There’s a highway overpass at 28th Street connecting Reservoir Hill with other Baltimore neighborhoods like Remington, Hampden and Charles Village.  A couple months ago I saw an older gentleman laboriously painting the cracking concrete walls of that overpass, covering with pearly white paint the weather-worn graffiti and rust-orange chain link run-off.  I remember thinking as I watched him work:… read more

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner likens the ranking of religious ideas and core values to a deck of playing cards.  Each religion plays with a full deck but stacks it differently.  To many Christians, a value like salvation is paramount, found at or near the top of the deck, while revelation is found a bit later.  We Jews have a strong… read more

Sometimes we can make a local impact without even knowing it.  A couple months ago, Miriam and I finally decided it was time to take the plunge and get a minivan. I would give up my old car and inherit my wife’s Subaru. We contacted an organization called Vehicles for Change which accepts donated cars, repairs them when possible… read more

A few weeks ago, I traveled back home to Niles, IL, to officiate at a good friend’s wedding and spend some time with family.  I took the kids geocaching near the pool where I used to lifeguard.  Walking back toward my childhood home, we passed by the neighborhood shul, a once-vibrant Chicago suburban congregation which had not been my… read more

A couple weeks ago, I was walking through Reservoir Hill en route to the light rail station.  I was on my way to BWI to catch a flight to Michigan where I would join Miriam, the kids and my in-laws for a much-needed vacation.  It was a hot day (what else is new?).  I was wearing shorts and a… read more

Tomorrow, June 16th, approximately twenty-five Beth Am congregants (plus kids) will join over 300 volunteers from the neighborhood and the Baltimore Ravens to build a playground in a day. It’s going to be amazing! This is a story that transcends race, background and belief.  And yet, I believe there is still a compelling Jewish story to be told Many… read more

My wife and I took a recent jaunt to New York City.  It was a glorious two days spent walking Manhattan boulevards, exploring central park, taking in a show, eating well (and too much and too often) and generally enjoying a great city’s vast and unparalleled cultural offerings.  New York is New York after all. Now for those of… read more

I remember feeling a great sense of pride when, as a college student, I first heard the expression Member of the Tribe.  “That’s me,” I thought, “M.O.T.,  Red Sea Pedestrian, not just ‘Jew-ish,’ but a proud Jew through and through.”  My reaction, as reactions tend to be, was informed by a number of prior life experiences.  Though my parents… read more

Originally published 4.17.11 at “The Urban Rabbi” It took me a little while to realize that the Baltimore football team is named for the famous poem.  But the starkness and despair of Poe’s verse stands in contradistinction with the news of this past week.  Due to the generosity of the Baltimore Ravens, KaBoom, and Zuckerman Spaeder, inspired by a… read more

This has been an exciting time in Reservoir Hill.  Any neighborhood, particularly one whose diversity is somewhat rare in a largely colloquial city, must navigate any number of competing interests or concerns: Shall we focus primarily on safety or beautification?  Which is preferable: commercial property or green space?  Is school reform a priority? This is why I was so… read more