Archive
As a child a tale was told to me of the Halutzim, the pioneers who came from the diaspora to the land of Israel and cultivated the parched, barren earth into the beginnings of a fruitful nation. I did not doubt this tale, or the image drawn for me of the proud pioneers as they […]
So there are answers to the “Where is God?†question after all. I’d like to respond to a couple of comments that appeared on my last post that both validated my observation of God’s absence but provided different reasons for it. Benjamin Siegel’s main claim was that “God is nothing more than a very compelling […]
Uri L’Tzedek, a student driven Orthodox social justice group, wants to wed halakha and ethics. Its latest project, Tav HaYosher, aims to certify kosher eating establishments for fair labor practices.
An Israeli stole $300 from me yesterday. Said Israeli, whose name–I have since learned–is not Avi Levi, played me for the cash under the pretense of needing medicine money for his sick 10-year old daughter, who had flo4from Israel to Maryland for kidney surgery the day before. He needed the medicine before flying back, he […]
Today marks the 64th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb test at Trinity, a desert site sixty miles west of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Conducted in the early morning of July 16, 1945, the “gadget†was a success: producing a “burst of light of a brilliance beyond any comparison†and laying the groundwork for the U.S.’s […]
It’s a personal relief to see so many Jewish innovators and new Jewish organizations really giving a lot of thought to the Jewish experience, which is something I feel was left out too often in my Jewish day school and Young Israel synagogue experience. But I’m confused about one thing: Where is God? The question […]
And you thought Commentary Magazine would be J Street’s biggest critic. Think again. A group of pro-Greater Israel nationalists has taken it upon themselves to create Z Street, a right-wing organization formed to combat the “great danger to the Jewish State of Israel and, increasingly, to world Jewry,” according to the group’s charter. Z Street […]
From the start of my home-stay in Amman, I made it clear that I was a practicing and self identifying Jew. I felt that this was an important first step in building an open relationship with my host family, as well as in exploring how my sense of identity could co-exist within an Arab household. […]
In his blog post from June 18, Aryeh Roskies wrote that in Israel “it is possible to construct a concrete secular Jewish identity.†His column focused on the struggle of preserving an authentic and vibrant Jewish culture in the absence of religious uniformity, and he mentioned Israel only to contrast the Israeli Jewish community with […]