News

This essay is not addressed to the valedictorian, salutatorian, or graduate who received recognition at graduation. It’s geared towards the graduate who spent his/her years in school struggling, often feeling frustrated and not good enough in class. It is to the graduate who often felt he didn’t stand out and was never the source of his teacher’s pride.

Some time ago, someone close to my family was involved in a serious car accident.

Since I was in close vicinity to where the accident occurred, the family requested that I go to the junkyard where the car was temporarily being held, to retrieve any items still in the car. When I arrived at the yard, I had to walk through rows and rows of badly damaged, mangled cars.

Every summer when our family heads up to camp, every time I get in my car during the first few weeks of the camp season, my smartphone tells me that it’s an hour and 33 minutes to get home. No one told my phone that we moved to Camp Dora Golding in the Pocono Mountains for the summer, and it still thinks 3 Landau Lane in Spring Valley, New York, is our home. Only after a few weeks does it register our address change.

On Thursday evening, June 12, 2014, Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, and Gilad Shaar were at the junction of Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion, just outside their yeshivah. Like many do, they were hitching a ride so they could spend Shabbos at home. A car with an Israeli license plate pulled over. The driver and front seat passenger were wearing classic Jewish garb and there was well-known Jewish music playing. The unsuspecting boys got in.

One of the great composers in contemporary Jewish music is Abie Rotenberg, who is renowned for his emotionally stirring songs. Some of his most moving songs were composed for the “A Time for Music – HASC Concerts.”

For the last few years, I have been working on producing and publishing a new Siddur. It’s been a long, arduous, and fulfilling process. The Siddur is being thoroughly edited and will hopefully be available in the coming months.