Journalism
Some of my recent work, organized by category.
Our Pandemic Year: Artists faced a choice — pivot or perish
For so many Bay Area artists, the pandemic has brought with it numerous personal and professional challenges, from lost gigs (and therefore lost income) to feeling lost creatively. But it has also opened up new opportunities for collaborating, teaching and performing online, and it has allowed many to reach wider audiences than they normally might thanks to the internet.
Why some right-leaning Jews are leaving California for redder pastures
For many conservatives, the turbulence of 2020 — marked by what they consider draconian stay-at-home orders, violent social justice protests amid reckless calls to “defund the police” and another devastating wildfire season, on top of a growing homelessness crisis — reinforced their belief that California is beset by numerous systemic problems, and that its political leaders are either doing nothing to solve them or actively making them worse.
“I Am an Anxious Cartoonist”: An OCD Awareness Week Conversation with Jason Adam Katzenstein
For Katzenstein, anxiety is both a source of creative inspiration and one of great personal turmoil. In his new graphic novel, Everything Is an Emergency: An OCD Story in Words and Pictures, he documents his struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder since childhood.
Pandemic delays but doesn’t deter families from fresh start in Israel
The process of applying for and obtaining an immigrant visa, uprooting one’s life and moving to the other side of the globe is stressful enough under normal circumstances, especially when children are involved. But what about during a global pandemic?
From the Marines to Montana, Rabbi-To-Be Embraces Challenges
“Being a Jew of color in a rural environment in an incredibly white state is really difficult at times, and yet it’s exactly where I want to be.”
At virtual retreat, men embrace vulnerability, reckon with patriarchy
MenschUp programs — online workshops, as well as more intimate conversations for smaller groups, or “MenschUp minyans,” led by Ophir Haberer — are designed to help men feel more comfortable being vulnerable with each other.
Oakland man raising funds to feed impoverished Jews in India
As of the end of June, more than 30 tons of rice, potatoes, sugar and cooking oil have been distributed to about 620 Bnei Menashe families in the states of Manipur and Mizoram.
Funny Jewish rapper Lil Dicky takes his shtick to TV in ‘Dave’
Lil Dicky’s artistic MO is to take something familiar and flip it on its head through shocking humor (usually of the sexual variety), brutal honesty and technical innovation.
S.F. native raising money to build ‘field of dreams’ in Israel
“I’m not looking to build Yankee Stadium. I want to build a community baseball diamond for kids to play on that’s safe, where they can come out on the weekend and play catch with friends or hold a little game.”
First Persian Female Rabbi Finds Her Voice
Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh, a Jewish Emergent Network rabbinic fellow at The Kitchen in San Francisco, identifies with Queen Esther.
This Tu B’Shevat, cleanse the mind through ‘forest bathing’
According to Kanofsky, her workshops provide participants with an opportunity to bring a question or challenge in their lives to a tree and “open themselves to the counsel of the tree, as if the tree is a rabbi,” she said.
‘Shtisel’ creator and haredi activist discuss change among Israel’s ultra-Orthodox
When Pnina Pfeuffer first saw “Shtisel,” the acclaimed Israeli television series about a fictional haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, family in Jerusalem, her reaction was, “Oh wow, they got it right!”