By Bill Simons
On a Father’s Day several years ago, my father, my son and I stood before a large wall mirror adjusting our ties as we prepared to join the rest of the family. In the mirror image, the three generations were looking good – and upbeat. Then, my father turned to the empty s…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
This bat mitzvah project was personal. Shayna Foreman, the daughter of Abbi and Brett Foreman of Vestal, used the money she raised from her bat mitzvah project to buy medical alert bracelets because she knew their importance: two years ago, two friends of hers were …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Readers might think there are no more World War II stories to tell. Yet, new nonfiction works appear on a regular basis. Sometimes, it’s because a researcher takes an interest in a different aspect of the war or because top-secret files have finally been declassif…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Post-Soviet Union Jewish identity: is there such a thing? It’s difficult to come up with a specific name for those who once lived in what is now the former U.S.S.R.: Soviet Jews, Russian Jews, or Jews-whose-identity-card-may-have-said-they-were-Jewish-but-who-donâ…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Jewish summer food has been on my mind now that the hot weather has hit – or rather the lack of food that could be called that. The only specific Jewish summer food I remember from my childhood is the cold borscht my father used to eat: the beet soup turned a beau…
