Partner Blogs
Creativity & Innovation: The 1 Billion Pipe Cleaner Conundrum
A 53 foot truck veers off the side of a road and gets stuck in a ditch. The truck was ...
A Parenting Mantra: “This, Too, Shall Pass”
Each time my wife and I think we have moved past one parenting issue, a new one arises. Our son starts ...
Something Special About the South: Making Mississippi My Own
Here’s another in our periodic series about making a home in Mississippi, and feeling that there’s something special about the ...
Of Man’s First Disobedience
In loving memory of my mother, Judith Kaufman Hurwich a”hלֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמוֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה. פרקי אבות ...
Why the Haters Hate On Gabby Douglas
It feels almost cliché to say that I have loved watching Women’s Gymnastics during these 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio ...
OAD: On Another Derech
I recently heard Rabbi Joseph Telushkin speak about the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe believed that words mattered so much that ...
Reasonable Risks
Reasonable risk seems like an oxymoron. I checked a list of examples to see if it appeared, beside “open secret” ...
This I Believe… About Belief
In college I was tasked with writing a “This I Believe” essay about my guiding beliefs and values. This assignment wasn’t ...
The Gender of Our Clergy Need Not Dictate Where Women Breastfeed
In her JOFA post, “I Wasn’t Asking for Your Opinion,” Rabbanit Sharona Halickman rightfully criticizes the Orthodox Union for “only now ...
Tisha B’Av: Transforming Victimhood, Accessing Our Most Powerful Selves
The great challenge is learning how to honor the past while being able to create a future based on fresh ...
Plans for a Successful Inclusive Southern School Year
Each year all of the religious schools that make up our ISJL education network gather in Jackson, MS for our ...
Tu B’Av and Saying YES to love
Dear Rabbi,I’m getting married! And I’m wondering if you’ll officiate. The wedding will be before sunset on Saturday and, well, ...
Snapchat’s Top Rabbi
When the list of the top ten Jews you should follow on social media platform Snapchat came out this week ...
Judaism After Orthodoxy: Insights into the “OTD” Movement
Many of us have read some of the recent memoirs written by people who have left their Orthodox community of ...
Arrived: First of Our Long Awaited Refugee Families!
Or Shalom, Vancouver’s East-Side Shul, the synagogue I serve as spiritual leader, is a community of 200 households that has ...