By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Readers might think there are no more World War II stories to tell. Yet, new nonfiction works appear on a regular basis. Sometimes, it’s because a researcher takes an interest in a different aspect of the war or because top-secret files have finally been declassif…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
This bat mitzvah project was personal. Shayna Foreman, the daughter of Abbi and Brett Foreman of Vestal, used the money she raised from her bat mitzvah project to buy medical alert bracelets because she knew their importance: two years ago, two friends of hers were …
By Bill Simons
On a Father’s Day several years ago, my father, my son and I stood before a large wall mirror adjusting our ties as we prepared to join the rest of the family. In the mirror image, the three generations were looking good – and upbeat. Then, my father turned to the empty s…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Spoiler alert: Rabbi Wayne Allen’s “Thinking about Good and Evil: Jewish Views from Antiquity to Modernity” (The Jewish Publication Society) does not solve the theological problem of good and evil. In fact, Allen notes that’s not even the purpose of his book…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Two novels written almost 80 years apart. Two authors describing a reality that borders on absurdity. Two characters whose flight from the Nazis mixes humor and horror. These statements only partly describe “The Passenger” by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz (Metropol…
