Obviously, I love Israel, the national embodiment of the Jewish people. No other place on earth provides the cultural atmosphere — religious, traditional, non-religious — with thousands of years of history confirmed in archaeological discoveries and...
Concerning the Jew, Leo Tolstoy wrote: “The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world. He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the...
In the summer of 2005, my family moved from St. Louis to Seattle. A few weeks later, we went for the first time to the Seattle Center to see the Space Needle and the International Fountain. When we arrived, we saw that the entire area was filled with...
Sarah Imhoff, Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University
• Published July 7, 2023
“Genderqueer” and “nonbinary” are contemporary terms for people who don’t fit neatly into male or female categories. But acknowledging that not everyone fits neatly into those two groups has a much longer history than you might suspect.
As...
This is a true story.
Several years ago at a school awards assembly, a teacher/administrator/principal type gave an opening speech. Said educator was known for being nervous when addressing big groups. That, combined with too many notecards, produced...
By Rabbi Yosef Landa, Special To The Jewish Light
• Published June 21, 2023
Despite significant progress in fighting antisemitism over the past decades, recent years have borne witness to an alarming increase in antisemitic incidents.
Jews around the world and across the United States have been targeted by acts of violence,...
Balance needed in coverage
I respectfully take issue with your reporting (June 7) on President Biden’s plan to combat antisemitism. To meaningfully combat antisemitism, antisemitism must be defined.
The “gold standard” for the definition of...
Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael, The Forward
• Published June 20, 2023
It was 2 a.m. again, and I could not get off the computer. I scrolled through real estate listings and lists of Jewish communities around the country with day schools and welcoming synagogues, trying to imagine where my family and I could go.
I...
Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA
• Published June 11, 2023
(JTA) — “Although I was born in Germany, my formative years were spent in the early, idealistic days of the cooperative Jewish settlements, in pre-Israel, Palestine,” wrote Amitai Etzioni in his 2003 memoir, “My Brother’s Keeper.”
In writing...
By Rabbi Andrea Goldstein, D. Min
• Published June 8, 2023
In this week’s Torah portion, Shelach L’cha, the Israelites find themselves standing on the border of Eretz Yisrael, the land promised to their ancestors by God. After suffering for so long at the hands of the Egyptians, they will finally have a home...
Responses to recent Rochester column
In the May 24 Light, columnist Marty Rochester tries to defend the indefensible conservative media (“What to make of Tucker Carlson — and other journalists today”). In the face of all the latest lawsuits...
One of the bigger shopping challenges has always been buying gifts for Dad. Since the pandemic changed work attire forever, it also eliminated the lame but reliable fallback of a tie.
So what can you do to show Dad you care on Father’s Day? Donate...
