etc.”. with each successive person […]
Limnot yameinu. Let us know how to assess our days. It’s a good one to bring to mind at this time of year, even though it is not a passage particularly tied to the sefira/omer period, the time of counting the 7-times-7-plus-one days from Passover to Shavuot. I am drawn to this psalm, and its message, for […]
For the ten years I lived in Philadelphia, I was blessed with a wonderful next-door neighbour. Carolyn embodied generosity, openness, and caring – qualities one truly appreciates with the person with whom one shares a patio, and who could say gesundhayt through her open door to a spring sneeze from our kitchen! It was a particular delight […]
Last month, I wrote about the deep meaning I find in working with a candidate for conversion, and the questions it raises for those of us born into this tradition/tribe/religion. (See: How Do You Jew?). Apart from those of us whose professional lives are demarcated by the time we devote Jewish learning and teaching, when and […]
I am sometimes asked: “How did you become a woman rabbi?” On occasion, I can have fun with the interlocutor, and make jokes about discovering, at that moment – with shock, shock! – that I’m a woman! Next weekend, I get to be a human “book” with the joint CBC/OPL Human Library project. Folks who participate will […]
Among all of the deeply rewarding elements of the pulpit rabbinate, none has been as meaning-filled, for me personally and on a broader communal level, as guiding the study and rituals of those who choose Judaism and the Jewish people as their own. Each of the individuals who have invited me to join them — […]
Early this month, a New York City-based philanthropy called The Covenant Foundation announced the recipients of a total of $1.6 million in grants. What does this have to do with us? From their mission statement: “The Covenant Foundation recognizes the diversity of strengths within the field of Jewish education in North America, across all denominations […]
