“So much of contemporary North American Jewish life is like running a heat lamp outdoors in the winter”
So much of contemporary North American Jewish life is like running a heat lamp...
Category Archives: Jews in America
“Birthright Israel manifests the interlacing power of identity and endowment in American Jewish life”
Birthright Israel, the nonprofit organization that Steinhardt started in 1999 with his billionaire friend...
“Cohen’s analysis focused simply on biological continuity and avoided the substantive questions inherent in any discussion of the how of the Jewish future”
Until he was brought down by revelations of decades of sexual harassment, sociologist Steven...
“Community is messy; be wary of those trying so hard to make it clean”
…while Jewish organizations should be allowed to exercise caution about their overt structural partnerships...
There is a “political phenomenon in the Jewish community…on the disincentivizing of all forms of ‘courageous leadership’ by relatively small numbers of individuals who can drive a community agenda”
…a larger political phenomenon in the Jewish community…on the disincentivizing of all forms of...
“…the great divides are about how or whether American Jews feel essentially safe and at home or eternally vulnerable and vigilant…”
The basic political theory behind organized Jewish communal (read: establishment) politics in America since...
“Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of the obligation to imagine ourselves being redeemed from Egypt…to a proud American Jew, living with equality and freedom, it seems impossible”
Every Passover, we read the haggadah at the seder and we are reminded of...
“Our criminal justice system punishes only the clearly guilty, and our media absolves only the clearly innocent — but that does not tell us whom our schools, synagogues and other institutions should employ”
We have to think long and hard as a community as to how we...
“Are there assumptions – correct or incorrect – in Jewish communal life that ‘the community’ is supposed to be the principal fiduciary in the financial needs of Jewish households?”
I’ve been thinking about the implied economy in educational institutions, especially as it is...
“How does our community, committed to Israel as well as a host of other social justice commitments, navigate collaboration with other faith and political leaders who not only oppose one critical piece of our community’s agenda but often even militate against it?”
How does our community, committed to Israel as well as a host of other...