02 Thursday May 2019
Posted in Jewish Identity, Uncategorized
18 Thursday Apr 2019
01 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in American Politics and Life, Ethics, Uncategorized
Anyone who knows Congressman Adam Schiff recognizes the quality of the man, his intelligence, dignity, integrity, and seriousness as a public servant. Modest, refined, distinguished, thoughtful, and professional – these are the adjectives that immediately come to mind when I think of him.
See my blog at The Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/in-defense-of-congressman-adam-schiff-against-an-immoral-president/
25 Monday Mar 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
Rabbi David Teutsch, who shares the co-chairmanship with me and Rabbi Andrea London of the J Street Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet, has written an authoritative piece that will appear in the Times of Israel detailing how the extreme right-wing is the greatest anti-Semitic threat and NOT the extreme left wing. Though there are concerns about a growing anti-Israel sentiment on the left, these people are not violent. The right wing is.
David shows us why and is to be complemented.
http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/dangers-antisemitism
22 Friday Mar 2019
For 2-minute video link – https://bit.ly/2YhGB0H
18 Monday Mar 2019
Anyone who supports the right of the Jewish people to a state of our own and calls for a two-states for two people’s resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not an anti-Semite.
Congressman Ilhan Omar has now laid her cards on the table. Her support for the rights of the Jewish people for a state of our own in Israel and the Palestinian people for a state of their own should satisfy doubts we might have had about her position vis a vis the Jewish people and Israel.
Ilhan Omar: We must apply our universal values to all nations. Only then will we achieve peace, Washington Post –
Rep. Ilhan Omar writes, “U.S. support for Israel has a long history. The founding of Israel 70 years ago was built on the Jewish people’s connection to their historical homeland, as well as the urgency of establishing a nation in the wake of the horror of the Holocaust and the centuries of anti-Semitic oppression leading up to it. Many of the founders of Israel were themselves refugees who survived indescribable horrors. We must acknowledge that this is also the historical homeland of Palestinians. And without a state, the Palestinian people live in a state of permanent refugeehood and displacement. This, too, is a refugee crisis, and they, too, deserve freedom and dignity. A balanced, inclusive approach to the conflict recognizes the shared desire for security and freedom of both peoples. I support a two-state solution, with internationally recognized borders, which allows for both Israelis and Palestinians to have their own sanctuaries and self-determination. This has been official bipartisan U.S. policy across two decades and has been supported by each of the most recent Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as the consensus of the Israeli security establishment. “
For full article go to https://wapo.st/2ub60vk
13 Wednesday Mar 2019
I have written a poetic midrash based on the word “Vayikra…” And God called Moses. You can read on my Times of Israel Blog at https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/moses-and-gods-tears-a-poetic-midrash-for-vayikra/
11 Monday Mar 2019
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/
28 Thursday Feb 2019
“The Reform Movement strongly condemns the recent initiative of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring loyalists of racist Rabbi Meir Kahane into the Knesset. Those who espouse an ideology of hate, intolerance, and incite violence have no place in the Jewish State let alone in her government.” — The Reform Movement released a new statement this morning on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Initiative to Bring the Racist Otzma Yehudit Party into the Government.
For full statement, go to – https://bit.ly/2Xxa1Yi
Rabbi John Rosove's Blog 