Late last night I received an email from a friend who works for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Our borough has hosted a few events recently to bring together Brooklyn’s religious leaders. So the email was about encouraging me to attend a gathering of Muslims, Jews and Christians in celebration of Ramadan and […]
Eleven boxes, each with 25 prayerbooks for the Holy Days, arrived at our building today from UPS.
I went to the basement of our building, borrowed a handtruck from the porter, and shlepped 600 pounds of books up the stairs to the elevator bank where each of the eleven boxes was loaded onto the elevator.
I pressed […]
No alarm woke me today; rather, the sound of clanging dishes at 5 am came from some new kitchenware that my wife is preparing to make kosher before Rosh Hashanah. I got up and asked her, “What do you like about keeping kosher?”
She said, “I like the devotional aspect.”
In my morning prayers, when thinking […]
Growing up in Wisconsin, we used to get public service announcements on television at 11 pm each night that reminded viewers of the city-wide curfew by asking, “Parents, do you know where your children are?”
Why is that every time I pick up the paper, I want to ask, “America, do you know where your leader […]
Dankmar Adler was a partner of the architect Louis Sullivan. Adler consulted on the Studio Wing of Carnegie Hall. Sullivan designed the Condict Building, one of New York City’s first steel-beam skyscrapers, which you can see at the corner of Bleeker and Crosby, just off Lafayette (65 Bleeker Street, go take a […]
Last night we hosted 10 of my eight year old daughter’s friends to celebrate her birthday.
We ate dinner in a Chinese restaurant, then walked back to our place for a pajama party. Controlling a pod of energetic eight year olds while trying to cross Brooklyn streets is no small task. When all else […]
For the Torah Portion Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26.1-29.8, Haftarah Isaiah 60.1-22
“My father was a fugtive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. We […]
“Conservative House Republicans plan to recommend on Wednesday more than $500 billion in savings over 10 years to compensate for the costs of Hurricane Katrina as lawmakers continue to develop a consensus on the fiscal approach to the disaster.”
So the New York Times and several other media reported yesterday, listing a variety of proposed cuts, […]
Every year around this time I have a recurring memory and sometimes it appears in a dream.
I am a young boy–around 7 or 8–and I am in synagogue with my father and grandmother. Since the memory returns each Fall, it may be that the purpose of being shul is the High Holy Days. […]
Exactly two weeks from now, the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, will be upon us.
On Rosh Hashanah eve, the moon will be a thin sliver in the sky, new, representing the month Tishri on the Hebrew calendar.
If you have noticed the sky last night or tonight, the moon is full and now will begin its waning […]