Category Archives: Settled & Unsettled

Holding On, and Letting Go

February 28, 2014

As Nate Kleinman says in this month’s issue: “Settledness is relative.” I’ll go one step further and say, settledness is an illusion, a pure manifestation of our belief that we’ve found something static, and unchanging to hold on to. Ultimately, there is little we can call our own and can be secure in. Look at More »

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“The Day The World Changed”

Rabbi Julie Pelc Adler
February 26, 2014

Until this year, I’d never marked its anniversary: September 13, 2001. Yes, it was two days after 9/11/01: where headlines like “Airport Security Needs Improvement” and “Islam Must Challenge Its Dark Doctrines” were on the front pages of every newspaper. There were fears of Anthrax attacks in every unopened envelope, suspicions about seemingly every brown-faced More »

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Motion Without Movement

Rabbi Amitai Adler
February 24, 2014

Of all the ways to be unsettled as a Jew in America few are less comfortable than realizing that the movements into which our society has separated itself have no place for you. I was raised Modern Orthodox, but not the Modern Orthodoxy most would recognize today. My father was a talmid (student) of Rav More »

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The Art of Not Knowing

Emily Goldberg
February 21, 2014

“We must never see an end to our own Jewish education and never close our ears to voices new and old that challenge our own Jewish choices and practices.” –Edgar Bronfman z’’l I had always been rather decisive for my age. Throughout high school, amidst the cliques, open minds and unmarked college applications, I took More »

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A Tale of Leaky Buckets

Jared Gimbel
February 20, 2014

As a student of today’s Jewish Life in Europe, I have had to think about the nature of both Israeli expatriates in European countries as well as Olim from these countries to Israel. In a globalized world where choosing your culture or separating from it is easier than it ever has been in human history, More »

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In the meanwhile

Naomi Less
February 18, 2014

In the meanwhile… I am happily married - I settled down in 2009 - living an unsettled/settled life. Settled in that I nest in our apartment, not feeling the need to go out all the time anymore. Unsettled in that as a touring musician, I’m moving around to different communities a lot. But there’s a deep feeling of unsettled-ness within me.  I’m More »

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An Imperfect Security

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
February 17, 2014

I love clearing my inbox: the petty thrill of Gmail informing me “no new mail.” Frustratingly, it happens less and less often. When I tell congregants, colleagues, or friends that I’m “behind” on work, they smile knowingly, and say with forbearance, “and you always will be.” Truly, it would be nice to be on top More »

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Gonna Try to Call it Home

Rabbi Adam Greenwald
February 14, 2014

So don’t you ask me, what I’m thinking If it makes you happy, I’ll keep on singing. For I sing when I can’t talk, And I dance when I can’t walk, And, I’m going back to Splendor Bridge Gonna try to call it home… “Splendor Bridge,” music and lyrics by Sam Flesher Sitting in the More »

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