From the Executive Editor

In My Own Words: My electronic scare

By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Electronics make our lives wonderful – that is, when they work. Those of us who depend on them due to disabilities can start to take them for granted, at least until they don’t work. That happened to me the other month with my cochlear implant.

Since the pandem…

In My Own Words: Continuing to live in a pandemic

By Rabbi Rachel Esserman 

“I don’t think we’re ever going back to normal. I think we’re all going to have to decide how much risk we’re willing to take.” That quote paraphrases what a friend said to me recently when we were talking about the continuing COVID pandemic. She has a…

In My Own Words: Thoughts about dead Jews

By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Did anyone else ever read the Anne Frank quote, “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart,” and wonder if Frank would have felt the same after being taken to the concentration camp where she died? Dara Horn has. She has diffic…

In My Own Words: Afghanistan

By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

 

Ever have so many confusing thoughts about an issue that you feel like you are being pulled in two different directions? That’s the way I feel about the war in Afghanistan: not just the end of the war, which is what most people are concentrating on, but the wa…

What are our government’s responsibilities?

By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

 

What are our government’s responsibilities to its citizens? It was a comment by a Pennsylvania lawmaker that made me think about this question. Rep. Jim Cox, chairman of the House Labor and Industry Committee, complained that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration s…