Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg

Transforming the Core

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Mar 16, 2019 | Children, Community, Community Resources, Family, Religion, Spirituality

Community-building is a never-ending concept. The other day, I was walking my dog through the Reservoir Hill neighborhood. I crossed through German Park, our community playground, and found a father pushing his baby on the infant swings. I smiled. I couldn’t help...

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Communication in the Digital Age Doesn’t Always Inspire ‘Just’ Speech

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Feb 1, 2019 | Community, Community Resources, Religion

The great satirist Tom Lehrer said, “… One problem that recurs more and more frequently these days, in books and plays and movies, is the inability of people to communicate with the people they love. … And the characters in these books and plays and so on, and in real...

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Baltimore’s Legacy Synagogues with City Roots Should Engage their Neighborhoods of Origins

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Dec 12, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, Education, Religion, Spirituality

Politicians, musicians, comedians and others often ask, “Will it play in Peoria?” At Beth Am Synagogue, we frequently ask ourselves something like, “Will it resonate in Reservoir Hill?” Attention to the surrounding community is central to the “New Jewish Neighborhood”...

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Showing Up Offers a Means of Resisting Violence and Hate

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Nov 16, 2018 | Community, Community Resources, Education, Spirituality

“First they came for the socialists …” said Martin Niemöller, the German pastor who came to resist Nazi dictatorship. “Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to...

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Crossing the Mason-Dixon Line Offers A Sobering Reminder about Tyranny

by Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg | Oct 26, 2018 | Community, Religion, Spirituality

The day after Yom Kippur, needing to clear my head, I loaded my bike onto my electric vehicle and took a (guilt-free) drive north to the NCR Trail. From the parking lot north of Monkton, I biked 10 miles along one of the oldest rail-trails in the country. It was a...

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