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
28 Thursday Feb 2019
To read the entire d’var Torah, go to https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/bezalel-judaisms-first-artist/
17 Sunday Feb 2019
29 Tuesday Jan 2019
Posted in American Politics and Life, Uncategorized
Howard Schultz, should he run for President as an Independent, would likely take more Democratic votes away from the Democratic nominee than from the Republican Trump, and that could be the difference that elects Donald Trump to a second term.
Schultz should run, if he wants, as a Democrat. That he wants to do so as an Independent is not only self-centered and likely to be a failure (no Independent candidate has ever won for President including Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 – remember John Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992), but it’s a cowardly act because, in my view, it seems that he doesn’t want to run competitively in the primaries against other far more politically experienced than him, despite running an international company with a strong concern for ethics and fair treatment of employees.
I hope that Schultz decides to drop this potentially disastrous run and do the responsible thing – step aside altogether or run as a Democrat in the primaries just like the 20 or so other potential candidates will do.
If he runs as an Independent, I will never step foot in a Starbucks again – and neither should any of us because we will likely be able to blame him for a 2nd Trump term!
22 Tuesday Jan 2019
20 Sunday Jan 2019
It is clear from the statement and video (see link) that “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP) is an anti-Zionist and anti-Israel group that distorts Israel’s history to justify its antipathy to Zionism and Israel, attacks Israel’s mission as a Jewish and democratic state, and chooses facts selectively while providing no historical or political context to its assertions.
…. JVP is not only anti-Zionist and anti-Israel, but because it denies the right of the Jewish people to a state of our own, it qualifies as anti-Jewish.
For the full statement see my blog at the Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-jewish-voice-for-peace-is-anti-jewish/
11 Friday Jan 2019
Posted in American Politics and Life, Uncategorized
