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Jun 5, 2025, 7:33 AM

It’s math: Anti-Zionism = antisemitism

There are a number of arguments which explain how anti-Zionism and antisemitism are connected, but they all stop short of showing how anti-Zionism is in and of itself antisemitism. The first explanation is definitional. Zionism is “an international movement originally for the establishment of a...

May 29, 2025, 4:50 PM

As I stand at Mount Sinai, I know – ‘My Judaism defines me’

"My Judaism defines me," appears in Rabbi Menachem Creditor's latest anthology, At the Mountain. (photo by author)

The approaching holiday, Shavuot, marks G-D giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Tradition says all Jews – past, present, and future – were present at Sinai for this momentous event. It was in this spirit that I answered a call for...

Cheryl Dorchinsky

May 20, 2025, 11:29 AM

The Kosher Duck Revolution

There’s something wonderfully charming about the whimsical tradition of hiding ducks anonymously—whether on cruise ships, strangers’ Jeeps, or other unexpected corners of daily life. Inspired by this playful trend, I decided to put a uniquely Jewish spin on it, creating the “Kosher Duck Revolution.” Little...

Apr 30, 2025, 11:02 PM

Israelis grapple with grief on Memorial Day

Staff Sergeant Segev Schwartz who was killed on October 7th

The weekend before Yom HaZikaron, or Israel Memorial Day, Sarah and Ehud Schwartz attended a retreat hosted by OneFamily, an organization that serves victims of terror and those who have lost loved ones in military conflict. Despite knowing that their children must enlist in the...

Apr 23, 2025, 10:10 PM

The Atlanta Jewish community remembers The Shoah

Unto Every Person There is a Name at the Georgia State Capital
photo courtesy of Harry Lutz

On Yom HaShoah the Atlanta Jewish community will join others around the world in honoring those murdered during the Holocaust. Unto Every Person There is a Name is an is a remembrance ceremony led by volunteers who read the name, age and place of death of...

Apr 3, 2025, 5:07 PM

Passover and peace

With Passover fast approaching and conflict ever-present in the air, I thought I would share a bit of my writing that I contributed in 2024 to the first edition of Peace Haggadah. While I have not been involved at all in this year’s updated edition,...

Mar 5, 2025, 10:25 PM

“How are you doing?” The toll antisemitism takes on us

Photo by Paodoruvel. (free for use)

Once upon a time, asking Jewish friends or family members how they feel would for the most part elicit responses of “Fine,” or “Doing well, thank you.” Those days seem a world away. Nowadays, most Jews I know no longer have simple answers. Chalk it...

B. Shira Levine

Jan 8, 2025, 9:42 PM

Reclaiming weekday tefillah

Is weekday prayer an afterthought outside of Orthodox Judaism? Should it be? I never really stopped to reflect much on the role of weekday tefillah in modern Jewish spiritual practice until I started leading traditional prayer at my Conservative synagogue last year. Until then, I...

Oct 28, 2024, 10:55 PM

Why Our Silent Hakafah Failed

Prior to Simchat Torah there was some discussion about how our shul would acknowledge October 7, 2023, which had fallen on Simchat Torah. We concocted an elaborate plan. We would commemorate the loss on Shemini Atzeret during Yizkor. We would then dance our first hakafah...

B. Shira Levine

Sep 30, 2024, 4:12 AM

Everybody Wants This (except me)

OK I’m going to be the mitnagged who craps all over this romcom involving a young hot rabbi (Adam Brody) who dates a shiksa (Kristen Bell) that everyone is fawning over at the moment. It’s not that I hate the show that much… I more...

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