Chanukah begins this year on the same day as Christmas. It brings to mind a very difficult time I had when I was nine years old. I was the only Jewish kid in my class in Duluth, Minnesota. Thanks to my brother, Jerry, something magical happened that made a very special memory that I cherish.

Make this a Thanksgiving celebration where you make new happy memories. Tell stories about not just what you are thankful for, but about people who are no longer with you. Talk about the funny moments you shared or tell a story about what you learned from someone who was very special to you.

To live in a democracy is a profound gift. Our right to vote, to have a voice in who leads our nation, is too precious to be taken lightly or cast aside in frustration.

The High Holy Days are the most important days on the Jewish calendar. They also stand as a time of complex emotions for many of us.

Sixty years ago this summer I got the best summer job I could have ever hoped to have. I became the first program director at Camp Coleman. Read on to see my film of Camp Coleman in the beginning.

It’s a very old tradition in Judaism to write an ethical will. Here’s what I want you to know about what I think is most important in life.

It is with great pride that I will be joining in the celebration of my grandson, Jacob Singer’s Bar Mitzvah this weekend. Here is what I want him to know.

Something very important happened in my life when I was eleven years old. I was in fifth grade, and the second youngest child in a large family living in a big house in Duluth, Minnesota.

Why does hate persist? Perhaps because it offers immediate gratification, a visceral thrill that temporarily alleviates emotional distress. Kindness, on the other hand, demands patience and long-term investment.

My reflections on how my life as a rabbi was shaped by the importance of social action, and the great civil rights leaders, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

A thank you to all of you who stay in touch. You make me feel like I have been given my pulpit back.

Hope is the little voice you hear whisper “maybe” when the entire world is shouting “no”. 

We cannot be bystanders to bigotry, bullying and hate. We must always persevere and take our responsibility to stand up against antisemitism.

This video is my gift to my family. It is a documentary I produced to tell the story of our family history. It is my hope that you may make this heritage one cornerstone upon which you create the dreams and ideals that you hand to your children.

When was the last time you took time to appreciate nature? Some years ago my granddaughter, Emily, wrote a poem I find very moving. It’s about appreciating the small things in life and opening our eyes to see the beauty around us. She narrated her poem in this video we created together to share some of my favorite pictures from my early morning walks in Florida wetlands.

Yizkor is Hebrew for “remember”. In the Yizkor prayer we ask God to remember the souls of our relatives and loved ones who have passed on. In this video I explain why I think Yizkor is the most important service during the High Holy Days.

As we prepare for the Jewish New Year, uneasy thoughts may come to mind in how life has changed, what we may have lost. But I encourage you to find your way to comfort and a sense of peace with reflections of my own inspired by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.

Attitude is most important in life. When troubles descend upon us, we are often so overwhelmed with emotion that it is difficult to recognize that we have a choice in how to respond.

In this video, I share my thoughts on my personal journey with Parkinson’s Disease and how I learned that old dreams can be replaced with new visions of what life can have in store for us.

This film, “Merle’s Story” was produced for the Parkinson’s 2015 Neuro Film Festival. It is a view of the “what and whys” of my journey with Parkinson’s as I do what I can to live normal and be myself.

In this film produced in 2011, you will learn what Jewish life looked like in Palm Beach County in the early days of Jewish pioneers making their way to Florida, along with how Temple Beth El has evolved as it grew to become one of the largest reform Judaism synagogues in South Florida.