Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

As I write this on Labor Day, I am not thinking about the usual Labor Day stuff — transitioning into the school year (although that starts earlier every year), grilling outside (although in 90-plus heat, no one seems to be doing it this year), and not heading out to my mailbox for the mail that is not there. This year on Labor Day, I am actually thinking about those who labor — the workers.

A few thoughts on workers on this...Read more...

We at Congregation Kol Ami have always committed ourselves to be a most welcoming community. For us, this has meant welcoming those who may have felt unwelcome or somehow marginalized at other shuls. As we like to say, we want to welcome anyone who is somewhere on a Jewish journey or who supports anyone on that journey.

Probably the most challenging part of my work as rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami has come when we have welcomed...Read more...

We were inundated with news and commentary this past week regarding the Trump indictment(s). I have to admit to being a bit of a legal wonk about this stuff, notwithstanding that it has been decades since I have actively practiced law or have even taken a continuing legal education course. It comes out in me regarding issues about the overarching importance of the rule of law in our country (also an issue of vital importance as the judicial...Read more...

I spent the better part of last week at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut, at the final/culminating retreat for my Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a two-year rabbinic fellowship striving to promote significant transformation of synagogue life. (And I, the rabbi, consistently test as an introvert every time I take a Myers-Briggs personality test, resulting in an approach to retreats bordering on...Read more...

For someone who can make no claim of musicianship, I have made music a pretty constant companion my entire life. I cannot recall a time when I was without music, and I can track certain times in my life to specific songs or groups that were prominent during that time.  

This has much to do with my being enamored of the radio as a form of communication. As a kid, I would get up early in our home and sit by the radio in the...Read more...