The day the first Coronavirus restrictions were announced was the day we buried my Cousin Bill. Our mothers were sisters. He was almost five years my senior, but we grew…

We will all have a new, uninvited guest at our Seder tables this year. It will be COVID-19, the dreaded virus now afflicting the entire world.  I prefer to call…

Is coronavirus an epidemic, or a pandemic?  The names help give possible answers. An epidemic is something that is “visited upon’” a lot of people, because ‘upon’ is what ‘epi’…

Purim is almost upon us: a great time to remember Esther — not only for what she did to save her people (us!), but for Jewish women of our own…

My daughter turned 60 early this month, which has had me thinking for all of February about what I’ve learned from my children. First: I thought back to my wedding…

I never encountered the name “Quezon” until it became part of a movie title: “Quezon’s Game,” which I found to be a quiet revelation. Manuel Quezon was president of the…

Are you familiar with the word bokser? Do you possibly know what it is? If your answer is YES, I won’t be singing to you that ancient song with this…

We’re moving toward the end of some very special days: the first-ever Jewish Genetic Screening Awareness Week. It’s the work of JScreen, headquartered at Atlanta’s Emory University, and the Georgia…

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about libraries. I started out trying to find a particular book to share with my rabbi: We are going to begin Daf Yomi, reading…