On a recent visit to Germany, I toured Dachau – a former Nazi concentration camp and now a memorial site where, to the great credit of modern-day Germans, they’ve adopted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s admonition … Read More
Want to be as good as your dog thinks you are?
Because the Jewish High Holidays remind us of mortality, I’ve been thinking about our 14 ½ year old puppy, Leo. Yes, he’s at the end of his life expectancy, but his ever-wagging tail is evidence that … Read More
For our unforgiving age, advice from an unassuming sage
Inspired by a good joke and a stirring play, I offer these remarks, including a rather unorthodox ending: A young man is hitchhiking and gets picked up by a trucker. After thanking him profusely, the young … Read More
Ensuring Real Student Equity in Aspen
“Your mind is like a parachute; it only works when it’s open,” my seventh-grade teacher counseled. That inspiration – and Mr. Rogers’ assurance that he liked me just the way I am – helped me … Read More
Are Americans silly or sage?
“You know who doesn’t care that there’s a stereotype of a Chinese man in a Dr. Seuss book?” Bill Maher asked on Real Time. “China,” he answered. “All 1.4 billion…because they’re not a silly people,” unlike … Read More
Want Unity? Tame the pandemic…and I don’t mean COVID
In a joke illuminating our divided times, a husband suspects his wife is deaf and decides to test her hearing. While she’s cooking, he stands afar and asks, “what’s for dinner, dear?” Hearing no response, he … Read More
Life Lessons From a Jewish Mother Joke
“Everyone has two lives,” Hunter Thompson famously said. “The second one begins when you realize you only have one.” That’s the moral of Alfred Nobel, whose obituary was mistakenly published, memorializing him as the inventor … Read More
Reflections Of a COVID-19 Sufferer
As the world reels from the spread of a COVID-19, are we fixated on a false choice — either pandemic or another Great Depression? Can we avert BOTH human and economic disaster? After all, we … Read More
This Too Shall Pass(over) Applied to COVID-19
Jews have an interesting leitmotif running through the Passover Seder, conveying its meaning while telling a story that explains the longevity of the Jewish People, and a lesson for all humanity – particularly as the … Read More