Michael Ginsberg’s journalism career started badly, when an editor added to his yearbook review of his high school football team’s season, “Ask not what your team can do for you; ask what you can do for your team.” After his “libel by cliche” lawsuit failed, he wrote for his college newspaper, detoured briefly as an elementary school teacher and returned to journalism at the Asheville Citizen-Times, Greenville (SC) News-Piedmont and Wichita Eagle-Beacon. He retired from reporting to earn a Ph.D. in Reading Education and spent 25 years as an English faculty member at a community college in Louisville, Kentucky, where he presently lives. During that time, he engaged in freelance writing and editing, which he continues to do, as well as teach ESL Reading. He is still seeking justice from his high school.
By Michael Ginsberg LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Viola Taliaferro has earned an exalted place in Bloomington, Indiana, where she and her late husband, George, stand as civic royalty. Judge Taliaferro’s actions fit Sir Jonathan Sacks’ description of the ethics of responsibility. In To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Sacks writes: We are here to make a […]
Judge Viola Taliaferro: Hero Read More »
Lifestyles, Michael GinsbergSixty years ago, on Rosh Hashanah, my father taught me a lesson about giving. Thirty years later, I learned another valuable lesson about giving. Both apply to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – the Days of Awe – when we examine what we have given and taken in our own lives. [Michael Ginsberg]
Lessons Learned about Tzedakah and Chesed Read More »
Lifestyles, Michael GinsbergMore than 220,000 Americans have died of Covid19. One of them was Steve Silverman, 71, my college roommate and friend for 55 years. An active sportsman, a successful and compassionate doctor, he had suffered for three weeks, alone and hooked up to a respirator. His wife, two grown children, grandchildren and friends “attended” the funeral and shiva on Zoom. [Michael Ginsberg]
Judaism’s response to Covid19 Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael GinsbergBrianna Taylor died on March 13. A Louisville grand jury announced its verdict on Sept. 24. That’s 194 days later. [Michael Ginsberg]
OpEd: Justice delayed, justice denied Read More »
Michael Ginsberg, USAIt’s peaceful in St. Matthews tonight (Wednesday, Sept. 23), as usual, despite the announcement of the grand jury findings in the Breonna Taylor case, which left only one of three police officers indicted for their involvement in the killing of Taylor. (The charge was first degree wanton endangerment, for firing shots outside Taylor’s apartment.) My wife, Jeri, and I “defied” the curfew, in place throughout Louisville, but we saw no protestors, no police, on our post-9 p.m. walk. No surprise for this upper middle-class, predominantly Catholic, overwhelmingly white neighborhood, east of downtown Louisville. [Michael Ginsberg]
A tense night in Louisville, Kentucky Read More »
Michael Ginsberg, USAI climbed the cheap metal steps to one of the many cheap “temporary” classroom buildings that sprouted like weeds between my Spring 1965 campus visit to SUNY Buffalo [UB] and the August start of freshman year. The classic Gothic campus on Main Street had turned into a muddy mobile home park, but I was happy to be there. Not quite 17, I celebrated as my parents drove off in tears, leaving me 400 miles from home. They had told me to choose a state school, and the map told me Buffalo was as far as I could get from Brooklyn. A bonus was UB’s academic reputation, good enough for the elitists in my high school to express surprise that I had been accepted. [Michael Ginsberg]
A mind is a fine thing to grow Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Lifestyles, Michael Ginsberg, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USACall me Orca. I’ve got a whale of a story to tell. You know the story of Jonah and the whale, right? Wrong. You only think you do: A big, ugly whale swallows Jonah, who spends days in the whale’s belly, before God releases Jonah from captivity and the whale exits, stage right. [Fiction by Michael Ginsberg]
Fiction: Jonah and Me, the Whale Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Fiction, Jewish Religion, Michael GinsbergOnce upon a time, there was a sleepy Russian village named Mushpushshushnia. That’s my village. Once upon a time, there was a charming, bright, kind, but misunderstood and underappreciated 12-year-old boy named Velvl. That’s me. Once upon a time, Papa told me to fetch a chicken to slaughter. And that’s where the story begins. [Michael Ginsberg]
Fiction: Velvl and the Vanishing Chicken Read More »
Jewish Fiction, Michael Ginsberg, Trivia, Humor & SatireI know “Father” and “Ginsberg” don’t seem to fit together, but the nuns at All Saints Elementary School in Buffalo, NY, assigned me that title, and you don’t say no to nuns, even if you’re Jewish. Besides, their warm smiles and insistence that I take time off for Jewish holidays made it impossible to argue with them. I taught sixth grade at All Saints for the 1969-70 school year. Since then, I’ve spent 30 of the past 51 years as a teacher, but that year is still my favorite. Go figure. [Michael Ginsberg]
Call me Father Ginsberg Read More »
Michael Ginsberg, Science, Medicine, & EducationThe summer of 1965, I was not quite 17, not quite 5-foot-7, and not quite a college freshman. I was also broke, and I was convinced that I held the school record for number of crushes on girls who couldn’t quite remember who I was when I called for a date. I couldn’t do anything about my age or height, but I decided to solve my other two problems with a summer job at a Catskill Mountains hotel, piling up tips and meeting girls – Jewish preferred, but not required. [Michael Ginsberg]
Short story: Dirty Dishes Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Michael Ginsberg, USAThis spring, at 55, Robert III was approaching what would have been one of his best days ever: completing his associate’s degree program at Jefferson. He did earn his degree, but it wasn’t the celebration he had anticipated: On March 26, his son, Robert Mitchem IV, was killed in an apparently random shooting in the West End of Louisville. Police have yet to identify a suspect. [Michael Ginsberg]
In tribute to my student Robert Mitchem III Read More »
Michael Ginsberg, USAOn October 21, 1961, I finished my bar mitzvah speech at Judea Center Synagogue in Brooklyn, thanking my parents for raising me as a Jew. Six months later, I interrupted our family’s Shabbat candle lighting to announce that I was finished with religion. [Michael Ginsberg]
Temple Shalom of Louisville: A love story Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael Ginsberg, USA