06 Wednesday Mar 2019
This J Street statement puts the current tumult over Congresswoman Omar’s statements concerning Antisemitism and Criticism of Israel into sharp focus. I urge you to read it.
https://jstreet.org/…/statement-on-the-current-debate-ove…/…
05 Tuesday Mar 2019
Posted in American Jewish Life, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Uncategorized
This week I received an email announcement of an 8-minute animated video created by a group of 12-year old students at a local middle school, one of whom is an upcoming bar mitzvah at my synagogue. The film is based on an interview of an Auschwitz survivor, Erika Jacoby, who tells her story. The students created the visuals.
The film is astounding in its own right, beautifully executed and moving to watch, and even more so given that it was created by very young Jewish and non-Jewish students.
Given the diminishing and aging community of Holocaust survivors, we in the Jewish world have worried how younger generations of Jews would come to understand and regard the Holocaust and its significance in Jewish history.
This film ends on a vision of hope and is worth seeing.
To read more and find the link to the vimeo go to my blog at the Times of Israel –
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/young-people-remembering-holocaust-survivors/
05 Tuesday Mar 2019
28 Thursday Feb 2019
To read the entire d’var Torah, go to https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bezalel-judaisms-first-artist/
21 Thursday Feb 2019
If people hold the State of Israel to an unfair standard of behavior that they don’t hold for any other nation, and if they believe that Israel does not have the right to exist, that is anti-Jewish. If, however, someone is critical of policies of the State of Israel while supporting its legitimacy and right to exist as a Jewish state, that is not anti-Jewish.
To read more go to my blog at the Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-a-one-state-solution-is-anti-jewish/
17 Sunday Feb 2019
15 Friday Feb 2019
Reviewed by Philip K. Jason – December 26, 2018
This is an excellent review by Philip K Jason of a thoughtful, nuanced, open-hearted, and challenging book that every American Jew and Israeli ought to read.
Dr. Mnookin, a Harvard Law Professor and expert in conflict resolution, describes accurately and expansively the stresses and strains on American Jews today and discusses the opportunities to confront these challenges creatively and with a fresh approach. He challenges historical models of Jewish identity in light of diminishing observance and knowledge of Judaism, widening polarities in the American Jewish community and State of Israel, a rising rate of intermarriage, and raising children to be positively identified Jews.
For those living in Los Angeles, I will be in dialogue with Dr. Mnookin on Monday evening, March 4 at 7:00 PM at Chevalier’s Book Store, 126 N Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90004.
Read – https://bit.ly/2TQ0HfX
04 Monday Feb 2019
Watching the Super Bowl, likely the last time I do so, I felt alienated from my own country for the Super Bowl and football generally present a world that is contrary to my Jewish values.
To understand why, go to my Blog at the Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-super-bowl-a-reflection-of-a-violent-america/
31 Thursday Jan 2019
This Times of Israel blog by Deborah Lipstadt is must-read for any Jew and liberal who thinks that antisemitism comes only from the right-wing in American politics and from a bunch of insignificant crazies in Europe. Not so, Deborah states – and she is right.
Just yesterday, I met with a young Polish Jewish woman who told me that antisemitism in her native Poland is today similar to what it was like before World War II.
We Jews cannot bury our heads in the sand, but we also have to be careful to distinguish, as Deborah does, the difference between legitimate criticism of Israeli policies vis a vis the occupation of the West Bank and antisemitism. It is anti-Semitic if a critic of Israel goes so far as to say that the Jewish people do not have the right to a state of our own or that the State of Israel is not legitimate.
Read Deborah’s article and pass it around. It has already gone viral at the Times of Israel Blog
22 Tuesday Jan 2019
I have written a response to a rabbinic colleague whose child is a supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and who, I believe, has set aside moral standards when evaluating Jewish organizations in their relationship with Zionism and the State of Israel.
To read my blog at the Times of Israel, go to https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-response-to-the-parent-of-a-jvp-child
Rabbi John Rosove's Blog 