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Chava (Patricia) Kadoche

Jun 24, 2026, 10:13 PM

We Carry Them With Us

Last night, at the wedding of my cousin's son, I witnessed one of the most moving moments I have experienced since making aliyah. As the chattan stood beneath the chuppah, the names of soldiers from his unit who had fallen...

Mordechai Soskil

Jun 24, 2026, 8:49 PM

Kaddish Brothers

This Friday will conclude 11 months since my father’s death, and thus the end of my period of time to say the Mourner’s Kaddish. When a Jew is sitting Shiva, they stay at home and the minyan comes to...

Jun 23, 2026, 5:23 AM

Are we ready “when the time comes?”

Kohler, 1974

My mom died in April. Her name was Nan. She was 75 years old, and her love for a good game of "Jewish Geography" could make you think she hadn't spent her whole life in New York. She'd been living...

Allen S. Maller

Jun 14, 2026, 9:43 PM

The Angel of Death Is a Hard-working Angel

A Mal’ach HaMavet– An Angel of Death, and a Tree of Life were all created on the same day, a few billion years ago. They were Yin and Yang. At first the Tree of Life only produced single cell...

Allen S. Maller

Jun 13, 2026, 9:58 PM

A Mal’ach HaMavet, An Angel of Death and A Tree of Life were created together

The Mal’ach HaMavet-the Angel of Death and the Tree of Life were created on the same day, several billion years ago. In the beginning old age didn’t exist. When hunting animals slowed down or were wounded they could not eat...

Jun 13, 2026, 12:46 AM

Remembering my dear friend, Rabbi Shlomo Porter

Rabbi Shlomo Porter, Z”L

November 9, 1947 - November 14, 2025 It feels like a zillion years ago since I was a part of the Porter family, yet for nearly a decade of my life Shlomo Porter played a significant role in who I...

Jun 11, 2026, 9:34 PM

The Sacredness of Remaining Time

The Sacredness of Remaining Time: Hospice, Jewish Ethics, and the Moral Meaning of Time at Life's End There is a moment I have witnessed many times at the bedside. A family gathers around someone they love. The medical team has...

Walter Estever Gonzalez

Jun 11, 2026, 4:32 AM

Before We Understood What a Grenade Was

A childhood memory from San Jorge, El Salvador, during the Salvadoran Civil War.

There are memories that remain suspended between childhood and catastrophe. At the time they happen, they do not feel historical. They do not announce themselves as trauma. They arrive disguised as confusion, as heat, as adults behaving strangely while...

Jun 10, 2026, 4:09 AM

Inches to Metric: Creating Mercaz Lavi – PTSD Center

Our team. Photo Beth Kopin

Our buddy Elie Spivack (co- founder of Mercaz Lavi) came to us four years ago. He was a distinguished combat engineer suffering from PTSD, (post traumatic stress disorder). We did not know it at the time. All we knew...

Jun 2, 2026, 6:33 PM

A chance encounter

The Jewish Federation of Howard County, Maryland sponsored a special event. It was April 21, 2026, and here in Columbia, Maryland, it was יום הזכרון the eve of Yom HaZikaron. We met at Beth Shalom, a small synagogue in Columbia,...

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