News of the Schism Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Judaism is a religion and a people liable to split upon serious disagreement. At least, this is the sense of Judaism you may get from Jonathan Weisman’s New York Times report on the upcoming “Great Schism” between American Jews and Israeli Jews. The term is Christian, referring to the permanent rupture between the Catholic and […]
Why the Rebbe Stayed in America
The Lubavitcher Rebbe is a prophet. Time and again we ask him, respectful and pleading, “Why won’t you visit Israel? Why won’t you move to Israel? How can a leader of world Jewry avoid the Holy Land?” Then the Rebbe’s response. He smiles, reminds us of the laws that would not permit his return if […]
With apologies to Lenny Bruce. Non-Jews might not know this, but there are quite a lot of different types of Jews — of all races, countries, political beliefs. Even religiously, there is a huge divide between two large camps in particular: The “Ashkenazi” Jews of general European descent, and the “Sephardi” Jews, who originated from […]
We danced this week in the synagogues and in the streets. In Oregon and in Jerusalem we pulled aside pretty veils and dug into our boxes and took out our scrolls cloaked in majesty. Between the Jordan and the Pacific we danced our dance ’round the bimah, waging peace, raging joy. We danced in Oregon, […]
Today, a synagogue lies drenched in Jewish blood, and our nation mourns as one. The soul cries out: What do we do? What can we do? What is the answer to those who hate us? This afternoon, as I pull myself away from the news and the poetry and the terrible pictures, I find my mind […]
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