Blog

Ninety days ago (Oct 10, 2022), I wrote this blog entitled “Sacred Time and Silver Linings” about what led to meputting JewishGPS’ work on hold, and my entire life on hold, and “temporarily” moving the last few years. In it, I mentioned that at some point I would write about the “Perfect Storm” that allows…

Some might have been wondering why JewishGPS and this blog went silent for many months. Out of respect for my mom’s privacy, her heroic battle against cancer (diagnosed June 2021) was never shared on social media and never talked about in public spaces. As a result, my role as primary live-in caregiver was also not…

I wrote this first piece late on Sunday night (12/5/2021) and shared it to my Facebook page, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Little did I know the reaction it would receive and therefore feel that I need to elaborate even more. INITIAL POST I made a mistake and burned my candle at both ends and up the…

Back in August 2009, I took a leap and nervously jumped into the blogging waters. This was before JewishGPS and so many of my colleagues were blogging already. They were getting some national attention and I knew that I needed to plunge into the pool in order to “keep up.” I had no idea what…

In very early January 2019, I sat in the homes of three Jewish teenagers from Atlanta to engage them in a deep discussion with the goal of creating a portrait of them: their self-schema, their Jewish identity, and the intersection of those. It was during that time that I first learned not only how rampant…

If you haven’t read my post from November 2019 titled, “Unexpected Impact (of my own Israel Education)” then I suggest digesting that first before delving into this commentary. News from Israel is hard to digest. Sometimes it is hard to gather “facts on the ground” through the blaring noise of media bias, sometimes it’s hard…

A couple of years ago as a participant in the M2 Institute for Experiential Jewish Education Senior Educators’ Program, our group debated how learners concretely experience a wide variety of Jewish values. So for example, if we wanted to teach a group of teenagers about the value of “responsibility” we may arrange for a group…

Last year I was delighted be hired as a curriculum consultant/writer as part of a project initiated and funded by Jewish Teen Funders’ Network (JTFN) and developed by M2: the Institute for Experiential Jewish Education. The year-long project was to design a new modular teen philanthropy curriculum rooted in a Jewish framework.  JTFN engaged M2 due…

Ben Bag-Bag was a rabbinic sage and disciple of Rabbi Hillel. Aside from a single adage quoted at the end of Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Ancestors) Chapter 5, he is not mentioned. There he says:  “Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and graywith it.…

In the winter of 2010, I was hired by an organization called Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) (which later morphed and merged into what is now Bend the Arc) to be a service-learning trip leader.  At the training, we were paired with other staff as co-leaders for the trips that year.  I was paired a…