News | Israel

Experiencing a different side of Israel

I’ve visited Israel four times so far and each time has been a completely different experience. My first visit, back in 1992, had a religious focus. I had just gotten married and was living a relig…

I’ve visited Israel four times so far and each time has been a completely different experience.

News | Israel

Thoughts at 4 a.m. in Tel Aviv

It’s 4 a.m. in Tel Aviv. We arrived in Israel this afternoon and  I’m wide awake because my body and mind are still on Pacific Standard Time. It’s quiet outside, although every once in awhile I hea…

It’s 4 a.m. in Tel Aviv. We arrived in Israel this afternoon and I’m wide awake because my body and mind are still on Pacific Standard Time.

It’s quiet outside, although every once in awhile I hear a noise that back home I would attribute to a car backfiring or other city sounds, but here I think it sounds like how a rocket in the distance might sound.

News | Israel

Ehud Barak visits Scottsdale

One of the best ways that American Jewish communities can support Israel is by having a strong, powerful, vibrant Jewish community, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told the nearly 700 attendees at the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's Mega I

News | Israel

Team Israel holds mini-camp in Scottsdale

Team Israel will play in the World Baseball Classic for the first time ever, and last weekend, before heading to games in Seoul, South Korea, the team held a mini-camp in Scottsdale.

Team Israel holds a training camp in Scottsdale before heading to Seoul, South Korea for the World Baseball Classic.

News | Israel

A traveling companion

Before I left on my 10-day trip to Israel earlier this month, my 6-year-old approached me with one of his stuffed bears and told me that I should bring it wherever I go on my trip. It was a little …

A "dog's" trip to Israel.

Family & Parenting | Families

‘We’re just following the law’

Each daily dose of news typically contains something heartbreaking or infuriating, but the recent news about the U.S. government separating children from their parents as part of a border-enforceme…

#children #refugees #zerotolerance

Family & Parenting | Families

Where’s the parenting manual?

Sometimes between the morning rush to school and the chaotic bedtime routine, it occurs to me that part of my job as a parent is to prepare my children to become functioning adults, which ultimatel…

Family & Parenting | Families

Saying goodbye to our dog

We had to say goodbye to our dear dog Clyde last week. For the past three weeks or so he hasn’t been doing so well – losing weight and coughing/sneezing blood. When I first took him to the vet with…

Family & Parenting | Families

Scottsdale pharmacy delivers family dreams nationwide

Each day, Integrity RX, a fertility specialty pharmacy in Scottsdale, ships packages of 15 to 20 prescriptions to patients across the country. But to Jeffrey Karp, who founded the pharmacy three years ago, each box contains more than a list of medications

Family & Parenting | Families

Our first Rosh Hashanah seder plate

Years ago I was at a Rosh Hashanah meal where each person had their own little seder plate with the holiday’s symbolic foods on it and we said prayers over each food before sampling them. It …

Advice & Self-Help | Tips for life

Urgent care vs. ER? How to know where to go | AZ Big Media

While urgent care clinics and emergency rooms provide a number of the same services, there are substantial differences that can greatly impact uninformed consumers. Making the wrong choice when illness or injury strikes can cost thousands of dollars and h

Helpful information about whether you should go to an urgent care clinic or to the emergency room.

Advice & Self-Help | Tips for life

Writers gotta write

Cyberspace is filled with lots of content, which can be a good thing because it’s a great way to communicate ideas and news. Unfortunately, there’s lots of misinformation swirling around and someti…

Advice & Self-Help | Tips for life

Checklist for a safe hike

After a few deaths on Arizona hiking trails this summer, the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board met last week to discuss whether to close the city’s hiking trails in extreme heat. The proposal was rejected after opposition from hikers, although the

Things to know before you go hiking in extreme heat.

Advice & Self-Help | Tips for life

Single-Tasking Is the New Multitasking

Trying to do too many internet things at once makes it hard to get anything done at all.  

Music | Arts & Culture

Coming of age

I recently realized that my oldest son is approaching the age I was when I first became aware of Rick Springfield: 12. Here’s the first mention of RS in my diary, entered on May 15, 1982, alm…

I recently realized that my oldest son is approaching the age I was when I first became aware of Rick Springfield: 12.

Music | Arts & Culture

New video: The Voodoo House

It’s here – the video for “The Voodoo House”! If I had to pick my favorite song of “The Snake King,” “The Voodoo House” would be it so I’m happ…

Rick Springfield's new video, "The Voodoo House."

Music | Arts & Culture

A powerful ripple effect

Last week, Rick Springfield received the 2018 Beatrice Stern Media Award from Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services for raising awareness about depression and mental health issues. The Erasing the Sti…

Rocker Rick Springfield is honored for speaking out about depression.

Music | Arts & Culture

More subtle than posters on the wall

If anyone peeked into my teenage bedroom, they would know beyond a doubt that I was a Rick Springfield fan. His face was plastered all over my walls and his music was likely playing from my stereo …

If anyone peeked into my teenage bedroom, they would know beyond a doubt that I was a Rick Springfield fan. His face was plastered all over my walls and his music was likely playing from my stereo speakers. Although my walls are no longer covered with pictures of Rick Springfield (my husband wouldn’t appreciate that), I realized this morning that there are still signs around the house that show I’m a fan.

Music | Arts & Culture

What if Albert Einstein had a smartphone?

We recently received this month’s PJ Library book, “On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein” by Jennifer Berne. The book, which has beautiful illustrations by Vladimir Radu…

History | Judaism

Committed to the future of Jewish life

One thing that struck me about the recent Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly was how many people are dedicated to ensure the future of Jewish life. About 3,000 people atte…

History | Judaism

Three-generation legacy

The Feb. 19 death of Ken Smith at age 48 brought an abrupt end to more than eight decades of his family's involvement in Phoenix's Jewish community.

History | Judaism

A second life

Every Torah has a story. Whether its existence is due to one generous benefactor or the result of a community effort, each Torah represents a community that lovingly read from its scroll.

History | Judaism

Kashering Arizona

As today's kosher consumers in Greater Phoenix easily fill up shopping carts of various kosher goods at multiple local supermarkets and sample kosher cuisine from a choice of restaurants, it may be difficult to imagine a time when kosher food was nearly i

History | Judaism

Adobe abode: a symbol of diversity

In late 1929, Rose Eisendrath, a Jewish widow from Chicago whose husband, Joseph, had founded the Eisendrath Glove Co., came to Arizona for the winter.

Advice & Self-Help | Spiritual

Stepping out of the comfort zone

During some weeks, it feels like life is one load of laundry after another – with activities spinning in continuous cycles with the same materials repeating their journey  of wash, wear, repe…

Advice & Self-Help | Spiritual

An alternate reality in home decor

When I have the opportunity to upgrade our home decor from our current line of “We’ll live like this until the kids get older,” I have some ideas of styles that I’d like to …

Advice & Self-Help | Spiritual

Meditations on making moments matter

Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra kicked off a 21-Day Meditation Experience this week called “Making Every Moment Matter.” In light of my new work schedule and with the recent change of h…

Advice & Self-Help | Spiritual

Albert Einstein’s theory of happiness

Among all the text that appears on my phone or computer screens each day, occasionally there’s a story that lingers in my mind hours later. Today it was the announcement that two short notes …

Advice & Self-Help | Spiritual

Finding miracles among the ashes

I can’t stop thinking about all of those affected by all the recent natural disasters, with so many lives and homes lost from hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. When my mind starts worrying a…

Music | Songs

Don't Bring Your Worries Around

Why worry about what could be
Losing sleep over a possibility
I don't want worries weighing me down
Don't bring your worries around

Music | Songs

Good Intentions: A new lyric music video

Last weekend I started a little project – I thought I’d try making a lyric video from one of my songs, using images I made in Canva. I took a song that I wrote more than two years ago a…

Music | Songs

Dandelion Dreams

You're longing for an ocean while you're standing in a stream, gazing toward the heavens chasing dandelion dreams

Music | Songs

You Never Know

You never know when it will be the last time
You never know if you'll pass this way again
Don't take for granted the circumstances that led you here
Now that you're here, jump in.

Music | Songs

Throw It All Away

Memories can look like clutter to an untrained eye
Fragments of the chapters from the story of my life
Souvenirs may be faded links to yesterday
Please don’t tell me to throw it all away

Music | My Songwriting Journey

The Journey Begins

Once upon a time, a long time ago, before home computers and the Internet and blogs, I used to write my songs in spiral notebooks. The lyrics remained on those pages until about a few years ago, wh…

Once upon a time, a long time ago, before home computers and the Internet and blogs, I used to write my songs in spiral notebooks.