Nina B. Mogilnik

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Nov 25, 2024, 7:20 AM

I live in the United States, where a seemingly very consequential election has just ended with a victory for Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. I should be distraught, I suppose, but I'm not surprised by the outcome. Honestly,...

Sep 30, 2024, 4:18 AM

A Jewish Calendar Painted in Red

We are just days away from the Jewish New Year, a time when many Jews who have sat out Judaism in its communal form for most of the year choose to show up at synagogue, to be in community. ...

Sep 14, 2024, 10:27 PM

Politics in Synagogue? Amen to That!

This past Friday, I was in the audience at a synagogue program with representatives of Brothers and Sisters in Arms (BSA). I was interested in attending because I had gotten to know the group through their NYC protests against...

Aug 6, 2024, 12:16 AM

An American Jewish Leader’s Self-Serving Cowardice

In late July, Haaretz, a paper I read regularly, published an opinion piece by the senior rabbi of our former congregation (more on that later). Entitled This Is Not the Time for American Jews to Protest Netanyahu, it had...

Jul 11, 2024, 10:20 PM

Am I Kind to You?

My husband and I have been taking a class entitled: The Ethical-Social Vision of Sefer Devarim, with the incomparable Shai Held. It is without fail an absorbing and provocative experience to learn from and with Rav Shai. This class,...

Jun 10, 2024, 9:15 PM

When Death is Not Just a Separation from Life

Years ago, I was in Israel when I got the awful news that a friend's husband had taken his life. Actually, I was in Jordan at the time, with my eldest son and my Israeli cousin's younger son. We...

May 28, 2024, 5:31 PM

Rest and Relaxation in a War Zone

It seems strange to say, but our recent, week-long trip to Israel was the best vacation my husband and I have had in what feels like forever. To some, that might seem absurd; to others, perhaps obscene. Let me...

Mar 7, 2024, 11:25 PM

Honoring Jared Kushner: The Perfect is Indeed Not the Enemy of the Good

Dear Mr. Greenblatt: I read recently of your honoring Jared Kushner at a prominent ADL event, for his role in the Abraham Accords, and in the name of Jewish communal unity in the aftermath of October 7th. I suppose those...

Mar 5, 2024, 12:26 AM

A Necessary Journey

We live in a time of nonstop — and often cruel — judgment. The distance and anonymity of social media has made lobbing hate bombs all too easy. And it seems that lots of folks have taken up that...

Dec 19, 2023, 7:20 AM

The cracks in the bloody crystal ball

I've never subscribed to the notion that people in power have special knowledge and special skills that allow them to see, navigate, and control events in some unique way. In fact, history proves over and over that those very people...

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About Me

Nina has a long history of working in the non-profit, philanthropic, and government sectors. She has also been an opinion writer for The Jewish Week, and a contributor to The Forward, and to The New Normal, a disabilities-focused blog. However, Nina is most proud of her role as a parent to three unique young adults, and two rescue dogs, whom she co-parents with her wiser, better half. She blogs about that experience now and again at parentjungle.blogspot.com