Myths, Fairy Tales and Tackling Evil

Last night, Amitai and I concluded our pretty long-lasting bonding experience--watching all six seasons of Grimm to the grand finale. Yes, the series ended a year ago, but in the age of streaming that hardly matters. For those not familiar with the television series, Grimm was set--and primarily filmed--in our beloved city of Portland. It was based, rather loosely, on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.

Eating My Feelings – Parshat Shemini 5778

Don’t think me morbid, but some of my most vivid memories of sitting shiva with my family are all about the food. We ate chocolate covered potato chips at my Zayde’s shiva. At my Nana’s shiva we found chocolate covered, peanut butter wrapped cherries in her freezer that she’d made, so we ate those.

Jews in Hollywood, the New Anti-Semitism and the Slow March to Freedom

It was after Cantor Bitton’s Jewish TV theme song program. I turned around and asked my 12th graders, “why do you think there were/are so many Jews in Hollywood?” They didn’t accept the implicit premise of my question--that either there was a much higher percentage of Jews in Hollywood than in the general population--or explained that Jewish presence was just about contacts and who you know. It was as though my question struck their ears as racist.

Just One Word: Plastics and the Jewish Master Story

Passover has long been called the Jewish Master Story. Other names for this type of story are a master narrative or a meta-narrative. In short, when a single story can robustly define and explain a people’s history, hopes, dreams and defeats, we can think of it as a master story. Master stories resonate with every member of a society or an audience precisely because they give expression to that person’s deeply held values.