I read What Strange Paradise at the same time as I came across the story of Yusra Mardini, whose biography was made into the Netflix movie, The Swimmers. That the stories parallel one another (with the exception of the outcome) was fascinating to me, and reinforced the reality behind each narrative. I’d never read much…
Category: Thinking Out Loud
People Love Dead Jews, by Dara Horn
How can you not read a book titled People Love Dead Jews?? It is a book that, in truth, demands to be read, although after reading it, I can attest that it is as much for the content as the title. The author, Dara Horn, is an accomplished novelist, and an academic trained in Yiddish…
A Modern Orthodox Challenge?
I noticed a trend a few years ago of people speaking about the experience of Modern Orthodox (MO) high schools starting to seem more like NCSY Shabbatonim, with a focus on the experiential, fun, and social elements of religious life. I’ve talked about it with a few friends, including administrators in some of these schools…
Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri
I find myself drawn to writers who write about the immigrant, or second generation immigrant experience, who have to negotiate the boundary between the new culture they desperately want to fit into, and the parent culture that they can’t, or their parents won’t let them, let go of. I’m thinking of people like Philip Roth…
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden power of character – Paul Tough
When I was reading How Children Succeed: Git, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, a family member said she couldn’t imagine how I continue to find these kinds of books interesting. I took this as a fair comment about where my interests lie, and that they may not overlap with too many others. As…
“How do I keep my child in shul??”
I was speaking to a parent this week who struggles to keep her son in shul. We did the blame game at first: it’s the shul’s fault for not offering enough or the right tefilah options for kids; it’s the parents’ fault for not insisting that their children stay with them during tefilah; it’s the…
The Friction of Learning
I think in the last 12 years I’ve had about one summer ‘off’, which is to say, a summer where I wasn’t doing a Masters, PhD, HOS training, or HOS mentoring. When I had that summer break it was, despite my best efforts, not a great break, or as my wife likes to remind me,…
The Lowland – Jhump Lahiri
Even as I finished this book a few weeks ago, The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri, continues to hold something over me, hovering in the back of my mind and heart. It left an unexpectedly strong emotional resonance that drew me in and left an impression. The title of the book reflects the neighborhood in Calcutta…
Being Together – The Netivot Shabbaton
I wanted to get some words down in the afterglow of the incredible Netivot Unity Shabbaton. It was even more wonderful than I could have imagined, entirely fulfilling the hope I had back in March when I raised the idea as a way to use the kedusha of Shabbat to bring our community back together. …