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Safe in Iraq

Arthur Branner personally recounted his call to Iraq to be chaplain of a battalion for one year.

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Rehearsing for the Jewish High Holy Days

Some years ago I sang as the tenor lay cantor in a Reform Jewish temple. My then voice teacher was the choir director, and there were five voices which made up the lay cantors. He loved the different…

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Ben Blatt

Ben Blatt was a driver for a large company. He worked hard, delivered his packages on time, was friendly with the customers, and met all the job requirements.…

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Angels on Duty

Donna’s husband suddenly left his family without looking back.

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Corrie Ten Boom

The Nazis arrested Corrie and the rest of the ten Boom family in Febuary 1944.

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Samuel Jacobson

Samuel Srolovic Jacobson was born in Lithuania in a loving Orthodox Jewish home. He received religious instruction throughout his childhood and was observant…

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Is God's Law My Creed?

In the 1980’s Gerry was selling religious literature door to door.

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What Ever Happened to Judy

Have you sometimes wondered what happened to friends that you grew up with? I have, we all have.

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Good Hearing, Bad Speaking

You may have heard the saying, “some things are easier said than done.”

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Broken Pasta Dreams and Restored Faith

One day I was in the mood for food (well many days I am in the mood for food), but I had something very specific in mind.

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A Lawsuit with God

One of the most beautifully haunting pieces of cantorial music I have ever sung was called A lawsuit with God. An old pious Jew by the name of Berdeshever…

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T'shuvah

T'shuvah is the Hebrew word, for lack of a better term, meaning return. The Jewish writer Erich Fromm, who was also a practicing psychoanalyst, uses the word…

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Great Bad Timing

I was rushing to go to work since I started driving later than I would have liked, but I knew I had to stop to get some gas eventually.

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Bolster Your Memory

One special evening many years ago a small group of family members began sharing memorized passages from their school days.

Samuel Jacobson

Samuel Srolovic Jacobson was born in Lithuania in a loving Orthodox Jewish home. He received religious instruction throughout his childhood and was observant in all the biblical commandments and…

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Sydell

Sydell Greenberg grew up in a wonderful Jewish home in Brooklyn, New York. As a result of a rough period in her life she started searching for God. Shortly thereafter she accepted Y'shua as her…

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Leaving Your Tooth in a GreenTomato

My brother had tomato plants, but where we lived there was so much wildlife it was hard to get anything out of our gardening efforts. It was decided to place the potted tomato plants on the patio,…

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Mekonen - Journey of an African Jew

Learn Mekonen's incredible and emotional life journey as he immigrates to Israel from an Ethiopian village after his father’s death.

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Tom Kapusta

Tom Kapusta loved his father. Tom was proud of his career in the military. After learning about the seventh day Sabbath Tom's faith in God was challenged in both of these areas that were dear to him.…

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Satan Popped the Watermelon

It was Friday and I was busy cleaning and getting ready for Sabbath as usual. I tossed out an empty bottle of water in the kitchen after crushing it to save space in the trash bag.

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Conquering the Monster of Fear

Years ago the picture on the front of a church bulletin depicted a lovely bird perched on the bough of a tree.

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Quiet Desperation

The writer and great thinker Thoreau wrote “most people lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” It all depends on what song you carry to the grave. In my…

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Bubbe’s Zalts

Bubbe’s Zalts (Yiddish for the word salt) On a scale of one to ten, my mother was a ten. Mama was my heart. My bubbe, however, was a ten and a half! My bubbe never spoke English, only Russian and…

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Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld

Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld came into my life in the early 1960’s. He was then the senior rabbi at the Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio.

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What Ever Happened to Judy

Have you sometimes wondered what happened to friends that you grew up with? I have, we all have.

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God’s Care

Most of the time I prefer to write humorous, light hearted things. This time I want to write something more serious. Not somber, but hopefully uplifting. Some years ago I came upon a short paragraph…

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Is God's Law My Creed?

In the 1980’s Gerry was selling religious literature door to door.

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Cruise Control

I am used to traveling pretty far distances for work but one thing I never really used while driving was cruise control. I knew it was there but I didn’t want to experiment setting it while trying to…

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Phil and Joan

Phil Bova was enjoying his life to the fullest. In addition to his career as an entertainer for many years he was also a lay cantor for a large synagogue near Cleveland, Ohio. That is, until he…

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