Parenting
A year of parenting in NYC — it’s a helluva town
My oldest son will enter first grade in the fall. Impossible. A new school year marks not only Nate’s rocketing through the milestones of childhood, but…
Torah
The ‘giants’ of the Torah and the Giants of S.F.
Eikev Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25 Isaiah 49:14–51:3 A few years ago, when I was attending Jewish Heritage Night at AT&T Park as the Giants beat the…
Mixed & Matched
Is b’nai mitzvah prep too demanding on families’ time?
Dear Dawn: I am Jewish, and my husband was Catholic but no longer identifies with any religion. I care strongly about raising our children Jewish, and my…
Celebrity Jews
'Make Americano Great Again'
Streaming now Netflix is streaming a new, one-woman stand-up special starring Iliza Shlesinger, 35. Shlesinger’s humor is in the vein of Amy Schumer, 37,…
Torah
What do you covet? And what does that say about you?
Vaetchanan Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11 Isaiah 40:1–26 I’ve always been fascinated by the character Veruca Salt in the original “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate…
Organic Epicure
Chabad rabbi makes a deal with the Devil and learns to raise pigs
Did you hear about the Chabad guy working for the pig farmer? No joke. Mendel Rice approached the farmer at the Marin Farmers Market last fall and asked…
Parenting
Cherished pots hold family memories
After we got engaged and after we chose a wedding date, we registered for a set of milchig pots and a set of fleishig pots along with dinnerware,…
Torah
As we mourn on Tisha B’Av, look to Isaiah’s vision of a healed nation
Devarim Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 Isaiah 1:1-27 We find ourselves in a time of mourning. This Saturday evening begins Tisha B’Av (the Ninth of Av), culminating…
Religion
In US Judaism, we’re all ‘Catalogists’ now
I have belonged to six synagogues as an adult, representing all the major denominations except, purely by chance, Reconstructionism. Perhaps that makes me…