It’s Surreal: A Spoken Word Commentary. Seeking ... Something, after Rabbi Aaron Panken’s death
Category: Henaynu Caring
When Cutting One’s Hair for Chemo
When Cutting One’s Hair for Chemo: A Prayer/Blessing/Drash/Spoken Word Rap
Parent-Teen Mental Health and Wellness Summit
The Parent-Teen Mental Health and Wellness Summit realized a dream: to transform our synagogue, Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas), into a truly safe place for teens, their unique emotional journeys, and the parents who love but are unsure of how to protect them.
Teen Mental Health: Rolling Darkness into Light
Why did Congregation Or Ami focus our energies on creating a mental health and wellness retreat? Because today's teens are particularly stressed out, overwhelmed by anxiety, buffetted by the emotional turmoil engendered by social media. They crave support and relief.
Responding to the Ventura Fires with Shabbat Dinner for 120
How Congregation Or Ami Answered the Call to Feed and Care for a Temple Facing the Ventura Fires
Open Letter to Camp Newman Teens, Staff and Alumni from Rabbi Paul
An open letter to Camp Newman teens, staff and alumni from Rabbi Paul Kipnes about getting through after the fire. (Okay to share with adults too)
Lifting the Veil of Silence about Mental Illness
It is time for us to lift the veil of silence around mental illness, talking about it and our mental health journeys. Especially in the Jewish community.
Confessions from the Edge of a Cliff: My Teen Mental Health Journey
Teen Dani, an 11th grader, shared her mental health journey (through depression) to an overflowing synagogue on Yom Kippur.
Strangers at the Shiva Minyan
Seeking to extract meaning from the shiva minyan, we held onto the stories that brightened that house of mourning.
Delivering Sufganiot to the Whole Congregation: Why We Do It
Why do we spend a Sunday morning just before Chanukah driving all over the San Fernando and Conejo Valleys delivering boxes of sufganiot to every Congregation Or Ami household?
Preparing to Breathe Your Last Breath: Lessons Learned While Sitting with Jerry and David
Lessons learned while taking their last breaths. Reflections on bikkur cholim (visiting the sick) with David and Jerry. A Yom Kippur sermon.
Transgender – Gender is More than Genitals + Chromosomes
Understanding transgender. What if gender is determined by more than genitalia and chromosomes? What if the way we have always perceived humanity has been flawed or wrong?
Facing Alzheimer’s as a Caregiver
Alzheimer's and dementia attacks the foundational values of who we are as Jews and Jewish families. We Jews consider ourselves the people of yikzor (remembrance): as long as we remember where we came from, we will have a sense of who we are and where we are going. So what happens when we can no longer remember any of that?
Reflections on the Death of a Child
How does a parent survive the death of a child? Charlotte Klein, an 81-year-old wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, reflects and offers wisdom.
Torah Brings Comfort to a 91-Year-Old Widow
91-year-old Deanna came to visit me to find some comfort after her beloved husband Alvin died. Turns out, she spent more time teaching me Torat Chayim (the Torah of Life).