Last night, I led a discussion with over a dozen young adults (20s-30s) in Costa Mesa to hear their ideas about what they are interested in doing for Jewish learning opportunities. Suggestions from participants included topics, locations, and events to do. It was a nice opportunity for them to haveContinue Reading
A question I frequently receive is “What are you up to for the summer?” As it turns out, it is not time off. Yes, school is out, so there is no programming, per se, with university (or high school) students. However, there are occasional Shabbat dinners with Beach Hillel, meetingsContinue Reading
A week and a half ago, I returned from Israel, having – for my first time – led a Taglit Birthright Israel trip. It was quite a trip and there is much to say about it! Look for future posts about the trip on this blog 🙂 One thing thatContinue Reading
I will be serving as one of two leaders on an upcoming Taglit-Birthright Israel trip and I’m very excited, as it will be my first time ever going as a trip leader (I went 13+ years ago on a trip as a participant). The trip provider with whom we willContinue Reading
As the spring semester is wrapping up, I wanted to share which discussions I have led at which campuses here in Southern California, through my current position as rabbi of Southern California Jewish Student Services. I will start off with my two discussions at California State University, Fullerton with theContinue Reading
The other night, I led an in-depth textual exploration of the prohibition of intermarriage in Judaism. It was the fourth and final event in a series to combine a spirits-tasting alongside a deep textual exploration of a topic in Jewish tradition in the 2013-2014 (5774) year. One of the moreContinue Reading
Last week, I joined with a family (and their friends and family) to celebrate their son becoming a bar mitzvah. A question I got frequently was, “Where is the Torah-reading?” When this family initially reached out to me in the summer of 2012, they indicated that they wanted to doContinue Reading
Recently, I came to the realization that I was approaching each and every teaching opportunity as an experiment. As opposed to a set way of leading a discussion, I needed to different styles at each and every opportunity. I think I had come to the realization that the style to whichContinue Reading
This past weekend, I had the honor of being one of the presenters at the tenth annual Jewlicious Festival. Taking place on the historic RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, the festival began in the late afternoon of February 28th and concluded in the late morning on March 2nd.Continue Reading
Last night, I had the honor to speak with Clal’s West Coast Rabbis Without Borders Student Fellowship on the topic of social media, beginning with a text study. While there have been several cohorts of Rabbis Without Borders, as well as a student fellowship on the east coast for theContinue Reading