Recently a curious woman looked me up and down, and followed her inquisitive look with this question: 

"What are you?" 

"I beg your pardon..?" 

"What do you call yourself... you know, your Jewish affiliation..."

"My affiliation?"

"Yes, what are you -- your Jewish label?"
   
Once again,...

Regret is a difficult thing to get over. It can eat at one's psyche like a cancer and force a person to relive painful memories over and over. I've gotten caught up in regret before. The problem with regret is it forces a person to stand still, feet wedged in...

This year at the Los Angeles Herzog International Wine Festival, I swore I'd figure out a way to dispose any loose ends so I wouldn't have my hands full like in previous years. Navigating a room filled with bite sized kosher appetizers, dozens of fine kosher wines, while carrying a...

As Lance Armstrong's latest Oprah interview hits the network, it has me thinking deeply about heroism and our society's obsession with labeling people into perfect role models. While like many I am saddened to hear about Lance's use of performance drugs, I am far from devastated as a result of...

Today I was chatting with a colleague of mine who was adamant that he did not want to write, read or comment on the Sandy Hook shootings. While I have been engrossed in the media frenzy, combing Google articles, watching CNN and FOX and reading blogs, he has flat out...

Do our negative thoughts and fears have the power to control our outcome? Over the course of the last few months I have had several people call me for advice in the midst of their serious crisis of faith. Their crisis of faith was not just faith in G-d but...

When walking in to the Feldman's home, one can't help but notice the challenge they face. The sign on the front door kindly asking visitors who are sick to refrain from coming in, the large bottle of hand sanitizer that sits on the side table in the foyer, the smell...

There are those times when we arrive at a crossroad in our lives when a particular place with a set of circumstances all point to a moment that we can decide to use our actions to set a course that has the power to make a difference beyond our wildest...

I am not sure how to get over a broken heart, for what is a broken heart but a deep swelling in your body that remains void where an unconditional accepting love once filled it? What do we fill this void with? Does every person carry this void around at...

I have been getting many texts and e-mails asking me to weigh in on the latest New York Times article, "Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own," regarding the reports of horrific sexual abuse cases that have gone ignored or have been swept under the rug by religious leaders in the...

This Mother's day wouldn't be the same if we didn't find a way to scoff at the hilarious and ridiculous social age that we live in that causes mothers and their children unneeded and sometimes impossible conflicts. Today we have texting, emails, and now, Facebook, a social media outlet, that...

I walked in to an apartment not really knowing what to expect. A tall woman with high cheekbones and kind eyes greeted me at the door. Although I had never met her before, she was hardly a stranger. Paintings of little girls in vibrant colorful worlds holding the pain of...

Quiet the volume and listen to the noise
Underneath the veins of the city that's alive
art cries through the mouths of starving folk
songs cry through the vocals pleading hope

Time is running, running, running
and the trains are coming, coming, coming

And we wait...

When Kenyetta Lethridge wrote the play Innocent Flesh, I doubt she even realized the strong and gripping impact it would have on her audience. After playing in Los Angeles for several months, it is now set to be featured in New York City off Broadway, as well. With a bare...

I was invited to attend the Dr. Phil show last week to offer commentary on their feature story about a young and beautiful woman who had a tale of unsettling circumstances in regard to her Hasidic background. As the Dr. Phil show unfolded, I listened intently to a young woman named...

The holiday of Passover reminds us of the Jewish struggle for freedom that happened over 3000 years ago as well as the yearning for a brighter future when eventually all of mankind will have the opportunity to live as free men. Today we don't have miracles like rivers turning to...

This morning I'm making a French toast breakfast when I peer up towards the television and see a vision that nearly knocks me off my feet. Normally, I don't allow TV during the week. If my kids want to watch a movie now and again, I don't mind as long...

Since my father's death a year and a half ago, I have been to 10 funerals and I have mourned countless young deaths. I think the number was up to 22 young deaths of people I knew within the last year and a half. 23 months ago, on my birthday,...

Every year I spend one night of Hanukkah with my grandmother, who is 89 years old. And every year it seems that I manage to leave this poor woman in tears. The last time I showed up at my Bubby's house for Hanukkah I forgot to close the oven door...

What is the real meaning behind the menorah? What is it supposed to represent exactly?

Let's review some events that occurred around the time the Syrian Greeks took over the Holy Temple, desecrated it and sent the Jews a-packing. In 167 B.C.E., King Antiochus ordered the erection of Zeus...