The Global Jewish-Israel Syntheses Imagine: We Are All Israeli
I was thinking, growing up, my world was a tapestry of hyphenated identities. There was my Russian-American friend, my Italian-American neighbor, my Chinese-American classmate, my Polish-American cousin, and my African-American neighbor. Each wore their heritage proudly, their identities anchored in the lands from which their ancestors came. But I was simply Jewish-American. And increasingly, I’ve…
Colonization vs. Decolonization
Historical Patterns of Conquest and Return in the Middle East The narrative of colonization and decolonization has become central to…
The Voice That Calls: Jewish Awakening in Our Time
Imagine being awakened at 4 AM by a voice calling you to something urgent, something that cannot wait for a…
To Occupy or Not To Occupy Gaza
The morning of October 7, 2023, marked a watershed moment in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas militants breached the Gaza-Israel…
The Miracle of Persistence: Lessons from a People Who Refuse to Disappear
In an age when entire civilizations have risen and fallen, when empires have crumbled to dust and languages have vanished…
Friends, We just finished off the High Holy Day Marathon, prayed, cried, laughed, reflected, ate, fasted and of course repented… Are we done yet? Think again, Sukkot is upon us. One of three festivals (Passover & Shavuot), reflecting historical, agricultural, and mystical significance.
The times are a changing, economies tumbling here in the U.S. and around the world, geo-political movements, Iran, Iraq, Russia, wars in Africa, Darfur, Genocide, environmental crises, the changing heads of state both here in the U.S. and in Israel, and much much more. So great are these events in our society, that we may…
Shalom, As we reflect and prepare for our entry into another space and time, I would like to share with you some of my reflections. The only references to this period of judgment we are entering is found in Leviticus 23:23, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first…
Community of Israel – provides a common foundation for Jews of different movements, streams, and ethnic backgrounds; when realized, reflects the shared interest and destiny of the Jewish People.
Shalom friends, This week I had the priviledge of traveling to Poland with a good friend from the age of 5 (or so), Gil Weisblum. His father is a Holocaust survivor. Gil traveled with his family on a trip to Poland 15 years ago and saw “all that was needed to be seen”; his father’s…
JTS profiled me for their website. Check it out at http://www.jtsa.edu/x10636.xml