Immigration

September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 2: The Power of Kindness in a Brutal World

This was my D’var Torah for the second day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). In a piece in Slate about the TV show Ted Lasso, Amanda Prahl wrote: Kindness is the vanilla of emotional concepts. It has the reputation of being safe, two-dimensional, passive, and utterly bland. Ask any culinary expert, though, and they’ll tell… Continue reading

Anger, Antisemitism, Current Affairs, Gaza, Gratitude, High Holidays, Holidays, Immigration, Inclusion, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim
November 28, 2024

Gratitude for Being Together in This Country

These are my words from this past Tuesday's Thanksgiving service with the Nashua Area Interfaith Council. Thank you to Pilgrim Congregational Church for hosting us this year! Let me start my reflection on gratitude for being together in this country with a story about Wolf Landsman, Clarence Stetson, and Eva Castillo. It’s possible I have… Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Friendship, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Thanksgiving, USA
October 31, 2024

Diversity as a Tikkun and a Curse: The Tower of Babel

Here is my current draft of a D’var Torah for this coming Shabbat, when we read Parashat Noach and in particular the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. The story of the Tower of Babel teaches that diversity is both a tikkun and a curse. A tikkun, a fix for some problem of humanity,… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Election, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Noach, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, USA
March 21, 2024

Purim: The Buddy Film

This was my D’var Torah for Shabbat morning, March 16, 2024, Parashat Pekudei. which fell this year about a week before Purim. It’s already after the Oscars, but I have a pitch for a new movie — it could even be a franchise! It’s about a pair of young friends who travel the world together.… Continue reading

Books, Calendar, Current Affairs, Esther, Film, Friendship, Harry Potter, Holidays, Immigration, Inclusion, Joy, Leadership, Midrash, Movies, Parashat Hashavua, Pekudei, Purim, Shabbat, Synagogue, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
July 3, 2023

My American Tale — What’s Yours? (Or, Why Is Yaz on Masada?)

This is the D'var Torah I gave for Parshiyyot Chukkat-Balak 5783, July 1, 2023. This is a picture of me at the age of 17 on top of Masada in Israel, wearing a baseball cap that says “YAZ”. I remember asking someone to take this picture, and to get me and the Yaz cap and… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Balak, Calendar, Chukkat, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, History, Holidays, Immigration, Israel, Jerusalem, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult
February 24, 2022

My Testimony on “Divisive Concepts”

I testified at two committees of the New Hampshire legislature on bills to change or repeal our new "divisive concepts" law — Senate Judiciary and House Education. I said essentially the same things at both hearings. Here it is, video and my written statement (they are the same). Mr. Chairman and Honored Representatives: Thank… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, 9/11, Antisemitism, Books, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, History, Holocaust, Hope, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Jewish Education, Justice, Leadership, Study, Taking Sides, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Youth
September 23, 2021

Integrating America: What I Hope To Get From This Year

Assignment: Complete this thought — "I am about to begin a year of study about America…" This is the final bit of preliminaries, before delving into history and literature. I wanted to put down a few of my own goals in taking a sustained, hopefully deep survey of American history since colonial times.… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Books, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Freedom, History, Hope, Immigration, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, Study, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Youth
July 7, 2021

Getting Up Close — Advocacy, Daughters of Tzelophechad-Style

This was my Dvar Torah on Parashat Pinchas from July 3, 2021. ותקרבנה בנות צלפחד — Vatikravna Bnot Tzelophechad, they came up close, the daughters of Tzelophechad son of Chefer son of Gilad son of Machir son of Menashe of the families of Menashe son of Yaakov, and these are the names of his daughters:… Continue reading

Community Relations, Current Affairs, Ethics, Feminism, Housing, Immigration, Inclusion, Leadership, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, Pinchas, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA
November 30, 2020

Yehudi: Jews Means Thankful When Gratitude Isn’t Easy

This was the D’var Torah I gave on Saturday, November 28, the Shabbat of Thanksgiving weekend 2020. We Jews have three major names in the Tanakh, in the Bible. When other people are around, we’re sometimes called Ivri or Hebrew — the people from over-there, from the other side of the tracks, the parvenu. When… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Holidays, Immigration, Justice, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Tikkun Olam, Vayetze
February 9, 2020

How I Decide Who to Vote For

This is an attempt to write down something I’ve never written out before: how I decide whom to vote for in elections for national office. This is how I understand what I am doing. There’s plenty here to discuss or argue about. Voting is in one way the most morally consequential thing we do. The… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Election, Ethics, Freedom, Health Care, History, Immigration, Inclusion, Islam, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Money, Peace, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA
November 4, 2018

After Pittsburgh: A Narrower Bridge, A Net Like Never Before

Here is my D'var Torah from Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, the Shabbat after the killings at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. You can read it or download it as a pdf file here. It is so good to be here together this morning. I know that it is a great comfort to our friends,… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Freedom, History, Holocaust, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Peace, Rabbi, Shabbat, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Yom Hashoah
June 18, 2018

How to Use and Not Use Biblical Verses in Politics

This was my D'var Torah last Shabbat (June 16, 2018), in response to the back-and-forth between religious groups and Attorney General Jeff Sessions about what the Bible says about the policy of separating parents and children when families are suspected of crossing the U.S. border illegally. One afternoon a young yeshiva bocher, a student immersed… Continue reading

Bereshit, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Heschel, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Study, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA