By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Untangling three generations of a complex family history: that’s the reason Alexander Wolff moved to Germany for a year in 2017. He wanted to understand the lives of two men: his grandfather Kurt Wolff and his father Niko Wolff. The German-Jewish Kurt, whose …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
One of my favorite moments in literature occurs in the first chapter of “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. Jane is sitting in a window seat, drawing the curtain closed and reading a book. Something about that moment of comfort and safety stayed with me. Even b…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
On a bicycle built for one
Annie Cohen Kopchovsky’s life was like that of many 20-something Jewish women in Boston during the late 19th century: an arranged marriage, a husband who spent most of his time at the synagogue or reading, and three young children.…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Contemporary America
What does that word mean? What are those initials for? And that game, how do you play it? Those were some of my thoughts when reading two recent novels that take place in contemporary America. Fortunately, an internet search answered my quest…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Jewish sages
When people discuss the Talmud, they usually speak about its legal (halachic) aspects. However, its pages are also filled with aggadic material – stories about the ancient rabbis that were used to teach lessons or illustrate a point. In “The Snake a…
