DJC Blog

I want us to talk about what it’s like to be a Jew in North America right now. For the past several decades, Jews, more specifically white, Ashkenazi Jews, have largely felt safe on this continent. Watching angry, armed white supremacists marching in the streets with torches and swastika flags; hearing about members of the […]

“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.” – Elie Wiesel. Charlottesville, Virginia became the centre of the universe last week, as white nationalists rallied in the name of racist and anti-Semitic hatred, as hatred […]

I’m involved in an initiative that I want you to know about — the $15 and Fairness Campaign. This initiative is working to raise Ontario employment standards, affecting a range of concerns from fairer wages, to sick leave, to the protected right to unionize. Currently, a person in Ontario could struggle to get by working […]

This June will mark fifty years since the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The marking of a span of fifty years has deep significance in Jewish life. It is called yovel / the Jubilee. According to Leviticus 25:8-24, the yovel is described as a sacred time of release and redemption, letting […]

I am grateful for my colleague and friend Aviva Chernick for the inspiring conversation and teachings that stirred these words. The earth is renewing itself. Trees that have been stark and bare for months are coming alive again, dotted with tender green, waiting to open. The light petals of cherry blossoms and the thick pink […]

I recently participated in a three-day consultation in the U.S. with an organization called New Paradigm Spiritual Communities Initiative. Headed by Rabbi Sid Schwarz, innovative Jewish leaders from across North America were invited to come together to share what we’ve been learning, what we are building, and to address central questions and challenges we face […]

In Amnesty International’s recently released annual report, its authors state that the prevalence of hate crimes and hate speech world-wide have not been this high since the 1930s. This year has seen thirty-six different countries closing their doors to refugees and sending them back to the very conflict zones they were fleeing. It has been […]

I shared the following words at the DJC Shabbat morning service on Saturday, January 21st, the day of the Women’s Marches around the world and the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. I’d like to share them with the wider DJC community. Shabbat shalom everyone. It is good to be here. I need Jewish community today. […]

Recently, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted an early Chanukah reception at the White House. I think his words convey insights about Chanukah and the power of this moment with clarity and humour that are worth sharing. One of the core lines of his message, that a small group can make a […]

In the final album of the magnificent poet of the human soul, Leonard Cohen, alav ha’shalom (peace be upon him),his deep, graveled voice rolls these words alongside the eerie vocal beauty of the choir of his childhood shul: If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game. If you are the healer, it means […]

Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start, again (queue Julie Andrews dancing in the Alps with a Torah). With the recent celebration of Simchat Torah on October 23rd and 24th, the full arc of the High and Holy days of 5777 has come to a close with joy, dancing, and […]

Before we even reach the High Holy Days, I want to invite us to think about what is possible after the High Holy Days. The Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe that reach from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur, are filled with intensity — an immersive experience with community, engaged in deep inner searching and […]

Thirteen years ago, I was in prison. I was not an inmate. I was working for an organization called Tova: Artistic Projects for Social Change, and I was assisting Tova’s founder, Teya Sepinuck, who was creating a theatre project with prison inmates. The piece was called Living with Life. In it, eight men serving life […]

I am writing to you from Israel. I have been in Israel for three weeks and I’m overflowing with images and experiences that weave together the deeply heart-breaking and profoundly inspiring realities of life here. I have been having conversations with you about it all in my mind throughout my trip (even though this is […]

The Yiddish word bashert means “intended.” It has the connotation of a connection that was meant to be. Destined. Guided. Two people intended to find one another. It is usually used for those romantic connections when a seemingly random series of events brings two people to reach for the same copy of a rare lithograph […]

Have you ever heard of or thought about language liberation? I was recently at a counseling conference and an integral part of the conference included translation of all of the lectures, teachings, and announcements from English into French, sentence by sentence, in front of the group. Only about a fifth of the people in the […]

Genesis 32 describes Jacob preparing to meet his brother Esau after twenty years of separation, coming face to face with the brother he cheated out of his birthright and their father’s blessing. Alone and in darkness, Jacob encounters an angel who wrestles with him all night. At dawn, the angel wrenches Jacob’s hip so from […]

“A rabbi with whom no one disagrees is not a rabbi; a rabbi with whom everyone disagrees is not a mensch.” These are the words of Rabbi Israel Salanter, father of the Mussar (ethical character development) movement of the 19th century. I see it as a rabbinic art form and an act of devotion to […]

At the most recent Wrestling Together community conversation, we explored ways that each of us has been impacted and distorted by anti-Semitism. Our personal stories, alongside historical context, hold the keys to understanding how we, individually and collectively, carry the damaging effects of this systemic oppression against Jews. If you are Jewish, this can be […]

Please Note: This article is too brief a discussion of sensitive, complicated ideas. If anything I have said here is upsetting and angering to you, or you would like to explore these perspectives more fully, I particularly invite you to be in touch with me for conversation and so I can learn more about your […]