Robert Lichtman, at The Blogs

Sep 20, 2024, 7:13 PM

It was October 7, but it will always be Shmini Atzeret

This is what we will do as communities, federations, congregations, Hillels, JCCs, day schools, and clusters of close-knit friends. We will gather to mourn the tragic plague inflicted last year upon our loved ones in Israel, and through a connection cherished by...

Sep 6, 2024, 6:34 AM

“BRING THEM HOME!” IS NOT QUITE RIGHT.

Most people that I know are reluctantly planning to attend an October 7 memorial program of some type. This is for the people who are planning them here in the States. I am so grateful for your leadership. Unfortunately,...

Aug 14, 2024, 11:50 PM

Rabbis, follow the yellow brick road and free Agunot to love again on Tu B’av

MISHNA TA’ANIT, CHAPTER 4 - There were no days as joyous for the Jewish People as the fifteenth of Av (Tu B’Av) and as Yom Kippur, as on them the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in...

Jul 1, 2024, 8:19 PM

Almond joy

We are going to solve a mystery older than the Jewish People. It is a mystery that had its genesis at the time of Genesis. The Talmud (Pesachim 54a) tells us that as God completed the creation of Heaven...

May 23, 2024, 9:24 PM

Death & Love

This whole Omer thing was hijacked. What was for 1,500 years a 49-day transition, an anticipation, an ascension, a culminating crescendo of time travel beginning with the Exodus at Passover and ending at the portal of the infinite at Mount Sinai on...

Apr 11, 2024, 11:04 PM

The Eclipse. A Final Word.

I was minding my own business in the mid-1990s when I got a call from my 14-year-old daughter. “Abba, a car is coming to pick me up at school to meet the president.” “What president?” I asked. “President Clinton!”...

Mar 28, 2024, 9:50 PM

in memoriam

Good for the Jews: Joe Lieberman, z”l

He was the kind of person who would share coffee and good cheer with the people who didn't want anything to do with him

Mar 11, 2024, 7:00 PM

Could $10 Million Solve the Agunah Crisis?

Agunah Awareness Shabbat will be marked on March 15-16. Participating shuls will no doubt feature information provided by worthy organizations that support agunot and work diligently to free them from the chains of dead marriages. Here are some of...

Mar 6, 2024, 9:13 PM

Purim used to be easy

The town was so small that it was bound to happen one day. Two parties headed out on separate roads. Half of the town woefully accompanied the coffin of a beloved one to the cemetery. The other half of...

Dec 27, 2023, 9:49 PM

Tzadik Tzadik Tirdof (That’s not a typo)

Joseph’s brothers were already haunted with decades of guilt about their murder conspiracy against Joseph and his mysterious disappearance. Even after Joseph’s dramatic rise from the seemingly dead, ascending to nearly supreme authority over a world-class power, and an...

About Me

Robert Lichtman lives in West Orange, NJ and draws upon his long tenure of professional leadership to teach and write about strategic issues and opportunities impacting the Jewish community, and other things. He writes his own bio in the third person.

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