Articles & Essays

close up of the star of david necklace

Me, Jewish?

This article, originally published in UU World, Spring 2012, describes my journey to understanding my Jewish identity and heritage.

Rebuilding Nicaragua part 2

Rebuilding Nicaragua—Part 2

Nancy Hale and Anne Vallerga, teachers at New Technology High School in Napa, wanted to give their students a summer experience that would expand their horizons. With student input, they decided on a service project with Outreach360 in Jinotega, Nicaragua. The goal of the organization is to transform the world into a place where all children have opportunities for an education, so that they may make choices about their future lives.
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Rebuilding Nicaragua part 2

Helping Rebuild Nicaragua—Part I

Children growing up in Empalme de Boaco eat a diet of rice and beans, have one or two school uniforms that get washed frequently by hand, and must wash themselves without indoor plumbing. Yet they manage to come to school clean and neat with a twinkle in their eyes. At a dusty intersection of two main roads an hour northeast of Managua, the town is home to several thousand people who subsist by selling food and drinks to bus riders. Jake Scheideman of St. Helena started a foundation, Developing Communities, to help this town after stumbling across it 20 years ago.
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close up of the star of david necklace

Me, Jewish?

This article, originally published in UU World, Spring 2012, describes my journey to understanding my Jewish identity and heritage.
September 26, 2026/by Lenore Hirsch
Rebuilding Nicaragua part 2

Rebuilding Nicaragua—Part 2

Nancy Hale and Anne Vallerga, teachers at New Technology High School in Napa, wanted to give their students a summer experience that would expand their horizons. With student input, they decided on a service project with Outreach360 in Jinotega, Nicaragua. The goal of the organization is to transform the world into a place where all children have opportunities for an education, so that they may make choices about their future lives.
July 28, 2014/by Lenore Hirsch
Rebuilding Nicaragua part 2

Helping Rebuild Nicaragua—Part I

Children growing up in Empalme de Boaco eat a diet of rice and beans, have one or two school uniforms that get washed frequently by hand, and must wash themselves without indoor plumbing. Yet they manage to come to school clean and neat with a twinkle in their eyes. At a dusty intersection of two main roads an hour northeast of Managua, the town is home to several thousand people who subsist by selling food and drinks to bus riders.

Jake Scheideman of St. Helena started a foundation, Developing Communities, to help this town after stumbling across it 20 years ago.
July 14, 2014/by Lenore Hirsch
Cupcakes for Uniforms

Cupcakes for Uniforms

An estimated 67 million children around the world do not attend school, not because they are ill or too far away, but because their parents cannot afford a school uniform. While we fuss over the designer fad that teens are begging for, or shop to replace a worn pair of tennis shoes, kids in developing countries are going without an education because uniforms are required for school attendance. The Napa High School Interact Club is working to change that with a bake sale at Browns Valley Market on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
March 16, 2014/by Lenore Hirsch