Partner Blogs
Interfaith families bringing new realities to Jewish communal life
I’m a big fan of Julie Weiner’s blog at The Jewish Week. It’s one of those blogs that I read ...
“Don’t Forget!” Preparing Your Kids for Camp … and Beyond
I was nine years old my first summer at camp. When I came home, my mother (who had never been ...
Famous Roots: An Interview With My Babbi and Zayde
My maternal grandmother fought to escape her Lower East Side. My Babbi was born in 1932 and raised on Pitt ...
Being Truly Present
Ask anyone who knows me and he or she will tell you that I love my social media.Yes, I’m one ...
The Cell Phone Controversy
As a camper for many years, I’m a regular to knowing the most basic and common camp rules. For instance, ...
Should Jews Care About Government Monitoring Our Phone Calls?
The NSA knows who you called last Tuesday at 8:00pm—should you care?From an American civil liberties perspective, we have seen ...
My Family’s Reaction to Fame Shark
“I sound like a cheap, mean kyke,” my father raged. “I sound like an idiot, a complete non-entity,” my mother ...
My Southern Jewish Son, the US Army Sergeant/Black Hawk Helicopter Crew Chief
When we brought our baby son home from the hospital nearly 27 years ago, we imagined many things for his ...
Parashat Chukkat: Clean/Unclean
Jews read sections of the Torah each week, and these sections, known as parshiyot, inspire endless examination year after year. Each ...
Why Camp?
This is the last in a series of four blog entries called “Why Camp?” Part 4: Spirituality and Positive Jewish Experience ...
Living in Hebrew, Thinking in Aramaic, Writing in English
“Many artists are ‘underground’,” a writing instructor of mine once remarked, “but no one is more underground than writers.” To ...
You Say “Crawfish.” He Says “Crawdad.” I Say “What’s That?”
As our Monday post indicated, it’s that time of year when we have new staff starting at the ISJL. During ...
Tammuz: Remembering Our Spiritual Center
How Jewish is the Hebrew Calendar? When we use a Hebrew word to identify a period of time, we may ...
Inclusion is a Jewish Imperative
Why do you try to be so inclusive? It’s OBVIOUS that you are liberal because you care about these marginalized ...
On Writing a Novel About The Act of Writing a Novel
I’m sitting on the back porch of my temporary lodgings in Atlanta, while two spiders go at it, the smaller ...