The shooting this past Shabbos at a Chabad shul near San Diego is a harsh reminder of the reality we now inhabit. I’m not a security “expert.” I’ve been in the military for over two decades, as an infantryman, and I worked as a civilian for nearly a decade for a security products manufacturer. I
I ended Part I talking about the low personal worth many veterans struggling with moral injury suffer. Just as you are often told you go from “zero to hero” when you enlist or commission, you go from “hero to zero” in a manner I would equate with driving a car into a concrete wall when
Moral injury refers to an injury to an individual’s moral conscience resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression which produces profound emotional shame. The concept of moral injury emphasizes the psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual aspects of trauma. Wikipedia Definition for “Moral Injury” I’ve been reflecting of late on my work, now a few years
Or anyone else, for that matter. A few years ago, Microsoft made a chatbot using an Artificial Intelligence farm, called “Tay,” designed to make Tweets from the perspective of a teenage girl. Within 24 hours, Internet trolls managed to subvert the chatbot AI into racist and antisemitic, claiming Jews caused 9/11 and that Hitler was
No, I’m not making a Game of Thrones reference, unless I’m skiing like there’s a hot Targaryen at the bottom of the ski hill. I’ve been a telemark skier for about 23 years. I’ve done alpine and I’m fine with it, and I’m mildly curious about splitboarding, but telemarking has become special to me. I
This has for us been the most engaged week of Chanukah in a long time. We had a friend’s family over for the second night, we went to Chabad’s lighting and party in downtown Bangor, we had 11 friends over last night, and after the Chanukah party at our shul on Sunday, we’re enjoying the
I received the death notice about Morris Merlin today from our synagogue, and my heart is broken. I couldn’t take Morris on social media. He was too much. He hated Donald Trump and the people that voted for them. He hated libertarianism. He hated that I ran as a Republican for State House. I didn’t
“Let’s do havdalah tonight,” I said to Leah. For our non-Jewish friends, this is the little ceremony that marks the end of Shabbos and the beginning of the normal week. We highlight the partition between the sacred and the profane, between that island of holiness in our daily lives that is Shabbos, and the mundane
I’m never impressed by outside experts, be they corporate, legal, etc. Our synagogue recently retained the services of two people: a rabbi who specializes in reinvigorating congregations, and an academic who studies our kind of congregation and I gather offers some sense of direction. It’s one of those things I think the current board thinks
I’m back in our legislative district state house race. And you know what? I really think highly of my opponent. He’s a genuinely nice guy who is well-liked by people that know him. Whatever policies I may or may not share with him, that’s the important thing. We’re presenting sometimes overlapping, sometimes competing visions for
Writer, President of Bangor's Congregation Beth Israel, retired soldier, programmer, father, musician, Heeb, living in the woods of Maine with three ladies and a dog. Brian is also a rabbinical student with the Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary.
Director of Education for Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor, Maine, runs joint religious school with our sister congregation, special educator and former school board member, mother to Avi and Nezzie.
