Greetings from an American Jew in 2025.

There’s an unwritten promise about the life of an immigrant or refugee that the problems we face in America will never be as bad as the ones we had back home. But what if those problems only worsen? 

At the heart of “wintering” is an ebb and flow; a dim light of hopeful recognition that it won’t always be this hard or this bad.

One of the biggest reasons why I wish Kobe had lived, besides the fact that he was a son, a husband and a father, is because the man had a growth mindset unlike any other.

As a community, we need to make some small changes in our attitudes and our speech regarding winter break, which is currently underway for thousands of Jewish families.

Here are several factors to have in mind when we aim to help or pray for the victims of one of the worst calamities our city has ever known: 

That’s the thing about fire. It consumes everything in its path. And that includes hate, political divisions and artificial city limit lines separating Angelenos.