Rabbi Ira Youdovin: The Night the Rabbi Stole a Christmas Tree ‘Twas the twilight before Christmas. As I walked past the display of yuletide and Chanukah decorations in the lobby of my Chicago condo, Byron, one of the deskmen, came up to me with a very un-Christmas-like frown. He had planned to purchase a Christmas [...]
Verna Gindoff: Conversion in the Time of Covid Although I was brought up in the Church of England, I have long felt a strong affinity with Judaism. I had thought about converting many times over the years but there was always a part of me that knew my mother would disapprove. Her Christian faith was [...]
Bryan Gindoff: A Silver Lining My wife, Verna, converted to Judaism this year and that has been hugely important to my own practice of Judaism. But Covid (with Zoom) is running a close second. A classic in the genre of every cloud having a silver lining. Covid has propelled us into celebrating online Shabbats with [...]
Barbara Greenleaf: The Sunday School of Grandma and Grandpa When our younger daughter saw that Sunday school was not going to reopen due to the Coronavirus, she asked her father and me if we would take over her boys’ religious education. We just looked at each other blankly and, frankly, a little panic-stricken. Neither of [...]