It was weird, frankly, waking up on Sunday to a still, beautiful morning. The downtown L.A. streets that were inflamed by protests and riot police the night before were clamped shut by waves of uniformed National Guards. Cops and clean up crews made their way through the debris at Beverly Blvd. and Fairfax Ave., where…
Boots on the ground the last few hours, and the scene is more devastating and horrific than you can imagine from the photos. Today I walked for miles offering help, cleaning and bandaging cuts, handing out gloves, masks, water. Offering support to the first responders, firefighters still out there fighting flames with no sleep and…
George Floyd was murdered under the knees of a police officer, along with three accomplices. In many faith traditions, knees are used to bend in reverence to holiness. Reverend Ted Tollefson inspired my sisters and me to write this piece from the Jewish perspective as we head into the festival of Shavuot. Aleinu. It is…
On Monday night, Minneapolis witnessed a lynching. A white police officer murdered George Floyd, and the video left no doubt of what had happened. It’s not the first time this had happened here, but something about this murder seems to be moving through the city in a different way. Maybe it’s because of a pandemic…
Mere hours after President Donald Trump called on governors to open places of worship, calling the institutions “essential,” one Los Angeles congregation pounced on the opportunity. In defiance of a California state ban on religious gatherings due to the potential spread of coronavirus, it opened for Friday night services. Members of Congregation Etz Chaim, an…
For Jay Sanderson, it got personal. Last month, the COVID-19 virus claimed his mentally disabled twin brother, Jeffrey, who was living in a group home outside Boston. When it was clear Jeffrey wouldn’t survive the infection, doctors told Jay that his brother had about 24 hours to live. He lasted another four days and died…
A few years ago, Sarah Blitzstein and a few close friends mapped out an unconventional 5K route. Instead of passing through local parks or looping around prominent Los Angeles landmarks, they chose branches of an institution that had been central to their friendship dating back to their youth: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. “It…
Tom would prefer to say he “lived outside” for seven months. He likes the sound of it better than “homeless.” Semantics aside, the reality is that this accomplished scientist with a PhD in toxicology from MIT, a $400,000 income, and a condo in one of Boston’s priciest neighborhoods ended up living by himself in the…
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