This October is one of the most consequential months in Israel’s tangled history. It began with the commemoration of the tragic events of October 7, 2023 when invaders from Gaza murdered more than 1200 Israelis, some attending a music festival and others residents of settlements close to the border. The country is a long way from healing from that trauma. At the other end of the month, on October...

The weekend got off to a rough start. On Friday morning, Rosellen and I got our Flu and Covid shots. By now I’ve racked up dozens and dozens of these shots with no ill effects. In fact, the absence of any reaction made me wonder if they had actually “taken.” This time there was no question.  That evening my legs felt heavy and achy – an effect I had never heard mentioned before – and I...

Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to an article that she said brought her to tears. That made it an immediate must read for me. The article by Nikole Hannah-Jones of 1619 fame is about the decisions she and her husband made about their daughter’s education. As a writer and journalist Jones has explored in depth the inequities in our education system that leave children of color relegated to...

I’ve mentioned before that several colleagues and I have been working on a project that involves conversations with teachers, administrators and teacher educators about what drew them to the work, what has enabled them to persist, often in the face of formidable obstacles, and what words they have for people who might follow the paths they’ve carved. For readers who are already in the ed biz, but...

I was part-way through my next posting when this appeared on my Facebook page. It was posted by Corey Robin, a professor at CUNY whose work is grounded in deep research yet is also deeply personal. Corey has been a courageous outspoken Jewish antizionist long before Gaza made that label more fashionable. These are not Corey’s words, but those of David Myers, professor of Jewish Studies at UCLA. I...