Interfaith Dialogue

December 25, 2025

Not a Christian Nation, Mr. Vice President, But Yours and Mine

I published this post on Facebook on December 22. 2025, to much positive reception, so I am posting it here too. Sometime around when my family was lighting our last Chanukkah candles last night, the Vice President of the United States proclaimed in a speech at the Turning Point USA convention that the United States… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Freedom, History, Holidays, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Leadership, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult
October 23, 2025

During the Flood, Inside the Ark — Learning From Bonhoeffer and the Freiburg School

This was my D’var Torah about Parashat Noach in 5783 (2022). This Torah reading centers on the Flood. This teaching here is about “during the Flood”, and at the end I discourage us from seeing our era as sliding toward the Flood. If we do see it that way, we still might ask the question… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Economics, Ethics, Holocaust, Hope, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Noach, Noah, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek
October 12, 2025

Why Our Jewish Community Should Be at the CROP Hunger Walk

If you’re in our area, I hope you will be part of next Sunday’s interfaith CROP Hunger Walk. Here is why I think that’s important always, and especially for all of us thinking about the place of Jews in America right now. Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Food, Gaza, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Peace, Synagogue, Tikkun Olam, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
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
October 9, 2024

A Year Later, Back to Moshe’s Final Words of Blessing — Rosh Hashanah 5785 (2024) Day 1

On Simchat Torah morning, after we parade with the Torah scrolls, we gather around to read the very last words of Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our teacher. The man who could hardly speak departs with an original song – his words, not God’s. And his last sentence in life begins: Ashreicha Yisrael, Mi Chamocha. Happy… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, High Holidays, Holidays, Hope, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Leadership, Moshe, Power, Rosh Hashanah, Terrorism, Torah, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 16, 2024

An Invitation From a Zionist to Non- or Anti-Zionists: Talk to Me

For the non-Zionists or anti-Zionist in my circle, a sincere set of questions from a Zionist. I’m actually looking to understand where you are coming from, so these aren’t gotcha questions. I’ve been working on this for a week or more, but held off posting so as not to intrude on people’s marking Yom Hazikkaron,… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, Gaza, History, Holocaust, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Islam, Israel, Justice, Peace, Speech Ethics, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Yom Haatzmaut, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 15, 2024

Yom Hashoah Remarks 5784 (2024)

This is what I said at the ceremony of lighting candles at the end of our annual Holocaust Remembrance Program in Nashua which the Jewish community holds at Rivier University in conjunction with the school, our Catholic partner in remembering. After the thank you's I said this: We came here this evening to learn and… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, History, Holidays, Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Justice, LGBTQ+, Power, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, Yom Hashoah, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 3, 2024

Tentative Torah For the Week’s Parasha and Week of Protests

Some meandering and very rough notes about the opening of this week’s Torah reading, Leviticus 16. It stands on its own, though originally this all emerged from me during the spring 2024 events at Columbia University and other places. The chapter appears to be just the description by the Divine to Moshe and Aharon (Moses… Continue reading

Acharei Mot, Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, Foregiveness, Friendship, Gaza, Holidays, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Midrash, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Ritual, Tzedek, USA, Yom Kippur, Young Jewish Adult
January 5, 2024

Who Were the Baby-Savers of Exodus and Who Are We?

Saving babies, according to the Torah, was the first crack in the oppression of the Israelites by Pharaoh. In the first two chapters of Exodus, the start of this week’s Torah reading in the synagogue and Jewish study cycle, two sets of people save baby boy Israelites from the death decreed by Pharaoh. First it’s… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Exodus, Feminism, Freedom, Gaza, History, Holidays, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Midrash, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Peace, Shmot, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
December 7, 2023

Serious Chanukkah: Cultural Integration, Freedom, War and Power Then and Now

I love Purim and Chanukkah. It’s true that these are not the major Jewish chagim, and not in some sense as important as Passover/Pesach. But I have come to love them more and more because they are set in worlds I recognize as more contemporary than the major festivals. Their stories have more texture… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, Gaza, History, Holidays, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Jerusalem, Justice, Leadership, Power, Talmud, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
October 20, 2023

Righteous Enough for the Time

This is my D'var Torah for October 21, 2023, Parashat Noach. When Noach was born, the human world had only just stopped being young. If you do all the math, you see that Adam had lived to see nine generations including his own. I can imagine that people had begun doubting whether Gan Eden had… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Ethics, Freedom, Gaza, Hakarat Hatov, History, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Justice, Noach, Noah, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Terrorism, Torah, Tzedek, USA