There is a plaque right in front of the sanctuary of the synagogue I grew up in listing every single person who contributed to building that currently houses the community.  Built in the 1990s, the three-story building replaced the small…

Right from the moment I first met her, I could tell Cantor Susan Wehle, of blessed memory, was different.  She glowed with the light of goodness and love.  Her joy was contagious, as was her passion.  As a newcomer to…

A story I often tell kids at this time of year features twin brothers: Nachshon and Noshkan.  Nachshon is always early, racing off excitedly to any new venture.  Noshkan, on the other hand, takes his time, surveys the landscape before…

When I was a child, I always loved to walk around our house in the dark.  I would count the stairs and know exactly how navigate between the couch and chair to make it from my bedroom to the kitchen…

At the beginning of Disney’s Lion King, Mustafa takes his young cub Simba out to see the expanse of the kingdom he will one day inherit.  As they are looking out at the Sahara, Simba notices buzzards feasting a on…

Back in the late nineties, my sister Mara went down to Egypt with a few friends to visit the pyramids.  There she found out that her first name was a curse word in the local dialect.  Distraught, she looked it…

Fittingly the Book of Genesis ends just as the New Year comes in.  While this is just one of five books of the Torah we have yet to complete, perhaps there is wisdom in this ancient Jewish ritual in how…