What does a father do when he realizes that he has favored one of his children and created sibling rivalry and hatred among them? When it comes to favoring a child, most parents would claim that they treat all their children equally. Yet children may feel and experience the relationship differently. Some may feel special, while others feel less appreciated and not loved enough. Parents may be unaware of their own actions when they single a child by showering favors, or praises that make other sibling feel envious, slighted and resentful.
Category Archives: Articles
From the 2nd Generation on the 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht by Josh Herz
Good evening. Like many others of my generation, I heard some stranger-than-fiction Holocaust stories when I was growing up: from family, extended family, and friends of family. And when I did, I discovered that different people come away from trauma with different responses, on emotional, personal, and political levels. In the case of my mother, the response was a continuous stream of activity and optimism.
She kept herself busy by first volunteering and then leading at the ARC of Monroe, with teaching conflict resolution in city schools, with public speaking on her Holocaust experience, with obtaining 2 master’s degrees, with supporting friends and family – her in-laws lived next door, and we had cousins worldwide who lived with us for extended periods – and with her own physical and spiritual development, and all this while raising 4 children.
Grief, Hope, and the Vote by Ayala Emmett
Photo credit: BPD Chief Mark Henderson.
On Saturday October 29, a domestic terrorist with neo-Nazi hatred shot and killed eleven congregants in the sanctuary of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Many of us around the country heard the terrible news moments later. The next day, on a rainy Sunday evening we came to the same sanctuary at Temple B’rith Kodesh that a day earlier we entered for the Shabbat morning service. The doors that would normally open on the High Holy Days were wide open to accommodate hundreds of people. Thousands came.
Thoughts about Pittsburgh by Peter Eisenstadt
When the news came about the massacre in the synagogue in Pittsburgh, we were all horrified, but I don’t think anyone was really surprised. The question of “ it happening here” in recent years has been more a matter of “when” than “if.” Rhetorical violence begets real violence. The news cycle for mass shootings have become shorter and shorter. A brief flare of outrage; some people say there are too many guns; idiots like our president complain that there aren’t enough guns. The news media shares and milks the grief of the loved ones of the victims for a few days, impotent anger at the inability to change the political dynamic is expressed; the next big story emerges, and the caravan passes on.
Every Person has a Name by Zelda. In memory of the tragedy at Tree of Life Synagogue
Every person has a name
Given to them by God
And given by their father and his mother
Every person has a name
Given them by stature and their way of smiling,
And given to them by their clothes.
Every person has a name
Given by the mountains
And given by their walls
Every person has a name
Given by the planets
And given by their neighbors
Every person has a name
Given by their regrets
And given by their longing
Every person has a name given by those who hate them
And given by love
Every person has a name
Given them by holidays
And given them by their handiwork
Every person has a name
Given by the seasons of the year
And given by their blindness
Every person has a name
Given to them by the sea
And given to them
By their death.
Wonder Working Providence by Peter Eisenstadt
Last Sunday, I was worried. My wife, Jane, was worried. I had been diagnosed with a retinal detachment in my left eye. We would be driving the next day to Atlanta, about a two and a half hour drive (traffic permitting, which it usually doesn’t) for a second opinion. Often for retinal detachments one is instructed not to read for a period of time, and I was thinking about what it would be like not to be able to read for any length of time. My wife was worried about me and worried about having to take care of me. For me, reading, right after eating and sleeping, has been an essential function of my life as long as I can remember, and I was thinking of how much I take for granted my ability to read, and how much I owe to the marks on a piece of paper or pixels on a screen that allow me to summon whole worlds.
The Caravan of Hope To the US Border
An email from Pamela Yates to artesiaotg@aila.org
We are on the ground with the caravan as they cross through Guatemala and approach the Mexican border today, traveling along the coastal road to Tapachula, Chiapas.
The caravan has swelled. The Guardian is reporting that there are now 3000 people.
As you may have read, the Mexican government has sent 500 Federal Police to the Guatemalan/Mexico border, and Trump is threatening to send US Army reinforcement to the US/Mexican border.
I know this a little off topic, but I thought the visual information could help all the OTG people in the US when preparing to receive people. If they are allowed to cross.
Vigils are as American as Apple-Pie by Ayala Emmett
After a rainy morning, the sun came out as we gathered around Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite on Mt. Hope cemetery. There were some thirty of us, three-generation families, some veterans of vigils, several children and baby Dror, at four months, in a stroller. We held a vigil for justice during the infamous week of a Senate sham investigation, and just two days before the Republicans voted to put Brett Kavanaugh, an accused sexual assaulter, on the Supreme Court.
We chose Mt. Hope cemetery because in every corner of this land there are statues, monuments and cemeteries reminding us of a long history of struggle for democracy. In places around the country there have been Americans who have acted with courage and determination to make the Declaration of Independence a social reality for all. And so we chose to have our vigil at the Susan B. Anthony gravesite.
A Far-Too-Common Story: Rabbi Tulik’s Sermon – Yom Kippur Morning
The Jewish community sees my husband as a respected professional who is educated, talented, outgoing, friendly, loving, caring, and compassionate. They see him give generously to Jewish organizations in the area and working around the world. They honor his commitment to the Jewish community, to the synagogue, to his large and well known family. The community sees my husband as a mensch. They were not witness to what took place in the privacy of our home. No one saw him hit me. Choke me. Bite me. No one heard him call me worthless, tell me I’m stupid, throw plates on the floor because the food I’d cooked was “disgusting”. No one was present when he dragged me by my hair out of our child’s room and promised that I would not survive the night. The Jewish community sees my husband but they don’t see everything.
Rosh Hashanah and the Death of a Metaphor by Deborah Kornfeld
The sun is setting, orange and pink rays are caught by the darkened clouds. It is the Sabbath. In synagogues all over the world, Jews greet the Sabbath with psalms and songs. “Tzaddik k’tamar yeefrach, k’erez balvanon yisge. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon” (Psalm:92:12).
The Hebrew Bible abounds in botanical imagery. The Cedar of Lebanon stands close to 115 feet high with strong, deep roots and a wide canopy of branches, the oldest Cedars are thousands of years old. These trees are resilient and useful. The righteous person stands tall and proud with wide arms to embrace all. The righteous person stands in this world with deep roots in traditions and a crown of branches reaching to the heavens.