In an unexpected turn of events, my life has become consumed with helping broken people heal, since the launching of Makom a few years ago. My original passion of making Jewish observance accessible and meaningful to non-Orthodox Jews expanded to a new area when I discovered a population that had been hurt by a skewed version of […]
Midrashic tradition tells us there are no coincidences, at least in the way the Torah tells its stories. When one verse (Numbers 20:1) says Miriam died and the next reports a lack of water – there is likely a connection between those events that goes deeper than simple chronology. The Talmud (Taanit 9a) explains that […]
I was raised by the quintessential Jewish mother. In other words, her favorite pastime was (and still is) worrying about her children (and now grandchildren). There are many things that can, God forbid, go wrong to the people you love. And I have inherited both my mother’s unrelenting love for her young and her wildly […]
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. – J.R.R. Tolkien The journey to and from Orthodox Judaism can leave people bruised. If you’re coming in, your family may reject your choices and your new adopted community may waste no […]
I recently became a fan of Billie Eilish. Full disclosure: I’m #old. So I didn’t know who she was until yesterday. From my brief online research, Eilish is a newly popular 17 year old singer who doesn’t like to smile. She came to my attention after I saw a headline about her wearing baggy clothes […]
Two-thirds of the world either doesn’t know that the Holocaust happened—or they deny that it did. The Jewish community has invested tremendous resources to spread awareness and education about the Holocaust, in order to prevent another one, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Additionally, 41% of Americans don’t know what Auschwitz is and 56% of Austrians don’t […]
