14
Aug
Some of Noah Feldman’s “Orthodox Paradox” resonated with me. Like him, I am an alumnus of Boston’s Maimonides Hebrew Day School, which “made me who I am”. Like him, I have since struggled to integrate the precepts of two very different world views and value systems, sometimes successfully and sometimes not.
Some of Feldman’s arguments are [...]
6
Aug
Friends, colleagues, even family members frequently admonish me that my universe of Jewish discourse consists primarily of active Jews. As a result, these well-wishers tell me, I am spending too much time addressing AJC leadership, where I work, the modern Orthodox community where I live, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where I frequently teach. Rather [...]
18
May
When I was asking a group of underaffiliated Jewish academics what being Jewish meant to them, their responses were varied. What dominated, however, was that “terrible things happen to Jews.” Similarly, at an AJC conference in Los Angeles with network television executives, most commented that the Jewish experience signaled an endless tale of oppression.
The more [...]
26
Apr
As the Passover holiday receded on the Jewish calendar, public attention turned to Yom Hashoah and Holocaust commemoration. Unfortunately, however, we experienced a renewal of internal Jewish tensions and polarization. Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu articulated the theological lesson that those who suffered through the Holocaust did so as punishment for the sins of Reform [...]
25
Apr
Listen: [audio:BaymeEllenson042507.mp3]
Steve Bayme sits down with Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College, to discuss the tenets of Reform Judaism, tikkun olam (”repairing the world”), the role of Israel in American Judaism, and the former Sephardi chief rabbi’s recent indictment of Reform Judaism.
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5
Apr
When I recently asked some friends which chapter of Jewish history should be mandatory knowledge for all Jews, some chose the exodus from Egypt, others the establishment of modern Israel and some the emergence of prophetic Judaism.
I found it odd that no one selected the Holocaust.
Yet the Holocaust is precisely what American Jews have chosen. [...]