A Parent in Israel

Would you give up on orgasm?

June 6, 2022

Does giving pre-teens puberty blockers constitute child abuse? Can a nine-year-old choose to give up on something as fundamental as sexual pleasure?

Read the full article →

Dreaming of Dubai

May 8, 2022

Reflections on four days in Dubai: Miracle Garden, Expo 2020, Global Village, Butterfly Garden, Desert Safari, Dubai Marina, Burj Khalifa

Read the full article →

I never want to get sick…ever again

January 2, 2022

Covid, the flu, the common cold…I never want to get sick ever again. Which is completely unrealistic. It goes against what it means to be human

Read the full article →

Welcome to the world, baby boy

December 4, 2021

My wife, Jody, and I joined a club that we really wanted entrance to – the grandparents club. Here’s what I said at the brit milah ceremony.

Read the full article →

How to not celebrate a birthday during corona

September 27, 2020

I wanted to skip my birthday this year in the midst of corona. Here’s how I transformed a singular birth date into a year-long, hopeful process.

Read the full article →

Kaddish in 103,000 words

August 16, 2020

When my father died, I wondered if there was something personally meaningful I could do that could serve as an alternative to Kaddish. This is the story of the book that resulted.

Read the full article →

When did your pandemic end?

June 7, 2020

Pandemics typically have two types of endings. The medical and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. Are we there?

Read the full article →

Corona calculations for the Seder

April 12, 2020

Our family went to extraordinary lengths to try to be together for Pesach Seder and to keep me, a high-risk patient, safe. Did we succeed?

Read the full article →

Twenty-five reasons to live in Israel

October 13, 2019

Last week marked our “aliyah-versary.” Twenty-five years ago, on October 10, 1994, my wife, Jody, and our two young children immigrated to Jerusalem from Berkeley, Calif. A third child – our only Sabra – was born a few years later. So, on this, the silver anniversary of our Israeli citizenship, I present 25 reasons to […]

Read the full article →

Datlashim: can there be a second generation?

August 4, 2019

Last year, I wrote a column that asked the question: “how do datlashim – the Hebrew acronym for formerly religious Jews – want to raise their children?” The main response I received during the course of my research: “to be just like them”– that is, to also be datlashim. This poses a dilemma, as to […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries