The minute the weather turned permanently colder, with no chance of more warm, short-sleeve days, my mother would make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce with what seemed like hundreds of meatballs. I … more

My wife and I recently had lunch with a longtime friend, Fortuna Calvo Roth. Fortuna is an award-winning journalist with an amazing list of accomplishments. She was recently honored by the … more

Our parasha relates the deaths of one of history’s most spiritually dynamic couples, Sarah and Avraham: “And Sarah died in Kiriath Arba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and … more

As I sit here writing this article for Sukkot, I find it hard to believe that Sukkot is already here. It seems like it’s been just a few months since the sukkah was stored away. Oh, wait, it … more

No, I haven’t retired! I had a busy few weeks, but now I’m back. Sukkot was great: I had my kids, my adorable granddaughter Arielle, and my granddogs Murphy and Penny, along with … more

Two weeks ago, Jerry’s daughter Jordana (yes, we each have a daughter named Jordana) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Adel Mattel Sara (Mattel was Jerry’s mom’s name). When the … more

Grief is the most powerful and most painful of human emotions. Yet it is an emotion few human beings can avoid in their lifetime. We all face loss, and we all grieve. Interestingly, the first … more

When the Jewish Federations of North America assembled in Tel Aviv last week for their annual General Assembly, they did so under the title “We Need to Talk,” the “we” … more

I’m so worried about the situation on the Gaza border, yet I rarely hear a peep about it in the news — even in the Israeli news cycle. Is this just the new normal that Israel is … more

He will lie, sir, with such volubility, that you would think truth were a fool,” opines one character about another in William Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. It is an … more