Torah on a Tatami: How One Couple Found Community In a Pandemic World

By M. Evan Wolkenstein M. Evan Wolkenstein Leah and Randy Matsui NOVATO, California — She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, her roots deep in the Ashkenazi culture of Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania. He grew up in Long Beach, California, a third generation Japanese American, and he barely knew a single Jewish person. On paper, they might not sound like an obvious match: Jewish Brooklyn versus Buddhist Japan, kvetching as a collective mode of connection versus pursuit of inner peace. But while Leah and Randy Matsui may come from disparate ethnic backgrounds, “two different flavors” as Randy puts it...