My early childhood was spent in Newark, New Jersey, but my family moved to Denver when I was 12.

Since 1985, I have written about contemporary Jewish practice and the Jewish community.

It's a wonder that any mother ever called a daughter Dinah again. But some did. Maybe you guessed that there was more to me than the voiceless cipher in the text. Maybe you heard it in the music of my name: the first vowel high and clear, as when a mother calls to her child at dusk; the second sound soft, for whispering secrets on pillows. Dee-nah.

Wherever you walk, I go with you. Selah.

It was one of those perfect fall days when the air is cool enough to wake you up but the sun is also kissing your face.

Right now, I'm Writing song lyrics. Experimenting with a play. Toying with an idea for a documentary. I hope one of these will eventually be launched into the light of day.

Whatever your relationship is to your sacred tradition in the West, you have some relationship to the Bible if only through the names of the characters.