Wanna “Che Herzl” T-shirt? Just surf your way over to Jewlicious and you’ll find it along with all kinds of other swag designed especially for those aspiring to be the coolest of the cool Jews. Yep, I did a double take when I saw this one.  I know there all too many leftists who a...

I was pleased to see two unusually intelligent op-eds in the NY Times today: one by columnist Roger Cohen on the Iranian Jewish community and another by Iranian journalist Ali Reza Eshraghi on the importance of engaging diplomatically with Ahmadinejad. From Cohen’s piece: Perhaps I have a bias...

“Waltz With Bashir” has been racking up the prizes. In addition to a slew of international awards, it was awarded Best Picture by the National Society of Film Ciritics, Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, and it seems to have the inside track on the same award at the Oscars this Sund...

Sitting down? According to a recent Jerusalem Post report, Yossi Fackenheim, grandson of famed theologian Emil Fackenheim (right) has had his conversion revoked by a Jerusalem Rabbinical Court judge. This is the same Emil Fackenheim, mind you, who survived the Holocaust and who famously urged Jews t...

It’s the last day before the Israeli elections, and there seems to be widespread agreement that Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman Avigdor Lieberman is going to win big - perhaps as much as 19-20 seats. They’ve already pulled ahead of the Labor party and by now it’s virtually a forego...

I’m posting below a testimony by “Nancy,”  a Palestinian living in the Chicago area who is a friend of a member of my congregation. This oral testimony was given during the height of Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza, where most of Nancy’s family lives. Please - as...

Having nothing better to do, I spent a fair amount of time last week trying to spearhead a Rabbinical Statement on Gaza. I’m sorry to report that in the end, after several days of back and forth, we had to fold the entire project when it became clear that we wouldn’t find at a wording th...

It’s Mazel Tov time. This past Shabbat, our family celebrated our son Jonah’s Bar Mitzvah with our family, friends and incredible congregational community. A joyous kvell-o-rama! As you may remember from earlier blog posts, Jonah attended JRC’s congregational trip to Rwanda/Uganda ...

Stayed up until the wee hours last night surfing the web reading report after report about Gaza.  Despite my better judgement, I couldn’t take my eyes off the horrific reports that Israel was using white phosphorous in densely populated civilian areas.  After seeing a picture in the NY Tim...

You have no idea what it is like to live here. You don’t understand what we live with every day. We are the ones who have to live with the consequences of this war. Who are you to criticize us? In a very real way, of course, they’re are absolutely right. Though I visit Israel frequently...