נפלה עטרת ראשנו (איכה ה:טז)

“The crown of our head has fallen…” (Lamentations 5:16)


It is with great sorrow and regret that I read about the passing of the Founder and President of Touro College


מו"הרב דוב בעריש לאנדער, זצ"ל

Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander

My condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the founder of my school, an admirable institution created by a formidable man, who will remain with us through the works that the many students of the Institution have and will carry on.

Semester's end

Another semester of Touro Graduate School of Social Work behind me sort of...internship continues. I learned so much about how little I know!! That could be good...What a hard semester that was! Working nights, the internship, the classes. I am starting to realize that I will be a changed person when I finish this degree. Not by virtue of the "Degree" but by what I am learning, and the internal changes occurring. I don't think I'll ever be a good clinician, but the classes with Dr. Krantz blew me away. At times irritating, at times incredibly funny, he is a master at what he does. He was able to put me in an imaginary chair with an imaginary client and for the first time in a class setting I was at a loss for comments and terrified of making a fool of myself...I look forward to another semester, maybe I won't feel so inept. I think I'll be alright, and above all I will continue to learn a craft that is as intense, cerebral and challenging as any course on physics or any other so called "hard science". It truly is a blessing to have teachers who are masters in their skill.

Still health care, still and always

Iraq and Afghanistan are two of the countries with universal health care, payed by us, the American tax payer. There has to be some kind of irony here...at least that.
One more thought or two on health care:
The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of Health:
The state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (WHO, 1947)
Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Hilary Clinton all tried and all failed. The same tactics are being used to argue against it.The universal health care plan adversaries must figure that this one is a keeper. The suckers ate the same (so much for wide spread college education), the winners are the same, and the government is the same. And as Mr. Einstein said, "insanity is attempting to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results". The adversaries are doing the same thing and getting the same results, so in all logic the people attempting to implement some kind of sane health reform should have gone about it in a different way... Not sure how but they're the ones getting the bucks and sleeping with the enemy...
Truth Out has some good suggestions...
And this article in the New Yorker authored by Atul Gawande,clearly elucidates us on the state of health in this country.His web site is a marvelously eclectic domain reflecting the Renaissance man that he embodies.
How is it that one can invariably link the world's great family fortunes to either booze, drugs or war? Kennedy's being just such an example as Joe the elder statesman made some of his early fortune running illegal booze during the Prohibition...

Preparing for the beginning of Fall semester at Touro College
The upcoming Career Fair might actually be a good place for me to find much needed advice on work and future internships.

Touro College

As previously stated, one month's respite from Touro College is feeling somewhat good, but I really enjoy my classes there. Touro College has what I feel are indispensable characteristics for a School of Social Work at a Master's level. I know I'll be complaining about the overload with school and work and internship, but in the end it all works out. Prof. Elhanon Marvit is absolutely the best! A wonder of a man, an excellent, dedicated and challenging teacher, he truly is. as he says, a social worker, but also a scholar of social work. Thank You
It sounds like I'm pushing the school, but no, these are my musings and this is what I feel today.