(JTA) — The High Holidays are approaching. It is a time when Jews worldwide join together in the spirit of camaraderie, pouring out their hearts for a good new year.But the lead-up this year has been different, often pitting Jews against Jews in bitter...
(JTA) — Last year, I wrote an essay pleading with rabbis to deliver a High Holidays sermon that was relevant to the political moment.“I understand the typical view that it is better for rabbis to speak to higher values than to take sides in the rough-and-tumble...
By Pinchas Goldschmidt
• Published August 23, 2018
Israel’s passage of the nation-state law brought another round of barrages across the Atlantic underlining the growing alienation of the world’s two largest Jewish communities. The issues are increasingly familiar: American pluralism versus Jewish...
Missouri Jewish groups pen letter against hatredThe Jewish communities across Missouri welcome the Missouri Republican Party’s comments unequivocally condemning the anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic and racist rhetoric of Steve West, who won the...
Giving credit where dueWe all applaud Rabbi Susan Talve’s hard work in protest of our government’s cruel family separation policy. We also applaud the hard work of Rabbi Andrea Goldstein, who was standing next to Talve in two of the photographs that...
By Jonathan S. Tobin/JNS
• Published August 16, 2018
If American Jews are unhappy with Israel, it may not be so much a function of a new law that says it’s a Jewish State as the growing consensus that it is an “illiberal” state. That’s the new narrative being promoted by many of the Israeli government’s...
Although readers know I lean conservative, they also know, if they bother reading my columns carefully and are open-minded, that I am usually careful to criticize both sides of the political spectrum as behaving badly and contributing to polarization...
(JTA) — The first mention in JTA of the Hebrew word “hasbarah” was in 1988, at the height of the first intifada. The article focused on Israelis and American Jews and their deep concern that the media were distorting the unrest and showing the Israeli...
St. Louis Friends of Israel, a non-profit, non-partisan, St. Louis-based organization, strongly condemns the warlike bombardment of Southern Israel by the terrorist group, Hamas, which controls Gaza. In the past two days, Hamas operatives have fired over...
Jewish Food Pantry needs contributions I am someone who uses the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry every month (we are allowed one visit a month).I was very distressed and upset my last two visits to the Jewish Pantry because it was pretty...
Henry Berger’s Aug. 1 commentary (“Israel has evolved from democracy to theocracy”) demonstrates a lack of understanding and knowledge of the Israeli political system and current issues. Berger attacks the new “basic law” as giving Jews exclusive...
(JTA) — This is Leonard Bernstein’s centennial summer, and the Tanglewood Music Center in the Berkshires is staging a series of outdoor performances to celebrate its favorite son. I’m not saying that everyone who goes to Tanglewood is Jewish, although...
