Last Shabbat, when the news spread that Joe Biden had won, I breathed a sigh of relief. Along with my family and millions in the U.S. and the world over I felt that a massive burden had been lifted from our shoulders and that we could, therefore, breathe freely again. Then it struck me that…
The moment is seared in my memory: It’s 1990, and I’m carpooling to the University of Connecticut Storrs campus with my new best friend Adrienne, whose mother is Jewish and from Oslo, Norway, where I grew up. We are sitting at a light on Albany Avenue in Hartford, Conn., and I use the word schvartzes…
Two years ago, I visited the National Memorial to Truth & Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, had just opened the site two weeks before. As I watched other visitors walk around the large blocks, inscribed with the names of Black citizens lynched by white people, I was…
For as long as I can remember, being Jewish has been my primary identity. Once I came out in my early 40s, I embraced being gay as my second primary identity. I am proud to be both. Yet, why am I reluctant about being white? Growing up I never thought about this. You could count…
Over the past 48 hours, my social media outlets have blown up over recent anti-Semitic comments made by an Eagles footballer, DeSean Jackson. I have seen many of my white Jewish colleagues, students, friends and public leaders come out publicly denouncing and calling out the anti-Semitic comments. I am not here to defend the anti-Semitic…
Hillel and Shamai, the exemplars of rabbinic and Jewish pluralism, have a dark secret that is seldom found on the many source sheets featuring these archetypal rivals. While most teachers focus on the many stories highlighting the high level of respect and civility between these two men and their respective study houses, we can find…
Three monuments—the statue of Saint Louis in Missouri, the Judah P. Benjamin monument in North Carolina, and buildings named for Woodrow Wilson at Princeton—allow us to understand how Jews should think about their place within the American racial order and how antiracists should think about Jews within the struggle to disrupt the legacies of racism….
Why would anyone Zoom-bomb my online meditation class with racist slurs, genitalia references and anti-Semitic links? I had been looking forward to teaching Mindfulness Meditation for Changing Times for Silver Spring Town Center, my first foray into teaching online. After covering the mechanics of how to meditate, I led a visualization to relax the body…
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