Hear Our Voice

Also available in the August 2018 digital version of the Meyerlander Monthly.

Harvey was a most unwelcome guest to a party none of us planned. And despite the fact that Harvey was such a party pooper, he didn’t push people away from the party – in fact, the more Harvey poured himself on to our party, the more and more the people came. By foot, by boat, by plane and train, rescuing, saving, offering their most sincere efforts to...Read more...

The call hit me like a ton of bricks.  Natalie on the other end of the line sharing with me a devastatingly sad event that had occurred only days after we had moved to Houston in July of 2011.  A family on their way home to Houston had been in a terrible car wreck, only their three small children had survived, two of them, boys, were in critical condition.  Assuming they survived, they would be disabled for life.  I hung...Read more...

This is one of my favorite teachings: “I don’t care what denomination you’re a member of, as long as you’re ashamed of it.” Rabbi Yitz Greenberg is a sage of our day who understands and teaches, that no matter our affiliation, be it religious, political, national or academic, the moment that survival becomes the primary rationale, is the moment when the soul of the cause that gave it life is dead, or has at least been reconciled to...Read more...

To be clear, there are no good Nazis. Period. End of story. Assuming that one can make a solid argument that there is real and sustained and organized violence coming from the left, do we not believe that there is a difference between those who are fighting for freedom, equality, access and fairness for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, and religion and those who are fighting to exclude people from...Read more...

Having just read your “Letter for Couples of Jewish and non-Jewish Background,” I have some thoughts I would like to share with you. “Authenticity” + $5.00 will barely buy you a cup of coffee if it leads to closing the door on a couple that is seeking a Jewish wedding. This is not a “future of the Jewish people” issue. It’s an issue of presence in the present. I wonder how many “Jewish-Jewish” couples you have let go,...Read more...

If you’ve read even a few of my blog posts, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I am a little obsessed with the ancient Israelites’ penchant for kvetching. With the story of the Exodus from Mitzrayim (Eygpt) and their 40-year wandering through the midbar (wilderness) so prominent in 4 of the 5 Books of Moses, their moaning, groaning and constant trope of “woe-as-us” ever streaming from their lips, is either a serious...Read more...

A couple of nights ago, I sat with 7 couples raising Jewish children.  Of these seven couples, only one of them consisted of two Jewish partners.  In the other six couples raising Jewish children, one individual in each partnership with the “Jewish pedigree” had been disaffected, disconnected, or simply distanced from their Judaism.  Do you know what brought them back and into this living room?  The fact that they fell...Read more...

Hillel and Shammai, two of our towering rabbinic figures, didn’t agree on much. Shammai was a stickler for rules and Hillel was far more flexible. Shammai drew a line in the sand and Hillel would find a way around it while still respecting the spirit of the law. The Rabbis asked if despite their great division, were their children allowed to marry each other. The answer was a resounding yes, for they were still Jews, they were still...Read more...

I won’t be able to articulate this illustrative metaphor with the poetry and flair of its author, Leonard Pitts, but it certainly bears repeating, especially today, as we honor Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Last night at an MLK Commemoration, columnist Leonard Pitts spoke on the divide that exists between white people and black people in terms of their often vastly divergent views of the state of racial equality in our country. He explained...Read more...

OK, I get it. The person who works in the cubicle next to you, in the office down the hall, in the classroom or in the board room, or uses the locker next to you, or whom you’ve considered “unfriending” is just too much for you.   You know who I’m talking about. Because, well, he/she just bugs you. Maybe it’s their voice, maybe it’s bad past experiences, maybe it’s something else. But it’s not realistic that he or she...Read more...