Submitted by Rabbi Jason Miller on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 07:10
Like many American rabbis who relocate to Israel on aliyah, Rabbi Naftali "Tuly" Weisz began to look for a way to make a difference in the Holy Land. The 30-something Modern Orthodox rabbi had already made some significant relationships with the Israel-loving Evangelical Christian community in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
Submitted by Eric Herschthal on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 17:42
The culture wars in Israel these days makes you pine for the ones we had here, in the States, some 15 years ago. In America, it all seemed like grand theater--Giuliani, for instance, catering to hard-core Christians aghast at a painting of the Virgin Mary covered in feces. But in Israel the state has a far stronger hand in culture. So when the current Likud Culture Minister, Limor Livnat, threatened to withhold money to artists who refused to perform in the Ariel performing center, in the occupied West Bank, it meant something.
Submitted by Eric Herschthal on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 16:49
The Conservative movement recently conducted a survey of hundreds of its rabbis and the results are in: on the whole, they're as committed to Israel as they've ever been, although younger rabbis have more liberal views about the state than they've used to. The purpose behind this survey is clear: to assure anxious Jewish leaders that, contra the skeptics, Israel remains as vital a part of Jewish life as ever.
Submitted by Eric Herschthal on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 14:44
Fifty years ago, one of the most influential literary critics around was Alfred Kazin. Everyone knew he was Jewish -- a famed member of the City College New York Intellectual set of the 1930s -- but few probably thought much of it. Kazin seemed to like it that way, never distancing himself from his identity, but also only occasionally allowing his thoughts on Jewishness to seep into print.
Submitted by Eric Herschthal on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 14:41
Fifty years ago, one of the most influential literary critics around was Alfred Kazin. Everyone knew he was Jewish -- a famed member of the City College New York Intellectual set of the 1930s -- but few probably thought much of it. Kazin seemed to like it that way, never distancing himself from his identity, but also only occasionally allowing his thoughts on Jewishness to seep into print.
A college student embraces the environmental cause as a way to help protect Israel.
Arielle Sperling
Special To The Jewish Week
08/16/2011
When I think about growing up in the suburbs of New York City, I remember blue and white Yom Ha’Atzmaut cupcakes and Israel advocacy seminars. I was raised with a joyful love of Israel that is inherently part of who I am.
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of essays on Zionist thinkers and doers, in Israel and outside, who are pioneering new understandings of what Jewish nationalism can mean in the 21st century. The first essay profiled Professor Ruth Gavison.
On Monday, June 27, Zionist activists gathered in Jerusalem to launch Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch’s new book, “For the Sake of Zion, Reform Zionism: A Personal Mission.”
Submitted by Julie Wiener on Tue, 06/21/2011 - 17:21
Now that consensus seems to be emerging that intermarriage does not equal assimilation/demographic disaster, is the latest conventional wisdom that it causes one to turn against Israel?
Submitted by Julie Wiener on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 20:44
We intermarried Jews are breeding like crazy.
The Israel-born actress Natalie (Hershlag) Portman, who is engaged to French dancer Benjamin Millepied, apparently just gave birth to a boy.
Since Portman has said in previous interviews that she planned to raise her children as Jews, I’m assuming this one belongs to the Tribe. Who knows? Maybe she’ll even decide to invite over that Monster Mohel featured recently in the disturbingly anti-Semitic “Foreskin Man” comic circulated by California’s anti-circumcision “intactivists.”
Then there is Anthony Weiner. Among other tidbits to emerge from the past week and a half’s round-the-clock Weinergate is that the congressman’s Muslim wife, Huma Abedin, is in the early stages of pregnancy. And presumably he is the father, unless in some dramatic twist of the whole aggrieved/betrayed wife scenario, he is not.
There is a member of my congregation who, at least once a year, complains to me that Jewish tradition seems incapable of letting us have an unqualified good time no matter how happy the circumstances. We break a glass under the marital chuppah, we pour wine out of our cups at the Passover Seder, we recite penitential prayers every day to remind ourselves of just how imperfect we are… why can’t we just kick back and enjoy life like others seem to be able to do?
