Jewish Values Grandma Taught Me
My grandma taught me Jewish values that can provide a moral compass for us all.
Book Reviews | Books | Judaism | Mysteries | mystery | series | series books
The Rabbi and the Cross
Rabbi Small and his wife decide to spend their summer in Israel only to find a young man from back home in trouble with the Israeli police.
The Year Passover (Easter and Ramadan) Was Cancelled
The coronavirus epidemic has cancelled Passover, Easter, and Ramadan. What can Jews, Christians, and Muslims do?
In the Loop
Here’s how one deaf man stays in the loop during the Passover holiday.
Book Reviews | Books | Bullies | Historical Fiction | Judaism | New Adult | School | Teen Books | YA Books | YA fiction
The Merry-Go-Round Man: A Metaphor on Life
In 1954, while still in elementary school, best friends Lee Esner, Jimmy Wiggins, and Johnny Roth create a game: “Whoever gets there [top of the merry-go-round] first is the real King of the Mountain. Whoever wins is Champ for life. For the rest of his life he’s on Easy Street!” Lee was the handsome one,…
American Sign Language | Deaf | Disabilities | education | History | Hunger | Judaism
Deaf Jews and the Holocaust
On November 9, 2019 Valley Beth Shalom, in Encino, California hosted a program in commemoration of the 81stAnniversary of Kristallnacht entitled “Rescuing History: Kristallnacht and ‘The Holocaust Through the Eyes of Deaf Jews’.” (Kristallnacht was two nights of violence perpetrated against the Jewish communities of Germany and Austria on November 9-10, 1938.) It was a…
American Sign Language | Deaf | Disabilities | education | Hard-of-hearing | History | Jewish Holidays | Judaism | non-fiction
Judaism and the Deaf Jew
I was a member of Temple Judea, a reform synagogue in Tarzana, California, for twenty-five years. Even after a virus robbed me of most of my hearing and forced me out of my tenured sixth grade teaching assignment, I stayed a temple member. Though I couldn’t understand a word of the rabbi’s sermons or capable…
The Golden Rule: A way to solve the bully problem
Aristotle explained that the best way to live our lives is to treat others the way we want to be treated. Aristotle reasoned that if we all lived by this Golden Rule, we wouldn’t need government. Two hundred years later Rabbi Hillel, a Jewish sage, was asked to explain the Torah while standing on one…
Why Matzah?
Dear Pop, Last year I was invited to my first Passover Seder at a home in Encino. I really enjoyed myself as everyone read from the Haggadah, the spiritual text, but that matzah. Why do Jews eat that tasteless, flour/water flatbread for eight days and why do some Jews have two Seders? Curious Christian Dear…
The Passover story: Fact or Fiction?
Passover, the Jewish celebration of the Exodus, begins Friday evening, April 19, 2019 with the first Seder, and ends Saturday evening, April 27. This is the time when Jews throughout the world remember the years their ancestors were slaves in Egypt and escaped under the leadership of Moses. Carol Meyers, an archeologist and professor…