Leaders, are you modeling the behavior you expect from others? If you want to create a healthy workplace culture, remember that being corrected isn't an attack; it's an opportunity to grow. Let’s be honest, many of us are scared of making mistakes or offending others. But stepping out of safety and into growth means normalizing messing up. Being an impactful leader or change agent doesn't require us to be perfect; it requires us to be accountable. This post contains five of my inclusive leadership strategies for approaching criticism as an opportunity for growth!

“Real” men and women do not exist. We’re all gorgeous failures when it comes to gender, although cis folks are not policed and punished for our “failures” as our trans siblings are. That's not something I could have said or even understood when this photo was taken almost 40 years ago when I was a student at Smith College. The violence, exclusion, and discrimination suffered by trans, nonbinary and intersex people demonstrate how social imperatives to be a “real” man or woman have devastatingly oppressive consequences in our world. Please join me in doing the vital work of challenging naturalizing discourses of binary gender that harm everyone--including, perhaps, you. Read more to learn about my personal story and actionable steps you can take as an active ally and equity advocate!

Overcoming division, intolerance, and polarization requires intentional effort from all of us, especially during these difficult times. But how do we activate the power of connection in a world that seems to be driving us further apart? You can strengthen your sense of shared humanity by engaging in practices that remind you of the kinship you share with others. Tapping into our shared humanity helps us to increase empathy, navigate conflict productively, and strengthen relationships and teams.

Holocaust Memorial Day isn’t just about the past and honoring the memories of those who were murdered. It’s about our unfinished humanity in 2025. As someone whose family was almost annihilated in the Holocaust, I’m calling on all of you to stand against hate and the alarming rise of antisemitism in our world. Read my recommendations for steps you can take today. Together we can build a world where no one faces hate, discrimination and violence simply because of their identity.

Including Hanukkah in your holiday celebrations isn’t “taking a side” in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Last year, municipalities and organizations across the US canceled or “toned down” public Hanukkah celebrations for fear of appearing to side with Israel in the current conflict. At at time when neo-Nazi incidents are rising in America, weaponizing a Jewish religious holiday only serves to fuel anti-Jewish bigotry and hatred.

"It could be worse" and "you'll be fine" are not examples of empathic listening. Empathic listening is necessary for any courageous conversation that seeks to address conflict or connect with others on a deeper level. Empathic listeners don't just hear words, but seek to understand the authentic feelings behind them. One of the best ways we can show up for our colleagues, friends, and neighbors during difficult times is to listen with curiosity and empathy. When we truly listen, we build trust and create a space for others to feel valued, heard, and understood.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20), I’m standing in love and solidarity with my transgender siblings. Trans and gender expansive people deserve futures—and so much more: respect, acceptance, and equality. The best way to honor the memories of those who lost their lives to anti-trans violence is to build a safer, more inclusive, and more liberated world for people of all genders.

Texas's proposed Christian nationalist elementary school curriculum includes a “game” about Jewish genocide in a second-grade lesson on the biblical story of Esther. As someone with many family members who were murdered in the Holocaust, I'm appalled. How are we to understand what's driving this hateful curriculum, which could become a model for the rest of the country?

Many queer and transgender people, Black and Brown people, immigrants, workers, women, Jews, Muslims and Arabs and other groups are not simply sad that our candidate didn’t win. We are worried about our safety and the safety of our loved ones.

White people, it’s time to be honest about our addiction to white innocence. I’ve been revisiting Michael Eric Dyson’s Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, which was published just a few days before President Trump’s first inauguration. Dr. Dyson describes an America wounded by White people's anger, which propelled Trump into the White House in 2017. For those who benefit from white privilege, Dyson’s words may be difficult to hear. But his insights speak to our current moment with a powerful, chilling precision.

“Am I using my anger, or is my anger using me?” I love this question from Layla Saad. If you're dumping unprocessed trauma or information onto colleagues or strangers online, you may be overwhelming or triggering them without realizing it. During difficult times, we must reconsider our ways of being in relationship and community with one another while allowing each other to feel the terror, rage, and injustice of the moment.

When I talk about the risk of the US becoming an authoritarian theocracy, I’m not exaggerating. Do you know that the state of Oklahoma is requiring public schools to incorporate the Bible into their curricula? This effort is part of a larger project that aims to “Christianize” not only public schools but the nation itself. That project, of course, is White Christian nationalism.

It’s #WorldKindnessDay, so let’s talk about the difference between niceness and kindness. Niceness is superficial politeness. It is about the 3 C’s: comfort, control, and convenience. Niceness tends to be associated with people pleasing and avoiding conflict. It's less invested in authentic understanding than in maintaining the status quo. In contrast, kindness is a revolutionary practice of compassion, love, and justice. It’s motivated by genuine caring and the desire to understand. As an anti-oppressive practice, kindness is most effective when aligned with systemic solutions that center the needs of equity-deserving communities.

If you think it can’t happen in the US, you are wrong. Americans tend to believe that fascism was a foreign threat that the US bravely defeated. But before World War II, pro-Hitler fascists, white supremacists, and antisemites had more support than many people realize, and their efforts to overthrow the government and replace it with a fascist dictatorship posed a real threat. Today, Trump’s extremist and racist/xenophobic rhetoric --condemning “the enemy within” and promising the "largest deportation program in American history” because “America is for Americans” – is pulled straight from Hitler’s playbook. People of all political affiliations must come together to fight the growing threat of American authoritarianism.

It's our human obligation to pursue justice and preserve the lives and dignity of all people. "Whoever destroys a single life is considered to have destroyed the whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world." This is a Jewish and Islamic principle, appearing in both the Mishnah and the Quran. The escalation of violence in the Middle East shows that extremism, human rights violations, and bigotry are not the answer. As an American Jew with family in Israel, I advocate for the security and equality of all human beings in the region. The belief that Jewish safety must come at the expense of the people of Palestine is a falsehood I reject.

I'm sorry you feel that way is not an apology. We undermine our own efforts to apologize when we don't accept full responsibility for our actions, make excuses for ourselves, or attempt to shift the blame away from us. Unfortunately many misconceptions about apologizing persist. We’ve probably all had the experience of having someone say the “right thing” and yet their apology feels performative. Especially in today’s era of “sorry not sorry” non-apologies and performative public apologies, healing requires putting in real work. This means taking steps to ensure that we don’t cause harm again, rather than simply professing our remorse and willingness to take responsibility.

Leaders, don’t shift responsibility for creating LGBTQIA2S+ inclusion onto the very people who are most in need of your support. On #NationalComingOutDay, my social media feeds are full of my queer, trans and nonbinary siblings proudly celebrating their authentic selves and sharing the complexity and uniqueness of their journeys. What's invisible to many hetero cisgender people is the stories behind the selfies—especially the great price many of us continue to pay for living openly as a LGBTQIA2S+ human.

Disability isn't a costume. On Halloween, remember that conflating impairment or disfigurement with ugliness, evil, or horror causes real harm to people with physical and facial differences. As a young girl with scoliosis and kyphosis, the only images I ever saw of people like me were “hunchbacks” in the movies. These were typically ugly and "deformed" men with extreme spinal curvatures like Quasimodo.…. If you're dressing up for Halloween or costuming your kids, please remember that how you represent what's "frightening" has a significant impact on people with bodily, limb, or facial differences. From the Phantom of the Opera to the Joker to Wonder Woman’s Dr. Poison, scarred and disfigured villains have been a persistent trope in Hollywood cinema.

For many years, silence separated me from the person I yearned to be and isolated me, but I thought surrendering a part of myself to silence was necessary for my safety and survival. It took me many years to discover the price of keeping silences and power of voice as a political demand. Women, Global Majority people, and gender expansive people of all ethnicities, classes, ages, sexualities, religions, and abilities all struggle (in different ways) against the tyrannies of silence. It is by recognizing our shared journeys to find language for our truths that we can face our fears, decolonize our minds, and create spaces for healing, authentic connection, and collective liberation.

“Jews will not replace us." Remember that chant from Charlottesville in 2017? The idea that Jewish people push "anti-white racism" to weaken the West—an antisemitic trope promoted by white supremacists and Christian nationalists —is simply a contemporary version of a virulent anti-Jewish conspiracy theory that goes back centuries. At the root of this brand of antisemitism is the Great Replacement Theory: a belief that Jews, who only "pretend" to be white, are plotting to exterminate or "replace" white Christians.