Ten years ago, I lost my 16-year-old son Jesse, to suicide and I wrote an article for the Boulder Jewish News, about the loss, the community response, and some things people could do to support suicide prevention efforts. At the time, I didn’t really care whether suicide was a “Jewish …
Read More »Prince Philip and My Dad
It is hard to believe that we are approaching the fifth anniversary of my father Alan’s death, and I believe that in some way his soul is still sailing.
Read More »Column: Arab Refugee Aid Could Endanger Israelis
Certainly the refugees should be helped, but it is bothersome that the Arab nations have done little or nothing for them.
Read More »Pandemic Puts Nonprofits in Peril: What Donors Can Do
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a crushing impact on the nonprofit sector that employs about 14% of the U.S. workforce, nearly half of which works for nonprofit hospitals and universities. The remaining half, working mostly for smaller and under- or un-endowed entities, has been severely impacted.
Read More »Column: Mississippi Senator Is False Witness To Sabbath Sojourn For Voters
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, scores zero for two so far on the facts. She falsely claims that Sunday is the Sabbath besides Saturday and, far more importantly, that our civil rights revolve around religious beliefs.
Read More »Pesach and Yom HaShoah Call Us To Take Action on Behalf of the Uyghur People
Nissan is a month of remembrance and observance. On this Wednesday evening, we sit together in sadness and grief as we collectively observe Yom HaZikaron laShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to recall the genocide of our six million brethren.
Read More »Column: Tragedy Could Have Been Prevented – With Slight Change In Federal Law
Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa lost control. That happened In November 2017 during his senior year at Arvada West High School. On March 22, he would once again lose control, this time in a Boulder supermarket. As Sunday’s New York Times recounts the first incident, “Several (friends) said he had a …
Read More »A Muslim King Sooper-Man. No, Not That One.
And no, I am not complaining about this one. On the contrary, I hold him in the highest esteem. His name is Abdul, and he works at the 30th street King Soopers grocery.
Read More »We Are Not Alone – Covid Pesach And Quantum Entanglement
What would you say is the highlight of the Passover Seder? The food, the Hagadah, the Seder plate? Let me share mine: I feel it is the moment the middle matzah is broken in two.
Read More »Column: After Pittsburgh and Atlanta, Senate Rules Still Threaten Gun-Control Bills
It is a relief to learn that the nearly 10 million Americans who live in Arizona, Montana and West Virginia feel safe from gun violence. Three Democratic senators from these states will not take all necessary steps to pass two gun-control bills that the House of Representatives approved last Thursday.
Read More »Column: With New COVID Critique, How Would Palestinian Leaders Govern Their Own State?
The Palestinian Authority, which administers limited public services in Israel’s territories, is now accused by its own people of distributing Covid-19 vaccines to the privileged at the expense of needy Palestinians. Such an allegation should make one wonder how the Palestinians will govern their own independent state.
Read More »Column: Uplifting Response To A Dreadful Anti-Semitic Slur
Lowell, Mass., did it right confronting anti-Semitism. Not so right when Manhattan dealt with distortions on Israel.
Read More »Potbellied Pig Rescue and Hate Groups: Charities Aiding the “Public Good?”
The charity “deal” in the U.S. goes something like this: Nonprofit organizations are established and approved because they perform a service that is thought to be good for society, often relieving government from performing those same functions.
Read More »Column: Murder at Capitol Hill?
Four decades ago, when she was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Dianne Feinstein stumbled onto a crime scene down the hall from her City Hall office. Could a similar event happen today in Washington, DC?
Read More »Column: A “More Pro-Israel President” Could Never Be Impeached
You know something is wrong with the impeachment rule when Israel and Nazi show trials are injected into the debate.
Read More »Column: Arab Villages Not “Burning Down” As House Dems May Be Burning Bridges
Didn’t you know? “They can’t be burning down Palestinian villages.” Rep. Ro Khanna did not know it either, but he uttered those words anyway in an interview last Friday with MSNBC.
Read More »Predictions on Charity and Giving for 2021
We’re living (and dying) in a “quadfecta” of 1) A raging, unprecedented pandemic, 2) Economic inequality and hardship at the highest levels in memory, 3) Racial injustice permeating almost every aspect of American life and 4) Climate change eating away at our planet, and the lives it sustains.
Read More »Column: Anti-Semitism Watch: A Pox on Both Parties
U.S. Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rashida Tlaib – each crazy in their own ways – deserve each other. None of us deserve this pair turning Capitol Hill into a psych ward. Nor do we deserve the thoughtless and senseless response of both Democrats and Republicans.
Read More »Column: Ossoff and Schumer Launch Us Into New Era
Three senators, two of them Jewish, can be credited with launching America into a new political era.
Read More »Column: The Capitol Raid: Shattering a Jewish Refuge
When Rabbi Jordan Hersh’s grandfather, Joseph Goldstein, lived in Poland, thugs there picked Easter to beat up Jews. Our own fellow citizens chose the day for the presidential election certification to rampage our Capitol and beat up Capitol police and anyone else who got in their way.
Read More »Column: Did Jewish Vote Swing Election?
The Jewish stars aligned, politically speaking, on November 3, 2020 and January 5, 2021.
Read More »Soul Retrieval
‘You can’t choose the card you’re dealt, but you can choose to live every minute of it.’
Read More »God’s Gift to the Bronx?
As he experiences his first week in Congress, Jamaal Bowman will start on a path to do everything he suggests that Rep. Eliot L. Engel failed to do and perhaps even obstructed.
Read More »When Senator Toomey Strikes, We Could Strike Out
Toomey’s stature exemplifies much of what is wrong with the U.S. Senate, a legislative body that is often exploited to undermine vital programs that the majority of Americans need. The minority of Americans very frequently control the Senate, even when a majority of senators combine to represent the majority of citizens.
Read More »The Jewish-Catholic Loyalty Tests
Two religious leaders, Jew and Catholic, each succeeded in breaching the wall separating church and state within two days of one another.
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