The other day the Pianist handed me a library book she thought I would like. The book is” How to Know a Person” by the columnist David Brooks. Near the beginning, Brooks writes, “When I was eighteen, the admissions officers at Columbia, Wesleyan, and Brown decided I should go [...]

Last year and the year before, I drove from Keene to New York City to spend time with my Massachusetts grandchildren, who are now New Yorkers. “No one drives to New York,” they told me, so I drove to Springfield, parked in the bus station garage, and arrived at [...]

Published in the Concord Monitor February 21, 2025. According to its Preamble, the Constitution was intended to promote “the general Welfare” and provide the “Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” In a time when the rule of law is under attack, Americans should recognize that our governing document [...]

On a recent Monday, while the Pianist was inside looking at art, I was sitting in a chair in front of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. A good spot to catch up with the Sunday New York Times book review section. There, on page 9, was a [...]

Rachel Maddow’s podcast, “Ultra, Season 2,” tells the story of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt, who took his own life in 1954. I was not aware of this tragic chapter in America’s political history, which is a reminder of the destructive power wielded by Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy. McCarthy did [...]

I never expected the word “antisemitism” to rear its ugly head openly in America. But recent years have defied expectations, and we now see entertainers, professional athletes, and elected officials expressing Jew hatred with hardly any rhetorical camouflage. All of us should be outraged. Growing up in Claremont, I [...]

1. Prologue Chaim and Ruchele Feldman, brother and sister, were born a long time ago in Derechin, a small village which was then in Poland, now Western Belarus. Their mother’s maiden name was Bernstein, and their uncle, Isaac Bernstein, left Derechin for America sometime before 1900. He became a [...]

My grandfather Steinfield, for whom I am named, died in Claremont on December 12, 1911. He is buried in Adath Israel Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. My grandmother Steinfield died on October 23, 1943, more than ten years before Claremont acquired land on North Street for a Jewish cemetery. [...]

When I was nine, I went to Camp Arcadia in Maine, and I went back the next two summers. You could sign up for various activities, and although I would happily have spent all my time playing baseball, I took riflery and learned how to shoot. I got my [...]

If there’s one rule that most of us can get behind, it’s the Golden Rule—"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Matthew 7:12). Its Old Testament counterpart is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18). Whichever version you prefer, the period during which we are [...]