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16. Out All Night:
We learned via text this morning that our teenage son had been out all night. He came home with the sun. We couldn’t have been happier and prouder.Before you call social services, let me explain that...
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15. The Picture in My Office:
The second photograph I put up in my office when I arrived in Westchester to serve as the community’s shaliach (Israel emissary), after the photo with my wife, was of my grandfather. The picture was...
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14. Striving for Jewish Growth
Many years ago in Israel, I was listening to a guide at Kinneret Cemetery, a place I’ve been a dozen times, when I realized that I was at Moses Hess’ grave.At the time I couldn't remember specifics of...
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13. Moments of Hit’orerut:
For many people, the days during the Omer serve as a time for reflection. As a Jewish nursery school teacher, I would use the days of the Omer to reflect with my students on their work.Reflecting with...
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12. A Reluctant Volunteer:
Several years ago, our congregational school needed help. Our small and diverse shul had a Shabbat morning school, family friendly service, and weekly Hebrew classes. A task force convened to help with...
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11. Jews: Finding Harmony within Cacophony
The Jewish People is made up of Jewish people.Our holy texts − Tanach, Talmud, prayer books, and midrash – none of them have any Jewish meaning without Jewish people to read them, hear them, embody...
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10. Shalom Bayit
"Mama, you’re not being respectful. Look me in the eye when I’m speaking to you!" Meet Shmulik. He’s five. We’re in over our heads.During a lull in a tantrum, I go to Shmulik’s room to compromise. He...
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9. Count on Change
I used to count everything. I’d sit in synagogue and count the panes in the stained glass windows, the lights on the yahrzeit board, and the steps to the bema. I couldn’t stop. I’d count the steps...
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8. Seize the Moment: This Message will Self-Destruct in 3 Minutes
Remember the horror when you paid your phone bill online and discovered it was five days late? You swear to yourself it will never happen again.Until it does.It should be pretty easy. Most of the time,...
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7. The Jewish Calling: Inspiration and Perspiration
I learn from swans. Their effortless demeanor and serenity bring a measure of respite to a frenetic world. They glide in mesmeric fashion over the water, seeming to roam wonderfully free from trouble...
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6. Small Moments with Lasting Impact
High school was very challenging for me. I have a learning disability and while many of my peers took honors classes and easily earned straight A’s, I worked and struggled for every B and B+ that I...
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5. Passover Seder
In 1998, my wife and I hosted our first Passover Seder. It was a disaster. We were short on plates. The food was either burnt, cold or both. We left out major sections of the Haggadah and confused our...
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4. Embracing the Moment
"When I give you my time, I’m giving you a portion of my life…” -AnonymousIt’s spring, a time of renewal and reflection. We contemplate where we’ve been and where we’re headed. How was my time spent?...
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3. Raising Financially Fluent Children
During sheva brachos, a friend learned that his wife of two days had $10,000 in credit card debt. Another friend discovered his wife had $1,000 in credit card debt. I’ve noticed an alarming lack of...
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2. African Soup for the Jewish Soul
Sitting in a stone amphitheater overlooking green hills and blue lakes, joy rushes over us and washes away our tribulations, both great and trivial. It pushes our voices to song and feet to dance. As...
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1. Commuting with God
This year my wife and I decided to send Jonah, our six-and-a-half year old, to Jewish day school. As an atheist Jewish educator, I knew what to expect in the classroom and from the school. The...
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Counting the Omer: Blog B'Omer
“You shall count from the eve of the second day of Pesach, when an omer of grain is to be brought as an offering, seven complete weeks. The day after the seventh week of your counting will make fifty...
View Article49 b. Nurturing Our Innovations
As a Jewish educator I have always been passionate about change and drawn to the innovative and different. Always on the lookout for new pathways and points of access and asking why they were never...
View Article49 a. Lessons from Winnie-the-Pooh and Other Children’s Books
When you spend part of your professional life talking to early childhood educators about the value of trees and logs and mud and stones for the children in their schools, you don’t always take the time...
View Article48 b. Recipe for Success:
I work with our community’s youth and teens as the director of synagogue education and programming at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (‘The Bayit’). When I first arrived five years ago, the...
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