The Kosher Bookworm by Alan Jay Gerber Issue of August 27, 2010/ 17 Elul 5770 Imagine: Selicot before Labor Day. This is what we will be experiencing this year. School begins earlier this … more

Just weeks after a vicious tornado destroyed many rural areas in Alabama, a team of eight high school girls, from the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls (SKA) and from the Hebrew Academy of the … more

More than what he was saying, it was his face that caught my attention. Flicking on the television absent-mindedly as I was getting dressed for a wedding, I came across the middle of a program on what, after a moment, I realized was a story from the Second Lebanon War. more

Let’s get this straight - the summer isn’t over yet, not today nor tomorrow. It doesn’t end when the kids return home from camp or when you begin back to school shopping. It doesn’t stop with school orientations or Rosh Hashanah preparations. more

Our underlined phrase, “you shall judge your fellow with righteousness,” is found in the second of the two parshiot we read this Shabbat. As noted in Talmud Bavli, Shevuot 30a, one of the interpretations of this expression is the obligation to judge our fellow Jews in a favorable fashion: “Our Rabbis taught: ‘You shall judge your fellow with righteousness’ - judge your neighbor to the side of merit (Hevay dan et chaverchah l’kaf zechut).” more

Remember when buying a cup of coffee meant … buying a cup of coffee. Sure you had a choice of what type, regular or decaf; skim or regular milk; sugar or sugar substitute, and hot or iced. Then came the flavored coffee creamers, followed by flavored coffees. You could have made it at home, or bought it at a luncheonette, candy shop or coffee shop, which was basically a mini restaurant that served breakfast and lunch along with coffee. Today, coffee is no longer just coffee. more

Jabalya. Anyone who has been there has no desire to go back. A nasty piece of real estate in the Gaza strip, Jabalya is a densely overpopulated refugee camp that is always waiting to explode, … more

Tetzaveh, this week’s parsha, ends with a seemingly out of place description of the commandment for making the “mizbeach hazahav” (small altar), the golden, spice-burning … more

On 60 Minutes Sunday Night, Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu said he plans to come to the U.S. soon to meet with President-elect Donald Trump to lobby him with suggestions on how to scuttle the Iran … more

So goes the legend in Jewish tradition: There were two brothers who together worked the earth on a piece of land they had inherited from their father. The brothers loved one another dearly. When … more