Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“L’Chaim” is the Hebrew toast “To Life!” It’s also the name of a radio show, which is fitting as “L’Chaim” is more than an invitation to share a schnapps, but perhaps a whole life (see Fiddler on the Roof), or at least a friendly conversation about serious things.

And a friendly conversation about serious things is what we had on “L’Chaim Jewish Radio” live on the WCAP 980 AM airwaves. Or you could call it a passionate but polite debate, since L’Chaim’s host – longtime New England Jewish community activist Jim Shainker – and I are in diametric disagreement on almost everything regarding Israel and Palestine, Hamas and Likud, war and peace, and the “Zionist Colonial Project.”

Lazy lefty that I am, I prefer preaching to the choir, and I’d much rather make love not war. But occasionally I enjoy sparring with the opposition, especially for a worthy cause (and what is worthier than peace and a free Palestine?), and especially over a drink. In this case, it being 7am (PST), the drink was freshly brewed coffee, heavily spiked with coconut milk.

I felt like I was entering enemy territory through my cousin Jimmy’s living room. Jim and I bonded over our Jewish roots, notably our mutual admiration for my old rabbi, the late great Gerald Wolpe, the Zero Mostel of Philadelphia’s Har Zion Temple, who presided over my entire Judaic youth as well as my wedding to Max 33 years ago. Max also loved Rabbi Wolpe mainly because, upon hearing that Max (a Jewish convert) was uncircumcised, he shrugged his big heimish shoulders as if to say, “Don’t worry, I won’t cut you,” causing Max to exhale with great relief. I also just found out Rabbi Wolpe was the primary caregiver for his beloved aphasia-stricken wife – an eerily similar relationship to mine with Max who also just had a stroke, and now has aphasia – and I can almost hear Rabbi Wolpe’s resonant baritone guiding the two of us through the darkness of these times.

Back to L’Chaim, where I mentioned a Jewish social club near Yale’s campus called Shabtai where I gave a talk 20 years ago about the Biblical heroine,

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