Building Strength in 2025: The Spiritual Books That Sustained Me
Ryan Mount explores the books that helped him get through 2025.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Israel: Resilience, Reality, and Hope
Many Jewish parents today find themselves caught between two fears.
The first is saying too little—shielding our children so thoroughly that they grow up unprepared for the world they will inherit.
The second is saying too much—overwhelming them with conflict, hostility, and fear before they have the emotional grounding to hold it.
Fifty West Brewing Company
Once known as “The Loneliest Road in America,” the famous coast-to-coast journey along U.S. Route 50 takes about 43 hours, starting in Ocean City, Maryland, and ending in West Sacramento, California. It crosses 12 states with mountain, desert, and Great Plains scenery. Fifty West Brewing Company is a stop along the route. However, our planned
Judaism Is a People, and Israel Is Part of That Story
I write this as we enter the holiday of Hanukkah, arguably the most Zionist holiday in existence. Not because Zionism began then. It did not. But because Hanukkah reminds us that Jewish self-determination, Jewish sovereignty, and Jewish survival in our ancestral land are not modern inventions. They are ancient. Long before modern political movements, Jews
Raising Light in a Dark Season
This time of year always feels louder than it needs to be. As the days shorten and the nights stretch, the world seems to respond by turning up the volume. Christmas music grows more insistent. Lights multiply. Schedules fill. The noise swells just as the darkness deepens. I’ve started to notice that pattern more clearly
Being a Young Dad in the Cincinnati Jewish Community
“What did the stuttering quarryman say to the dump truck?” my six-year-old asks, barely containing his giggles as he practices telling the joke we made together. “Ba-dump-dump!” This is what fatherhood looks like for me these days: crafting incredible and terrible jokes with my son, watching my toddler charm everyone with what’s commonly described as
What They Got Right: Lessons From the Tree of Life Gala
Downtown Cincinnati was buzzing on Wednesday night. Babysitters were booked solid, dinner reservations were impossible to get and Music Hall became the center of gravity. Some people were dressed up for the Nas concert; others — myself included — were headed to the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) Tree of Life Gala. This year’s gala honored