With Super Bowl Sunday this weekend, I have the opportunity to talk about two of my favorite things and tie them together: sports and prayer. Read More »

When my kids were in kindergarten, they sang the song, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” and it has became a family song ever since. We usually do it as a joke, as they were quite cute and had some fun dance moves to go with it, but as I sat down to craft something to say about human rights and Judaism, I kept coming back to this song. Read More »

Peter Holden is a 92-year-old African American man who grew up in the Jim Crow South, raised in North Carolina. I saw a video recently on the New York Times where he talked about how in the time of the depression blacks and whites came together to help one another, regardless of race, because everyone was hungry. Read More »

In his speech that became known as “The Spirit of Liberty,” delivered in New York City’s Central Library, in the midst of World War II, the preeminent judge and judicial philosopher, Learned Hand, asked, “What do we mean when we say that first of all Read More »

There is an idea in my life as a rabbi that seems to always apply whenever I give a challenging, controversial or “political” sermon: I know I have succeeded when folks on both the left and right sides of the spectrum are upset! I always attempt to provide balance, even as I may take a position on any given issue. Read More »

I thought I had my ideas in order for what I wanted to say on bin Laden, and then I heard Father Greg Boyle at the Pasadena Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast yesterday. Read More »

We live in embarrassingly serious times. Embarrassing because we are forced to deal with the idiocy of such nonsense as the “birth certificate” crowd, serious because it is distracting us from the direly important work that needs to be done. Read More »

I grew up in the garment industry. For most of my childhood, my father was a clothing salesman and later, had a small manufacturing business too. He started his career at Macy’s in NYC, later working for Wrangler, Levi, Summit Sportswear and finally, opening his own business, The Grater Group, where he represented many different lines of clothing. Read More »

There will be those who say that because I am writing to support my Muslim brothers and sisters today, in the face of “radicalization hearings” in the US Congressman by Rep. Peter King (R-NY), that I am a self-hating Jew, a naive and uninformed clergy person who is selling out my own people. Read More »

I was nervous about going to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu this past Sunday at All-Saints Church. I was nervous because, despite his remarkable life story, which of course includes fighting and winning the battle against apartheid in his homeland, Read More »

The land of the Pharaoh is again in turmoil, this time from an internal revolution, a rising up of the people themselves, calling for a better tomorrow, an end to a dictatorship masking as president. Read More »

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit.  You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. (Martin Luther King) “Joy comes in the morning,” lets certainly hope so. Read More »

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said, “In a free society, some are guilty but all are responsible.” I have been mulling that quote over in my mind since I learned of the horrible assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and cold-blooded murder of the other innocent Arizonans in Tucson. Read More »

We live in interesting times. I imagine that there is reason to say this in every generation, which is fair, but ours are certainly among the more interesting we have seen recently. Read More »

While laying sick in bed for the past five days, watching the so-called lame duck Congress take up incredibly important, vital legislation, passing some (DADT repeal) and rejecting some (Dream Act), I have been thinking about the idea of a lame duck world. Read More »

This piece was originally published on Rabbis for Human Rights blog, http://www.rhrna.org The Jewish tradition, in many ways, is based on the notion of teshuvah, repenting, renewing and repairing our ways. Read More »

In her new book, Hope Will Find You, Rabbi Naomi Levy, makes a startling assertion, which is actually the title of her book. Read More »

I don’t often share many personal things about myself in sermons, but tonight I am going to. Not so you can get to know me better, but to make a point. All things being equal, I have been very fortunate to live a pretty sheltered, privileged life. Read More »

I am normally called a pessimist, one who would say that things are spiraling out of control in the Middle East, but I am leaning on optimism, on the knowledge that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas have been meeting and talking face to face. They need to continue that, and deepen it. Read More »

I have been on vacation from work and blogging for a month, which has its great benefits, namely rest, head-clearing and time to be with my family uninterrupted. I have tried my hardest to not respond to some of the big issues of the day, resting my mind and hands from entering the fray of public opinion. Read More »