About me

Having grown up a Jewish kid on a horse farm west of Saint Louis, with a B.A. in history from Grinnell, and work experience in outdoor, experiential education, I moved to Minnesota from New Mexico in 1999. Why Minnesota? Well, Paul Wellstone (z'l) was senator and Hamline University was committed to public interest law. I still haven't adjusted to winter. As a lawyer, youth worker, Jewish educator, sex and sexuality educator, author, and volunteer, I have been intensely involved in the Jewish and broader community in the Twin Cities.

My middle-grade chapter book, Friends Forever, won the Gelett Burgess award for Religion in 2012.
I live in Saint Paul with my wife, Liddy Rich, and our dogs Koty and Nashi. Our son lives in Austin, TX.

In the late fall and early winter of 2010 when all seemed to be going swimmingly, I couldn't kick a sinus infection. Diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in December, I had several rounds of chemo and thankfully matched with an unrelated adult donor in Germany and had a bone marrow transplant May 12, 2011. (Want to join the registry or need to update your contact information with Be the Match?) Baruch HaShem, since then, so far, I have been cancer-free. I have been healing, recovering, and living with chronic illness ever since. I have a lot of experience as a patient and patient advocate.

You might have seen me at places like JPRIDE, hanging out at Lake Phalen with the Karen refugee family my wife and I mentored through Lutheran Social Services and have stayed in touch with, teaching Hebrew at Mount Zion, davening at morning minyan at Beth Jacob, collecting books or trying to find more reading buddies for Northeast College Prep, or digging in our garden. If you have, please remind me know how you know me when you reach out!

Four Days of the Omer

Netzak of Chesed
Determination of Lovingkindness

Erev Shabbat/Shabbat
Evening of April 26 through April 27

I wonder if they still dream of water. After 40 days and 40 nights of rain, 150 days of flood before the water receded I think even all these years later I might still dream of water. Water as endless as this desert. On the other hand, walking through day 202, 150 days feels . . . different. Sighing heavily, I notice that Na’amah has linked her arm through Noah’s and she is regaling him with a story. With her free arm she gestures dramatically and when she pauses he chuckles. It’s a very Jewish chuckle and it carries over the din of people walking and chatting.