WholeHogBlog.com

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I knew it was time to start blogging about things Jewish. But what domain should choose? When I realized I already owned an awesome domain from a previous business venture, I couldn’t resist.

There is an old saying on the farm that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. I never liked the sound of that and when I started a financial information website, I went with “hogs get fat” and the treif title of this blog.

WholeHogBlog is my venue for things Jewish. My Jewishness has been an integral part of who I am since growing up in the exurbs of Hartford in a small community. My parents were founders of our Reform temple, and until it was built we rented the local church. The two congregations still do a joint service each thanksgiving.

I didn’t realize before I wrote that, that that might be the origin of my commitment to community and diversity, particularly within the Jewish community. (wow, did you see that? Three “that”s in a row, and it made sense! I love English.) I am a firm believer in Rabbi Yitz Greenberg’s admonition that “it doesn’t matter what denomination you are, as long as you are ashamed of it.”

You are rarely ashamed of the neighbor’s kids. You aren’t close enough to them and you do not love them enough to be ashamed of them or to work to help make them into something you love and respect. You need to be so close to your community that you care enough to love it, to be ashamed of it, to take pride in it, and to work to perfect it.

So while I grew up in the Reform movement, and in high school was even First VP of NEFTY, I now belong to a conservative shul and enjoy davening in orthodox and renewal services alike. I’m a living contradiction, a walking dialectic. I tend to be conservative politically yet I’m inspired by Barack Obama. Rather than calling myself a post-denominational Jew, I prefer to think of myself as all denominational, so I can be ashamed of and work to perfect them all.

I have lived my Jewish life that way. One of the proudest moments of my life was at my son Daniel’s brit milah. I looked around the room at 120 people and saw rabbi’s from Chabad, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and ordinary Jews who were committed to their shuls, the Jewish Federation, and even totally unaffiliated and disconnected. It was truly a gathering of the Jewish community.

I hope I am blessed to host that same diverse community as guests here and to make this a place where we can all go whole hog in our commitment to each other and our community.

Joshua C. Karlin

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