Rabbi Yonah Bookstein

The power of teshuva can turn this hurtful incident into a one that teaches compassion and love.

Delmon should keep swinging the bat in a Tigers uniform because Judaism believes in the God of second chances. Judaism instructs us that we must give everyone the opportunity to make amends. In...

Los Angeles is home to more Israelis than many Israeli cities. And yet, last year the Israeli Festival was cancelled after falling on financial ruin, and a lack of general community support. It seemed that this most Israeli of American cities, was going to let Israeli Independence go by without...

What do you get when you cross Passover and a massive Hip Hop Festival? A get yo' matzah kind of seder.

For the first time that I can recall, these two distinct events -- hip hop show and a Passover seder -- will be celebrated together.

The Shabbat Tent Passover...

My name is Rabbi Yonah, and I am over-wired.

Tethered to my iPhone. Waiting for the ding or buzz to announce some new tidbit of information. Someone re-tweeted. Breaking news from who-knows-where. Is that a text message? An appointment?

At the office the routine doesn't change. Even on...

Before there was Earth Day, the Jewish people introduced an "Earth Day" of the full moon of the Jewish month of Shevat.

Called Tu Bishvat, the 15th of Shevat, it marks the time of year in Israel when sap begins to flow, giving new life to the trees. Awareness...

If you want your restaurant to prosper, give free food to the homeless. This is according to the anecdotal evidence put forward by my homeless friend Yehuda. Yehuda has been on the streets for five years in Los Angeles and can can't shake a heroin addiction. He lives on small...

New Year's is a massive celebration we have been looking forward to for some time. Before We head off to the night club to party, before we pop that champagne cork, let's take a few steps back. The New Year is not just a chance to party, it is also...

There are many reports, videos and photos online capturing the protests, violence and arrests as the final, large-scale Occupy protest in the country came to end. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to tell my story as a clergy witness to the police crackdown on dissident voices and the disgraceful conduct of...

The Festival of Lights is being transformed this year into the Festival of YouTube Videos. Since YouTube first appeared, our people have developed a new obsession with making holiday videos. But nothing can come close to competing with Hanukkah. From Israel to California, the People of the Book are breaking...

The Jewish world is in spasms over Matisyahu's facial hair.

Even before I awoke in Los Angeles, text messages were lining up like Hanukkah cards from the East Coast asking, "Is it true?" The blogs are on fire with questions like "Did...

This week the city of Los Angles announced that after two months the tent city known as Occupy LA would be dispersed -- by force, if necessary. The city is offering the inhabitants 10,000 square feet of office space, some urban farmland and...

The facts are horrific. Video capture the brutal attack on the side of a busy street. Onlookers and passerby don't come to the victims aid. Eventually, the bruised, bleeding, half-dead body is attended to by medical personal, but it is too late. The victim dies.

No, I am not talking...

The story of creation begins again this week in synagogues around the world. The Jewish people make a global reset and roll-back our Torah scrolls. Fresh and new, our world is set in motion with organic divine harmony, only to be disrupted by human folly.

This annual cosmic rewind...

As the sun sets on Wednesday, Oct. 12, the Jewish community begins the Festival of Sukkot, a spiritual harvest festival commemorating the historic journey of the ancient Hebrews across the desert, the bounty of the fall harvest, and our reliance on God.

However, Sukkot is much more than a...

There was a pogrom in Egypt Friday night.

The intentions of the mob were obvious. According to eyewitness Rev. Giovanni Esti, a Catholic priest and missionary of the Comboni order, "We saw the group that attacked the Israeli embassy. It is hard...

I got a text this week from a Polish friend that was particularly disturbing: the monument to the victims of the Jedwabne Pogrom was defaced by vandals who wrote, "I'm not apologizing for Jedwabne" and "they were flammable."

Jedwabne is a tinderbox sparking...

Earlier this year I sat down for lunch in Miami with Adam Weinberg, a full-time music producer and musician, and a musical advisor for Jewlicious. He told me he had a song on his phone that I had to listen to which he...

Matisyahu stood out in front of the crowd. He had just stage-dived head first off of a 15 foot-high stack of speakers from the side of the stage. The crowd held him aloft and returned him to the stage as if rehearsed.

"Detroit,"...

An elephant collapsed shortly after performing at a Ringling Bros. Circus on Aug. 7 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Sarah, a 54-year-old Asian elephant, was boarding a rail car when she collapsed. As a spiritual leader deeply committed to the welfare of animals, the news of...