Stephen Daniel Arnoff, at The Blogs

Stephen Daniel Arnoff

Author, Teacher, and Community Leader

Mar 26, 2026, 10:00 AM

Kaddish: When Culture Becomes a Vessel for Spiritual Life

First, each of us – students and staff – shared a reflection on our fathers. To paraphrase one of my favorite marginal prophets, there were ghosts in our eyes as we spoke of the ones who went away, who...

Jan 28, 2026, 2:51 PM

Violence Is Not the Weather

Of all the things we cannot control, one stands unmistakably beyond our reach: the weather. When half of the United States is snowed in, and here in Israel winter shows its own fierce face, we are reminded that part...

Nov 26, 2025, 10:17 AM

Featured Post

Can you get anything you want on Thanksgiving?

A goofball song of food and friends, bureaucracy and war, has become a prayer for better days

Jul 30, 2025, 1:48 PM

The War and the Crack-Up

Photo portrait of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1929. Public domain.

It’s the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby, which some call the great American novel. I devoured everything F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote as a 17-year-old, and again every 10 years or so. I'm back at it now, prompted by...

Jul 16, 2025, 9:26 PM

Yes, Chef—Feeling Bearish in Israel

We used to go to the movies to sit in the dark for a few hours, enjoying popcorn and fantasy—maybe with a friend—to escape the world, recharge, and find inspiration. Now we plant ourselves in front of screens, small...

Jun 11, 2025, 1:44 PM

War Children, 2025

I looked upon the 70 or so people gathered for a meal at the Shabbat celebration following my daughter and son-in-law’s wedding last week. See these people from Australia, Israel, and the United States now newly connected as a...

Jun 4, 2025, 8:16 PM

The Parable Is Not Explained

One of my favorite lines from rabbinic literature—borrowed from Parables in Midrash, David Stern’s masterful study of sacred imagination in the classical world—is simply: “The parable is not explained.” I’ve used this phrase too much over the years, both...

Apr 30, 2025, 4:53 PM

The Art of Memory

We live in an age of information overload and scarcity of wisdom. Even with the revolution promised by AI, much of our lives carried in our phones, and all variety of synthetic distractions addling our brains, memory remains one...

Apr 9, 2025, 8:52 PM

Praying with Our Feet

Former hostage Karina Ariev speaks at the start line of the Jerusalem Marathon, April 4, 2025. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

As two of my kids and I lined up for the 5K race at this year’s Jerusalem Marathon—part of a crowd of thousands—I wasn’t expecting to be stopped in my tracks before we even began. Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion...

Apr 3, 2025, 4:23 PM

You Really Need a Rabbi

Not long after I began my role as Executive Director of the 14th Street Y in 2007, my then-boss Robin Bernstein—CEO of the Educational Alliance—graciously introduced me to Harvey Schulweis, z”l. Harvey, a self-made business success and a legendary...

About Me

Dr. Stephen Daniel Arnoff is the CEO of the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center and author of the book About Man and God and Law: The Spiritual Wisdom of Bob Dylan. Explore his writing at stephendanielarnoff.substack.com.

Contact Me