Selected Writings, Podcasts & Webinars

My blog features essays on topics related to Jewish learning, identity, peoplehood, and “the why” of Jewish education. Recent essays include, “The Soul of the Jewish People Needs Oxygen,” (September 2025), “Finding Courage in Vulnerability of Sukkot,” (October 2025), and “The Will to Keep Dreaming: A Zionist Ethic of Care.”

Creativity, Judaism and Jewish Education

“Jewish Creativity: An Essential Aspiration for Jewish Education,” Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, Brandeis University: Fall 2024. (Available on the Mandel Center’s website at https://doi.org/10.48617/1219.)

Watch the Mandel Center’s Webinar, “Learning about Learning,” on Teaching Jewish Creativity.

“Learning to find the words when “There are no words/Ein Milim/ אין מילים”,” in Until the Day Breaks and the Shadows Flee Away Directions in Jewish Education After October 7, edited by Howard Deitcher and Alex Pomson, Hana Dorsman and Assaf Gamzou, Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combatting AntiSemitism and UnitED, (Fall 2024).

“To be a Co-Author of the Jewish Story,” Educated Kaplanian Jew Talmud Page, The Kaplan Center, January, 2024.

“Sustaining a Creative People: Learning the Habits of Creative Thinking,” The Peoplehood Papers, edited by Shlomi Ravid and Dean Bell, Volume 30 (August 2021).

“Jewish Creative Sensibilities: Framing a New Aspiration for Jewish Education,” Journal of Jewish Education, 85:4 (December 2019). Winner of 2019 Article of the Year Award for the Journal of Jewish Education and most downloaded article 2019.

“The Past as Portal to the Future: theatre dybbuk’s Creative Exploration and Presentation of Jewish History,” with Tobin Belzer, in Portraits of Adult Jewish Learning: Making Meaning at Many Tables, edited by Diane Tickton Schuster (Wipf and Stock Publishers: 2022).

“When Creativity Nourishes the Mind, Soul and Heart,” HaYidion, Summer 2016.

“The Creativity Imperative,” HaYidion, 2014.

Listen:

Jewish Thought and Spiritual Meaning

“Revelation is Just the Beginning,” An interpretive journey among artist-scholars in search of meaning leading to the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, 2020-2021. Published with the generous support of the Covenant Foundation.

“Experiencing God in the Midst of Conflict,” in Because My Soul Longs for You: Integrating Theology into Our Lives, edited by Edwin C. Goldberg and Elaine S. Zecher. CCAR Press: 2021. pp. 89-98.

The State of Jewish Education

“From Thriving to Striving: Jewish Education for a World of Uncertainty and Opportunity.” in Where Jewish Education Helps Students Thrive: A Tribute to Dr. Jonathan Woocher, eds. David Bryfman and Beth Cousens. (Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, 2018) pp. 34-41.

“A Dream Not Quite Come True:” Reassessing the Benderly Era in Jewish Education,” Journal of Jewish Education 70:3 (Fall 2004).

Listen: