Death and Mourning

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Apr 15, 2025, 8:17 PM

Her Soul Resides Beyond Nature

Batsheva z”l in all her sartorial splendor before a concert.

The 25th of Nissan, כ״ה ניסן, will be the 8th yahrzeit of my daughter, Batsheva Chaya Stadlan z”l. It is so difficult to acknowledge that so much time has passed as her loss is still so very tangible though...

Apr 6, 2025, 10:46 PM

Even when it’s bitter: Marror, matzah, and mourning

At the Seder table, there is a quiet moment that has no drama, no singing, no symbolic cup of wine—just a simple, strange ritual. We take marror, and we wrap it in matzah, the dry bread of affliction. Together,...

Apr 1, 2025, 5:34 PM

Rabbi Stanley Davids, z’l – The Death of One of our G’dolei Dor

Rabbi Stanley Davids (z’l) died on Motzei Shabbat, March 22. He will be interred in the cemetery in Ma’aleh HaChamishah, Israel. A Memorial celebration of his life was conducted at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles on Monday,...

Mar 20, 2025, 10:36 PM

Differences between Humanist and Orthodox Jewish Funerals

I was recently called upon to attend, in rapid succession, the funerals of two elderly friends, both conducted along humanist lines. The ceremony in both instances was prelude to a cremation and was held in a large hall with...

Mar 17, 2025, 11:34 PM

Peter Sichel, the ‘Jewish James Bond,’ Passes Away

The obituary for Peter Sichel began on the front page of The New York Times two weeks ago and continued on nearly an entire page inside the newspaper. It was written by Eric Asimov, chief wine critic of The Times,...

Mar 7, 2025, 9:54 AM

A life with no end: Honoring Rabbi Levi Wolosow

Rabbi Levi Wolosow OBM. Courtesy of the Wolosow Family

Just 30 days ago, while on a family ski trip, my brother-in-law, Rabbi Levi Wolosow, ascended the mountain, sent his wife the required selfie from atop the ski lift, told his son to go ahead, and began making his...

Regina Sandler-Phillips

Mar 6, 2025, 11:57 AM

One Human Tissue: Bodies, Burials, and 7 Adar

10/7 Memorial site, Reim Forest • Lizzy Shaanan Pikiwiki Israel, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

“All of us—yes, all of us—are one living human tissue.” So affirms a popular Hebrew song by Moti Hammer, covered by many artists and regularly sung at memorial ceremonies in Israel. “And if any one of us dies from...

Mar 6, 2025, 9:57 AM

Losing a Brother, Finding a Family

I recently joined a group of young adults bereaved by terrorism who traveled with OneFamily to Sri Lanka for a deeply therapeutic experience. All of the participants have lost a loved one to terrorism, and this trip provided more...

Mar 3, 2025, 1:54 PM

Sailing towards the horizon

(Pixabay)

Saying kaddish for 11 months ends without ceremony, as if I suddenly stopped waving to departing guests. It breaks my heart, but at least that feels right

Feb 28, 2025, 12:30 AM

A call for accountability

I don’t want to remember Kfir and Ariel and Shiri Bibas as symbols. I don’t feel I can honor their lives and deaths by thinking of them as representing others or comparing them (even to Anne Frank). Parallels suggest themselves between the Nazis’ brutality, the Holocaust, Hamas, and October 7. However, the comparison blurs crucial distinctions. It took a long...

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