My Shabbat Dinner with Muslims

By Audra Gamble April 3, 2014

My grandmother tells this story about how a relative of hers who lived in Israel asked her, quite intensely, whether she was an American or a Jew. She didn’t know what to say; why couldn’t she be both? For many American Jews, including me, this question is ridiculous. I have no problems with the intersecting…

Read More...

Uniting Against the Rabbinate: A Call for Pluralism in American Jewry

By Amram Altzman January 20, 2014

  Just a few days after my blog post from last week ran, the Israeli rabbinate decided that it would, indeed, accept Rabbi Avi Weiss’ testimony as legitimate for people he vouched for as Jewish. This is a step in the right direction for the Israeli rabbinate, which had previously called Rabbi Weiss’ validity into…

Read More...

My Thanksgivukkah Dilemmukkah: A Retrospective

By Dani Plung December 5, 2013

  Over the past several weeks, reminders of the occurrence of Thanksgivukah were impossible to avoid. Hanukkah was to coincide with Thanksgiving, for the first time in over 100 years and for what will allegedly be the last time in 70,000 years. Surely, this was an event this dramatic could not be overlooked! On the…

Read More...

How Pennsylvania Can Prevent the Next Holocaust

By Derek M. Kwait November 8, 2013

My high school taught about the Holocaust in English class. It was part of the unit on Elie Weisel’s Night, which is required reading for students entering tenth grade. I remember the Holocaust was nothing more than a picture of Jews in a concentration camp with an explanatory caption in my AP European history textbook….

Read More...

Evaluating exceptionalism: unfounded and counterproductive

By Harpo Jaeger May 17, 2010

Let me first thank Evan Krasner for responding to my critique of his original post.  I appreciate his choice to continue the conversation beyond a simple point-counterpoint, and I’ve learned a lot already. Evan clarifies something regarding the debate at his school that I actually didn’t understand, which I’m grateful for. The debate’s original format…

Read More...