“I hope you don’t mind my asking…” That disclaimer sets my teeth on edge because I know the question to follow will be unduly personal. My inside voice answers: I do mind. Please don’t ask a personal question. It will create an awkward situation.Of course, once question-askers disclaim responsibilit...

A collaboration with the Westfield High School Journalism ProgramOn December 10, 2019 three people were killed in a shooting at JC Kosher Supermarket in Jersey City, NJ, located just under five miles from my synagogue, the United Synagogue of Hoboken (USH). In response, security measures were drasti...

A collaboration with the Westfield High School Journalism ProgramWhile one might become tired of the never-ending sequels in recent years, Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is one for the millennium.Maintaining the strange and unusual nature of the first film was top priority from the beginning...

“Why do my friends and my priest urge me to forgive my mother?” asked my psychotherapy patient, J, with anguish. “They know my mother ignored me when my older brothers hurled shoes and called me terrible names. They know she refused to take me to the doctor or the emergency room when I was sick or h...

One hundred and thirty-four years ago, on September 5, 1890, Edwin Francis (the supervising principal of the Westfield schools) published the first edition of The Westfield Leader. Opened in competition with the Pearsallowned Union County Standard, The Leader has now long outlived not only all of it...

My friend Ann is a retired infectious disease specialist who spent most of her career treating AIDS patients at a Veterans Hospital. Ann’s career began almost a decade before the antiretroviral drug AZT was developed to treat the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in AIDS patients. And so she did he...

As summer winds down, vacations have ended, and we enter the final hot days of the season. Get ready for change. Many people find the summers to be a reprieve and a chance to relax, have fun. We can put our responsibilities of the daily grind on hold.We all know, soon school will begin for the kids....

A few weeks ago, one of our staff members was sitting outside at a sidewalk café in Westfield, watching nervously as a child on an electric scooter darted in and out of rush-hour traffic. The kid, a boy of about 9 or 10, seemed utterly unconcerned about the drivers blowing their car horns at him as ...

“Why aren’t you over it?” asked my patient’s best friend. “It’s been a year since you discovered your husband’s affair with his personal trainer. You separated and filed for divorce. Move on!”Questions or comments conveying expectations for closure after one year or so are commonplace. When grieving...

“What are burek and cevapcici?” I asked my Croatian friend when he described the menu at his favorite Bosnian/Croatian restaurant.Cevapcici is a homemade grilled sausage made of ground pork, beef, lamb, onion, garlic, and spices including cayenne and paprika. Burek, he explained, is a phyllo dough s...