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Passing on Passover: The Pandemic Edition

On why we’re choosing not to observe Pesach during the COVID-19 crisis.

Hebreo Rizado

Sometimes when you’re ‘Jewish and’ you just have to lead with the ‘and.’ I’m a Hispanic Jew who’s taking off his kippah.

Off with the Show

I will never understand why Reform synagogues can become so aggressively ambivalent about leading their congregations into Shabbat.

My Rabbi and Katharine Hepburn

A mensch simply being themselves is perhaps the greatest Jewish lesson of all.

Passover from the Archives 2018

A new roundup of my Passover lessons since the beginning of my Jewish journey, from marching myself like a fool straight into Egypt–to finding the courage to finally leave it behind.

Seven Years After Converting, How’s It Going?

Recently, I was asked how my Jew-by-choice life was going now seven years since I converted. That’s a great question. Here’s my answer.

The Anger and Emanuel

How do you apologize to an entire synagogue? With love. On Emanuel Congregation and the teshuvah I’ve owed for a long, long time.

Fear No (One Else’s) Holiday

If Halloween makes you fear for your Judaism, your problem isn’t Halloween.

Please Don’t “Shalom” Your Supermarket Jew

I love being stalked by strangers eager to say hi to me in a foreign language because of my religion. Said no one, anywhere, ever.

Rethinking Rabbi Schaalman’s Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur 2012, Rabbi Herman Schaalman, Z”l, suggested it was time for Jews to walk away from the Day of Atonement. Five years later, I agree with him.