Young Jewish Adult

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 31, 2025

One More Course This Term

My last “first” college entry of this semester – Science A-22: Chance, Necessity, and Order. This was a philosophy of science class as well as a conceptual introduction to 20th century physics. So not the typical “Physics for Poets” class, with non- or low-math versions of basic topics in physics. In that sense, different from… Continue reading

College, Education, Science, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
October 17, 2025

College: Beginning Economics

I thought I had lost my Ec 10 notebook (introduction to economics) but I found it! I would never in a million years have taken the course, but it was one of the only standard required courses in my Social Studies concentration. I checked the current department requirements, and it remains that way, even though… Continue reading

Adam Smith, College, Current Affairs, Economics, Young Jewish Adult
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
October 12, 2025

Second Year: Research Methods in Sociology

Another post about the start of my sophomore year. We had to take a statistics course for the Social Studies concentration and had our pick of a math course or a basic research methods course in any of the social science departments. I picked the Sociology version because it was going to be the easiest… Continue reading

College, Young Jewish Adult
October 9, 2025

I’m a Sophomore!

There is much momentous happening today, and I’m sure I’ll be back here or in some other way with thoughts on that. But for now I’m posting about another project. A couple weeks ago I started the second year of re-reading my college notes again, on (more or less) the calendar date when I wrote… Continue reading

Adam Smith, Books, College, Ethics, Freedom, Middot, Psychology, Social Theory, Tocqueville, USA, Young Jewish Adult
September 26, 2025

Rosh Hashanah D’var Torah Day 1 — Moral Autobiography

This is my D’var Torah from the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5786 (2025). One of the best questions I was asked all year came at a training in April with an organization called Resetting the Table. Resetting the Table teaches people how to transform toxic divides into a shared future, and one of the… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Education, Ethics, High Holidays, Holidays, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Lech L’cha, Middot, Rosh Hashanah, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera, Yamim Noraim, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 8, 2025

Finally Finishing Freshman Year!

My final post on the courses of my first spring in college are on Professor Bartal's class on the emergence of the State of Israel. These aren't particularly organized by significance, just maybe by new thoughts I'm having now. As I read the notes on the period from 1904-1949, I am most struck for some… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, History, Israel, Young Jewish Adult
September 8, 2025

Finishing My First Year of College (Part 2)

I'm about to start year 2 of my project of rereading my college notes, but I didn't finish up putting down some last notes on year 1. The part of Gov 1170 that really struck me in my final read had to do with political parties and their role in enabling social conflicts to be… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, History, Inclusion, Terrorism, Young Jewish Adult
July 13, 2025

Finishing My First Year of College (Part 1)

I did finish looking at my class notes for the second semester of my first year of college a while ago, but haven’t written about it yet. Here’s a bit on one of the courses – Empire and Art. The last few weeks were not as distinctive as the earlier part of the class. The… Continue reading

Art, College, History, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 8, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #15: Gossip (Lashon Ha-Ra)

How does Torah define gossip? The dictionaries in English describe gossip as talking about people behind their backs, usually in an uncomplimentary way; or spreading rumors about people without knowing whether something is true; or sharing private details about someone without their permission. Gossip seems like a casual kind of talking, though of course the… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Ethics, Gossip, Kedoshim, Lashon Hara, Maimonides, Metzora, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Speech Ethics, Tazria, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
April 7, 2025

A Year of Jewish Ethics #14: Labor Justice, Part 1

The Jewish perspective on the responsibilities of employers reflects the story of our oppression in Egypt, shi’ibud mitzrayim. That oppression began as forced labor, and when the Torah teaches about wage workers, it often uses the same words that it uses to describe slavery. Jewish law recognizes the inherent dynamic between the one who pays… Continue reading

A Year of Jewish Ethics, Equality, Ethics, Exodus, Halacha, Justice, Middot, Power, Torah, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth