One of my students from New York turns 6 today, maybe 7. But, he was my student starting 16 years ago. How’s that for a math riddle early in the morning? If you take a look at the calendar though, the answer should be pretty clear. Charles is one of those lucky folk born on February 29, and so while he is now in his late 20s, he is also only 6 or 7. His actual birthday, of course, only comes around every 4 years. So, happy birthday to you, and other February 29 babies out there! This year, we have a confluence though, making it even more fun. While the Gregorian Leap Year comes around every 4 years, the Hebrew Leap Year occurs 7 times in a 19-year cycle. And, rather than adding a single day, our calendar adds an entire month--we add Adar Alef, giving us twice the [...]

Judaism is a religion of Original Repentance, not Original Sin.I do not remember the first time I learned that, or from whom, but certainly our reading of Genesis 2—the story of the Garden of Eden—does not imagine us all at fault, “paying for” the actions (sins?) of Adam and Eve. Rather, as Rabbi Yael Ridberg writes, sin is the result of our negative human tendencies or inclinations, known in Hebrew as the yetzer hara (the inclination toward evil), which must be channeled in ways that affirm life by the influence of the yetzer hatov (the inclination to goodness). Sin exists in Jewish tradition, but it is seen as personal and ongoing—and, it is also seen as an invitation. Rabbi Ridberg continues by saying: The word in Hebrew for sin (ḥet) literally means something that goes astray, like an arrow that misses the mark. When an archer misses the target, it is not a [...]

I am not sure that any art exhibit has taken my breath away quite like the exhibit of Black American Portraits at LACMA in 2022. Like most of the crowd, I had gone to see the already-iconic Obama portraits by artist Kehinde Wiley—that alone was well-worth the wait. But beyond those two spectacular portraits were over 150 other pieces of art, featuring 200 years of Black American subjects, sitters, and spaces. The goal was, according to LACMA’s publicity, “centering Black love, abundance, family, community, and exuberance.” Among them were a number, that I recall, portraying ordinary Black Americans as royalty—a common theme in Kehinde Wiley’s work. So, imagine my surprise to discover that in 2012—long before the Obama portraits—the Jewish Museum in New York mounted a Kehinde Wiley exhibit for Black History month entitled Kehinde Wiley/The World Stage: Israel. The description of the exhibit offers the following: Kehinde Wiley / [...]

Carter Woodson, the “father” of Black History set out in 1926 to designate a time to educate Americans about Black history and promote Black culture. It wasn’t until 1976, during the country’s Bicentennial Celebrations, that Black History Month was officially established in the month of February. And, as many supporters and critics have noted, Black history is inextricable from American history writ large. “The Black experience,” says Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. “is embedded in everything we think of as 'American history.'” And so too is it buried deep in my own family’s history—a story of Jewish America and of Black America. For much of my childhood, two large portraits loomed large over our living room. Hanging over the fireplace were these dark paintings of a severe looking man and an equally intense looking woman, both dressed in [...]