It was the first day of preschool and 2-year-old Jessica didn\’t know any of other children in her new class at B\’nai Tikvah Congregation Nursery School. But the child\’s anxiety paled in comparison that of her mother.
On Yom Kippur, as his congregants at B\’nai David Judea were fasting and praying for the year ahead, Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky asked them to think not about themselves, but about people being killed in Darfur, Sudan.
\”I asked people to make a contribution to one of the relief organizations in the amount of what they would have eaten themselves were in not Yom Kippur,\” Kanefsky said. \”Sudan is calling to us for immediate attention.\”
Jews-by-choice are one of our community\’s greatest gifts. They represent an ever-growing population that continues to invigorate and enrich the Jewish people.
It\’s nice to honor Righteous Gentiles when they\’re dead. It\’s even nicer to acknowledge them while they\’re still alive.
Lately it seems as if everyone I know is interested in me getting married. In fact, the person pressuring me the least is my girlfriend, Carrie.
The last time my name appeared in The Jewish Journal, I had just been dubbed the \”Milken Idol\” for winning a public-speaking contest with what The Journal termed a \”stirring pro-Israel speech\” that called for \”Zionist solidarity.\”
With a couple of weeks left before we choose our next president, I\’ve been reflecting on how the process has affected me, both as a Jew and as an American.
I am the Shiva Guy. When a member of my temple\’s congregation loses a family member, it is my job to take prayer books to the
house of mourning, where at least 10 people of bar/bat mitzvah age or above pray twice daily. And eat — mostly bagels, lox and cream cheese and fruit, but those particular menu items aren\’t mandatory.
Confession: It\’s not Virginia Woolf I\’m afraid of — it\’s Cynthia Ozick. Even though she blurbed my last book (disclosure, disclosure) and once recommended me for a fellowship I didn\’t get (thanks for the memories, Mr. Guggenheim), still I\’m afraid of her. She reminds me of Virginia Woolf, is why.
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