Travel makes the world both bigger and smaller. As Orthodox Jews, we love the idea of exposing our children to new people and places, so they get a feel for life outside of their bubble, understand the expansiveness of the planet, how people live differently than they do, and get a sense of the shared […]
For many years during the Passover seder I have struggled with how to handle “the wicked son.” We are told that there are four sons: wise, wicked, simple and one who doesn’t know how to ask. Says the hagaddah: “What does the wicked son say? ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ To you and […]
Curb Your Enthusiasm just aired its series finale this week, which gives me an opportunity to discuss a question that’s been on my mind for some time: is Larry David’s representation good for the Jews? Let’s start off by stating the positive – the man is hilarious and a comedic genius. I never watched the […]
In 2012, only a few years after I started making YouTube videos on a channel called Jew in the City, before we were very known or had many markers of success, something almost miraculous happened. I found myself and my trusted director of photography, Elie Gabor, schlepping film equipment into the bowels of Congress. (Much […]
Faith in God, like loving one’s spouse – is not a static thing. It ebbs. It flows. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And it requires work and commitment to make it last. God’s presence in the world is hidden – it’s meant to be hidden, in part, so that we have free will. As […]
Last year, at a car rental company, a Muslim man from Iraq who was bringing us our car, noticed my younger son, who looks the most like me of all of our children, replete with olive skin. It was the end of January, and even so, both my son and I looked brown. The Iraqi […]
