Author: Rabbi Michael Sternfield
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Does God have a future?
If you have ever been to Millennium Park and have been thrilled, as I have, by its many spectacular attractions, including the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the Lurie Garden, the Crown Fountain, the Joan and Irving Harris Theatre, and the Cloud Gate sculpture. Cloud Gate is an incredible, exciting work of art that seems to have…
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The synagogue through the rear view mirror
The recent hiatus from the congregational rabbinate has given me an unexpected and hopefully positive vantage point with which to offer a positive prescription for improving the of the health of the American synagogue. I believe that Jewish congregations can and must do better than most are doing now. In fact, if they do not…
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Don’t let your Jewish child be the Grinch that spoiled Santa
A 2008 magazine article deals with the most common dilemma Jewish parents must confront during the Christmas season. A question addressed to columnist Ceridwen Morris: “Another Christmas is upon us, and I am totally dreading it. Our family is Jewish, and we usually just avoid the whole thing. But I don’t think we’re going to…
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Nelson Mandela, of blessed memory
I write this message with both a great heaviness in my heart and also with the most profound sense of gratitude. Nelson Mandela has passed away and the world has lost the rarest of individuals. We shall never again see the likes of Mandiba, as he is belovedly known in South Africa. For me, although…
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Pope Francis is my rabbi
I want to be a Franciscan rabbi It has been less than a year since Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis. Yet, in the span of these several months, the new Pope has demonstrated by word and by deed his determination to transform the Catholic Church. His fundamental conviction that the Church’s overarching purpose…