by Webmaster | Aug 18, 2015 | Identity
What was it like to walk in the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised Land? In my own life and in my rabbinate, I often draw on the story of journey from Egypt to the land of Israel. But usually it is a metaphor. This past week, it became much more tangible, literally...
by Webmaster | Aug 13, 2015 | Identity
Talking about your country seems like such a simple task: culture, food, costumes and art. But when you come from such a complex country like mine — Colombia — the “simple” categories can disappear. Every single fact has a deep and sometimes tough story to tell. A few...
by Webmaster | Jul 29, 2015 | Identity
Whenever I visit somewhere new, whether in my country of origin or somewhere foreign, I typically stand on the periphery at first to “take it all in.” As Friday night services ended at a new place recently, I watched the locals exchange the global sabbatical...
by Webmaster | Jul 22, 2015 | Identity
I am black, and I am Jewish. I’ve always found comfort in the and of my identity — that simple part of speech that joins together two disparate things: two families, two histories, two cultures, two heritages, two skin colors, two lineages of trauma, two pathways to...
by Webmaster | Jul 16, 2015 | Identity, Jewish Ritual
“’…But, mother, I won’t be alone. Other children will go with me, And march the streets of Birmingham to make our country free.’ ‘No, baby, no, you may not go, for I fear those guns will fire. But you may go to church instead, and sing in the children’s choir…’ The...
by Webmaster | Jul 7, 2015 | Identity
My maternal great-grandfather was a German Jewish immigrant named Adolph Altschul. His wife was a freed slave woman, Maggie Carson. She was so light-skinned she could have passed for white, and one of Adolph’s and Maggie’s daughters did when she grew up. In the 1870...
