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Jun 25, 2026, 6:38 AM

From Detours to Destiny: Finding the Authentic Voice in Parashat Balak

I am very proud to have my daughter be a “guest” writer this week. Avigail, is being ordained as a rabbi this Thursday afternoon, joining her brother, a Conservative rabbi and sister, a Reform rabbi. She is seen here...

Walter Estever Gonzalez

Jun 25, 2026, 5:38 AM

The Roof Where I Watched the War

An illustration inspired by childhood memories of watching the Salvadoran Civil War from the rooftop of a family home in San Jorge, El Salvador.

There are memories that return first as light. Not faces. Not names. Not even fear. Only flashes against the darkness. When I was a child during the Salvadoran civil war, I used to climb onto the roof of our house...

Jun 20, 2026, 2:53 PM

Teaching in June and the Future of Education

The conference is about to begin, my photo

There is a common saying in Israel that after Pesach, the school year is essentially over, so by June there is not much school anymore. That was also the reason I never liked teaching during the second semester when...

Kelsey Maurine Brickl

Jun 14, 2026, 7:14 AM

Where and What and When is Home?

I am originally from the suburbs of Chicago, and that place will always remain beloved and, fundamentally, home to me. But as my disabilities have become more complex, the logistics of reaching and staying in my childhood home have...

Hagit Zadok Fefferman

Jun 14, 2026, 5:07 AM

Was Grandpa Boris Holocaust-y enough?

Boris's Last Laugh: Boris Silberberg smiles as his wife Rose kisses their son at his bar mitzvah while their daughter wraps her arms around them. After surviving the Holocaust, Boris and Rose built a family that now spans four generations.

He thought nobody would want to hear his survival story, which featured black-market smuggling and daring escapes. I'm afraid he was right

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, 8:04 AM

Reading Texts Together: Service Year In Merhavim

A different kind of Sunday learning, my photo from a field trip to see the Gaza border and to hear testimonies about October 7

It’s almost the end of the service year, and I haven't written enough about one of our group’s most important activities: the Sunday meeting, held on the day we return from home to our service placement. Every Sunday, the Merhavim...

Sam Lehman-Wilzig

Jun 5, 2026, 7:46 AM

Wider Lessons of Gay Pride Month: MEeting the “Enemy”

Israel started its Gay Pride Month celebrations yesterday with Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade. Tel Aviv's march – the largest in the Middle East – will take place next Friday (June 12). Whether we "agree" or not with homosexuality, there’s...

Jun 5, 2026, 12:04 AM

Talking With AI (ChatGPT)

Well, here's a project for you. Go to ChatGPT and ask your friendly AI tool the following question. What do you know about me (Insert your full name) that I might not know about myself? Here's what ChatGPT said about me. That's a...

Jun 1, 2026, 4:30 AM

The Secret Place of Thunder

“...I answered you in the secret place of thunder...” -Psalm 81:8 In the deep and secret place of our heart, there is a stirring. There is a powerful illumination in the darkness. Within our innermost being that others cannot see, there is a rain that is...

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