News & Updates

  When I was a child growing up in Jerusalem in the early 1970s, Israel was a very different place than the one we know today. It was, in many ways, still a third world country. Meat was a scarce commodity. It was clear to everyone that Israel’s survival was constantly at risk. While the

By Jeff Rum Six months after Hurricane Harvey, the post-traumatic stress in this community runs rampant. Parents are trying to hold it together as they decide whether to rebuild or relocate. As a child, I remember hearing the story of Noah in Hebrew school. In a class of 5-year-olds, we drew pictures of animals walking

By Gil Preuss As we prepare to begin our Passover celebrations this evening, I am reminded of a quote by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov that feels especially pertinent today. “The Exodus from Egypt,” he said, “occurs in every human being, in every era, in every year and in every day.” Few celebrations offer as many

By Gil Preuss This is conference season in the Jewish community. Many organizations will be holding major events and meetings, and important business will get done. I’ve attended hundreds of these gatherings and learned a great deal from them, but I can’t shake the sense that when we meet, we don’t really talk about what

By Sarah Rabin Spira Theodor Geisel chose the pen name “Dr. Seuss” because his father wanted him to be a doctor. (Seuss is his mother’s birth name.) How lucky for us that he pursued a career in art and children’s literature, forever changing the way that early-reader books were written. Before Dr. Seuss, early-reader books

“The mission of Jewish leaders in the 21st century should be how to ensure the continued, significant renaissance of the Jewish people, ensuring a sense of belonging by every Jew to his people, its heritage, its values, its State, and its dreams and aspirations to work as Jews to make this a better world for

By Gil Preuss Did you know that January 26 is Dental Drill Appreciation Day? By chance, I had a dentist appointment that day, where I was surprised to learn that even my dentist did not know this “fun” fact. Appreciation days and months are not a new phenomenon in our society, but as they seem

By Gil Preuss “Action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all.” – Elie Wiesel My wife and I joined our son, Yoni, for a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as part of his Jewish Day School class on Modern Jewish History. The framing for this visit asked

  “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ”To be a Jew is to help heal a broken world.” – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks In the United States, and especially in Washington, DC, we tell our stories through statues and monuments. In part, we use these statues to

As we approach the end of December, I am writing to thank you for all that you have done this past year. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help another person. Thank you to everyone who responded positively when asked. Thank you to those who provided time, wisdom, creativity, passion and much more to