I have every right to hate Jewish men, Jewish faith, Jewish Rabbis and Jewish laws.   In fact, every single Jew has that right. Because we were born with something called Bechira (choice). Everyone has the freedom to make choices to live their life with good and evil and shades of both.  Yet, I have a […]

While this year of the world battling Covid-19 has kept many people in their homes, some people have questioned where they want their home to be. On Yom Ha’Atzmaut, we celebrate aliyah stories, and this year, the challenges posed by the pandemic made making the leap to a life in Israel all-the-more impressive. These families […]

My conversion story started out like many others. Non-Jewish starts dating Jewish boy. While the Jewish boy wants to date the non-Jewish girl, he can’t imagine marrying a non-Jew. Non-Jewish girl is hurt, stunned, and doesn’t know what to do. She’s a secular atheist with English and German blood who loves bacon, after all. She […]

Over the past few months, Covid-19 has shut down synagogues, forced minyans to move outdoors and kept many people home alone for the holidays. But for Robyn and Gregg Stern, Covid did something quite unexpected. It was the impetus for them to commit to being shomer Shabbos. “My wife and I had an ‘a-ha’ moment,” […]

I grew up in an authoritarian home in which self-expression in any form was restricted: socially, academically, psychologically, mentally and financially. Not surprisingly, I was taught to be as stringent as humanly possible when it came to being religious. And so I was as “frum” as physically and mentally possible as I made my way […]

Someone once asked how my skullcap stays put on my head. I jokingly replied, “Peer pressure.” Wearing a yarmulke, otherwise known as a skullcap or kippah, 24/7 is something I said I would never do. At a certain point, I had no interest in being identified as a Jew everywhere I went. While I was […]