From Despair to Hope: Facing Our Depths And Lifting toward Hope.

My sermon from Rosh Hashanah Eve 5780 Delivered at Congregation Kol Ami. The world is broken.  But you already knew that. You didn’t need to come here to understand the fragile nature of the times we are in. We just have to look around us to see the world is on fire. Literally and figuratively.…Read more »

Gender and Religious Leadership

I am thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of a book I co-edited: Gender and Religious Leadership: Women Rabbis, Pastors and Ministers. It is to be published next month by Lexington Books which is an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield. It is an in-depth look at the impact of women’s leadership on religion and religious…Read more »

Hate Crimes in Los Angeles County

I shouldn’t be shocked by this time.  But the Los Angeles County statistics on Hate Crimes came out this week. In the category of religious hate crimes.  The overwhelming number of them are against Jews. Antisemitism is alive and well in the City of Angels.  According to the latest information from the Los Angeles County…Read more »

Rabbiner Regina Jonas

  This Shabbat–Shabbat Bereshit, is the yarzeit, (the anniversary of the death) of the first ordained woman rabbi,  Regina Jonas.  She died in Auschwitz at the hands of the Nazis.  Born in Berlin in 1902, Jonas died in October of 1944 after being deported from Terezin Concentration Camp to Auschwitz Death Camp.  Jonas was ordained…Read more »

After the Holy Days

It has been a long Jewish month.  The Jewish holy days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shimini-Azeret, Simchat Torah and Hoshanah Rabbah are now behind us for 5779.  The intensity of the Jewish Holy Day Season is a marathon of the soul and sometimes the body too.  For those of us who are clergy,…Read more »

Separation of Families

The pictures are heart wrenching. The separation of families seeking asylum in the US is a heinous policy that will no doubt do severe damage to the children who are separated from their parents.  Currently there aren’t even plans to figure out how to reunite those children who have been forcibly taken from their parents…Read more »