we really need to fully comprehend the assumptions they made about us (if we find the lever that turns off DEI, every white American will gratefully throw off the shackles of multiracial democracy!) and get angry about it.

Note: Minnesota is full of great writers who need work. Stop putting your dudes on planes and start hiring local writers. I've now connected two folks. I can find you more. *I do not want this work I have a syllabus to finish this ain't about me.

Abolish Ice should be a centrist position

Happening Now: Students have walked out of school and are protesting against ICE in Saint Paul, Minnesota

I'm sure a lot of folks will be quoting "I have a Dream" this weekend, but, y'all, this is the MLK speech for 2026. "The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy of brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice." kinginstitute.stanford.edu/our-god-marc...

Ameen.

Y'all, please give yourselves lots of extra space today. Space to breathe. Space to rage. Space to plan for how you're going to respond not just today but in an ongoing, sustainable manner. And to folks in your circles just waking up, give them space to wake. Move gently today.

May her memory be a blessing. May her memory wake us up. May her memory inspire more communal care and a society that provides for its people. She was a 37 year old queer mom. I'm a 38 year old queer mom. I really have no words. Zichronah livracha

A very relevant thing to print & hand out:

New York is failing our families: ❌96% of 3-year-olds outside NYC can’t get free preschool ❌2/3 of New Yorkers live in a child care desert Parents deserve better. This session, let's fix it - by passing free universal child care for all.

Overheard at Hebrew school: “Ok there’s literally no way that no one in this room knows what Purim is” (Indeed, they knew. Their mouths were just full of popcorn)

After Jan. 6, 2021, we sifted through thousands of videos taken by Parler users to create an immersive, first-person view of the Capitol riot as experienced by those who were there. Revisit our full archive, five years later:

So my AirPods are missing and dead (based on findmy being unable to locate them). They’re also old so might have been time to get new ones anyway. But not sure I wanna do AirPods. (Noise cancellation wasn’t very good.) Anybody have a rec for in-ear noise cancellation headphones good for calls?

it seems pretty obvious that there's no future for the left where we don't have a clear and central position that international law should be extremely real as far as the united states is concerned

For the 1st Shabbat of 2026, 10 things (in no particular order) that this rabbi humbly suggests each of us can do to make 2026 more sustainable than 2025. Note that these will look different for each of us because we have different capacities and professional/personal demands. That's ok.

Without a doubt. He will make a good faith effort to enact all his policy ideas. He will succeed on some and fail on others. And that’s fine. That is how change works. Also his promises are all feasible.

This is genuinely moving and I’m sad I couldn’t go in person (baby care called) and I am so glad to be streaming it. We need hope. This is hope.

If this doesn't brighten up your new year....

I was supposed to finish this cycle of 929 (reading each chapter of the Tanakh) back in August. But this year was crazy busy so I set a goal to finish by the end of the secular year and to keep myself accountable, I wrote each chapter a haiku along the way. Enjoy! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I’m a rabbi married to a psychologist. We have a 1 year old. We talk about whether we can afford to stay in the city at least once a month.

Something I’d like folks to understand about being Jewish right now is that the tote I’m using today happens to have Hebrew on it and I am nervous to bring it on the train. I’m going to anyway and I’ll likely be just fine. But I’m not an alarmist on this stuff and this is where I am.

What HAS happened in the last six months is many privileged (white) Americans who had been protected from the worst of the Republican Party’s abuses suddenly began to be affected personally and could no longer ignore or pretend not to notice what has been happening for a long time.

All I have to say about Christmas is that we got a free roomba from buy nothing this week and if you want to know the perfect gift for parents of a 1-year-old…. (But seriously if you’re Christian I hope this day is meaningful, restorative, and filled with loved ones)

I know Hannukah is over but…

Honestly I chose the wrong pull quote for the post. The right one is: “by making bigotry explicit, Trump and his closest imitators create a permission structure for people to be their worst selves.”

Just to say that I’m on one of the new B Trains and it sucks. There are fewer seats, they’re uncomfortable, and the benches that are supposedly for 2 people are small enough that most riders probably won’t double up. It’ll be good for rush hour standing room but for general riding… ugh

Like, entire denominations have sued the Trump administration over its immigration polices! So have ~60+ religious groups overall, and 10ish faith leaders! Much of that is still in court! Plus: protests! Arrests! Pastors have been shot w/pepper balls/rounds! Sermons! Statements! So much stuff!

The faction of the GOP that pretends to like Jews to send them to hell is at war with the faction that wants to skip the "pretends to like" part.

Look, with all due respect, if you won't let your clergy officiate these marriages, your apology isn't teshuvah. You can't tell Conservative Jews who fall in love with non-Jews that their rabbis can't marry them and their kids might not be Jews and expect them to stay in the movement....

My Jewish friends, if you don't currently belong to a temple or synagogue, please read the thread below & consider dipping your toe in the water. Most temples work hard to foster & provide a welcoming community so even if prayer may not be your thing, there's likely something there for you to enjoy.

Just to say: If you are an unaffiliated Jew (as in, not a member of a synagogue) and there is a synagogue near you that you sometimes attend and that feels like a good fit, this is a great season to join and get more involved. Maybe make it a new year’s experiment? (1/)

So over the last 4 months my partner has paid about $2500 in student loans. His balance is now $2000 *higher* than it was 4 months ago. When folks tell you the system is broken, this is why.

To the Trans community of the United States: This is all tremendously unfair and frightening. And there are so many people who appreciate you for exactly who you are and will support you in receiving the care you need to live into who are. Please be yourself. We see you. We love you.

I’ve found it remarkably simple not to be in the same place as Jeffrey Epstein

if i had a dime for every NYT employee who hung out with jeffrey epstein i would have at least two which isn’t that many but it’s still weird

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING This horrific fucking ban on gender care for kids absolutely fucking paves the way for a national abortion ban and every time we don't give them mass uprising and mass protest they just do more

Compare this to the United States, where the 1st graders shot at Sandy Hook in 2012 could have been students at Brown shot 13 years later, and where we have done nothing. It's not impossible to make gun violence rare. We just keep choosing not to try.

I'm posting at least one Jewishly joyful thing for every day of Hanukkah. This morning's joy: just got back from my 3-year-old nephew's preschool class, where my sister and I taught about Hanukkah. Tots played with dreidels, ate munchkins, oohed and aahed at the menorah. So many warm fuzzies 😊

It’s the first night of Hanukkah and the world seems like a very dark place. But we can bring light to the darkness. We can fight for each other and make goodness, love, and community shine through. Show me your menorahs and let’s light up the timeline!

Alright folks. Let’s #shinethelight. Y’all know what to do (Sadly none of our windows are conducive to having a hanukkiah placed so shelf it is)

Part of the Chanukah tradition is to place the light menorah either outside or in a window where outsiders can see it. This is supposed to advertise the miracle of Chanukah. These days, it is also a way of saying, “This is a Jewish home.” Every year I think about how it is also an act of bravery.

Let us think about Ahmed El Ahmad, a 43-year-old father of two, who bravely risked his life to save his neighbors celebrating Hanukkah, and hope his lesson in solidarity is what we take from this horrific event

If you're not Jewish and you're having trouble contextualizing the Sydney attack, imagine a shooting at a public Christmas tree lighting in NYC. Little kids running around. Lovely Hanukkah lights. Maybe some singing. That's what these gunmen shattered. That's what we have to carry into Hanukkah.

Compare the statement about the antisemitic terror attack in Australia by the Israeli Prime Minister with the one by Zohran Mamdani, and ask yourself who more truly cares about condemning antisemitism, as opposed to using it to promote unrelated politics.

This is how you do it

There’s a whole thing in Hanukah about how you’re supposed to “publicize the miracle” except that there are all sorts of exceptions in times of danger. Because the times that the Jews have lived under have not always been safe. May the souls of the murdered in Australia be for a blessing.

“She was so afraid they would take her baby” Why? ICE is using smartwatches to track pregnant women — even *during* labor… So pregnant immigrants are skipping the doctor altogether

Hell hath no fury like a one year old getting his snotty nose wiped (But in all seriousness, sick babies are the saddest, angriest, most heart-wrenching little things and I cannot wait for my little dude to be all better)

So many progressive groups almost exclusively use Instagram for social media. If you have influence on any, PLEASE encourage them to post here more. Eventually Meta will kill their reach.