Blog

In a rather remarkable confluence of dates, four events coincide on the same day this week. They are: Rosh Hodesh Adar; Ramadan; Ash Wednesday; Chinese New Year. The unifying thread through all four of these is the moon. Before the creation of the current solar calendar, societies used the moon to keep track of time. It made sense because it was easier to follow the 29 1/2 day cycle of the...Read more...

In my remarks this past Friday evening, I offered my opinion that despite how worthy the teaching of the Holocaust is and should continue to be, the way it is taught, and the end goals do not seem to be lessening the presence of antisemitism in the world. When students not only see the Holocaust as the product of antisemitism, but the corrosive nature of antisemitism on society, they might begin...Read more...

I met up with Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in Washington, DC, a few months after the 10.27 massacre. He shared with me a rather jaw-dropping observation. Had Simon been alive on 10.27, he would have remarked: What took so long? Indeed, with the persistent presence of antisemitism in the United States (and around the world), and with the first Jewish settlers...Read more...

I recently had the opportunity to view the film “A Fiddler on the Roof” starring Chaim Topol, having not seen it in many years. Sholem Aleichem wrote a series of stories about Tevye the Dairyman in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914, with the film version coming out in 1971. It follows the story of Tevye and his three daughters who want to marry for love, each creating newer challenges to the traditions he has...Read more...

The eager anticipation of Chanukah celebrations quickly dissipated when news came out of Australia. Since bad news always seems to come in threes, it finalized the trifecta of antisemitism, coupled with the shooting at Brown University and the drive-by shooting of a home in California festooned with Chanukah decorations. As I pondered what to say Sunday evening at our annual outdoor Chanukah menorah lighting, I...Read more...