Category: Science and Health

Being back in LA from Israel for the holidays is timed with another exciting Dodgers playoff run. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services at Westwood Village Synagogue (WVS) were beautiful, infused with deeply spiritual prayers and a heartfelt care and concern for Israel. I felt a strong sense of “being with my people.” WVS is […]

Rabba Sara Hurwitz speaks about the surprising reference to the sukkah in the Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after the meal during the holiday of Sukkot. The blessing says, “May God establish for us the fallen sukkah of David.” She wonders why we reference the desire for a fallen sukkah. Isn’t that kind of request counter […]

In a nation torn apart by political divisions, high-octane intolerance, cancellation craziness, fixed binary choices, fashionable antisemitism and, worst of all, exploited racial tensions, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book, “The Message,” couldn’t have come at a worse moment. Coates is America’s most widely admired and richly awarded Black public intellectual. The fact that his greatest success […]

When I was young—perhaps six or seven years old—my grandmother made my older sister and me life members of Hadassah. A photo in one of my parents’ albums marks the occasion: my grandmother beams at the camera as my sister and I hold our membership certificates with broad grins, complete with missing teeth, on our […]

A year the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, with rising antisemitism in America, many Jews are wondering what the future has in store. Jewish Story Partners is a Los Angeles-based non-profit founded in April 2021, in response to a lack of funding for Jewish independent films. As age-old antisemitic conspiracy theories proliferate across 21st century […]

My father (the rabbi) had invited the congregation to pray silently during the evening Rosh Hashanah service when my 9-year-old daughter leaned over and whispered. “Are you allowed to tell me what you are praying for? Or will it not come true, like birthday wishes?” No, I can tell you, I replied. I am thinking […]

Representations of Jewish culture in American popular culture typically take the form of bagels and cream cheese and matzah ball soup from Eastern Europe, not the Yemenite kubaneh bread and spicy chili schug of my grandma and my childhood, or the foods and cultures of other Middle Eastern and North African Jews, or of Jews […]

On November 5, Los Angeles voters will get to choose between keeping District Attorney George Gascón in office or electing Nathan Hochman.  Gascón, who has held the position since 2020, has drawn his fair share of controversy for his criminal justice reforms, which some believe have led to a jump in crime. The latest statistics […]

This fall, my son joined the Me’ever Youth program at the Safra Center in New York City. Me’ever is focused on building teen leadership skills. In stark contrast to millennial stereotypes, GenZers are eager to learn how to become Maccabees, especially right now.  “We teach high school students how to become their best selves,” according […]