There are moments in time that take our breath away. We ponder what we believe. We question why things happen. We wonder if a situation will resolve and whether or not we will have the strength to persist.
In June, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland adopted a set of policy recommendations to help achieve safe and accessible elections in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by our Jewish values and our commitment to public health, we strongly believe that people should not have to choose b…
As philosopher and playwright Mike Tyson once said: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
As a pre-teen, I memorized the entire ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. At age 11, I had The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s cadence and hand gestures down exactly. My parents would often direct me to recite it when friends and family would stop by our home.
Regardless of occasional claims to the contrary, Judaism does not command that we support a specific political party, candidate or point of view. Neither does the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), the Talmud or any other sacred Jewish text.
The realities of COVID-19 have imposed restrictions on how we are able to serve the community.
With Cleveland’s Jewish community comfortably living across Cleveland’s east side suburbs, its easy to forget that the original developers of those communities wanted to prohibit Jews and African Americans from living in parts of Shaker, Heights, Beachwood, University Heights, Moreland Hills…
Today, we begin Elul and next month, Rosh Hashanah. Thoughts of reconciliation should tint everything we do. We should reconcile with people in all our relationships – friends, acquaintances, family and extended family.
I love Beachwood, but as a Black resident with two sons at Beachwood Middle School and a daughter at Beachwood High School, I am furious. A Beachwood police officer firing two shots into the side of a car of a suspected shoplifter at Beachwood Place in June 2019 as he drove away should make …
A diverse population means diverse legal problems.
After adding the finishing touches, your new invention is now complete. It’s new, nothing anyone has ever seen. But there is a final step before introducing your idea to the public – that is obtaining a patent.
Our congregations are defined by the connections we share among each other, not contained, or limited by a physical space. Throughout this COVID-19 pandemic, access to our physical spaces has remained limited.
From the air we breathe to the water we drink and the land we walk on, environmental law protects all aspects of daily life and industry.
Like many people, when the coronavirus quarantine began, I decided I was going to make the best of a tough situation. Some people took up baking sourdough bread. I chose to memorialize my grandmother’s Holocaust experience. Not exactly an uplifting project during a pandemic, but I’ve wanted …
My grandfather, Rabbi Leibel Alevsky, director of Chabad of Northeast Ohio, moved to Cleveland in 1971 to establish a permanent Chabad presence. Prior to that, he served as the director of public relations in the Lubavitch Youth Organization based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Near the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, amidst stay-at-home orders and our seemingly never-ending winter weather, I frequently found myself bobbing up and down on a surfboard in the waters off of Edgewater Park, just west of downtown Cleveland. Early May’s unseasonably cold weather was a …
As the Cleveland Board of Rabbis, we issue the following statement against systemic racism and the unjust treatment and persecution of African Americans.
Stop saying you are proud of America.
Just days ago, I didn’t know the name of George Floyd. I do now.
A year ago on a cool morning in Jerusalem, I walked to the Western Wall of the ancient Temple. I had just completed two weeks leading an Israel trip for my synagogue. I walked to the Old City alone. When I reached the Kotel, I lay my forehead against its ancient stones.
