One of the highlights of a conference held in the US last week was a panel discussion featuring three of the most distinguished and influential figures in American Jewish life. Their conversation surveyed the complex challenges facing American…
Category: Other
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Vayetzei: The Past and the Future of the Jewish Diaspora
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Do you complain or give thanks?
A quick copy store in my old neighborhood in America* offered printed pages that customers were welcome to take, free of charge. Some of the sayings on those pages were amusing, others thought-provoking. My Dad had one hanging in his office which…
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This Thanksgiving, American Jews need a new story
Many Americans are rejecting the complexity of Jewish identity, but we are a people who struggle, build families, endure exile, and are patriotic anyway (Vayetzei)
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This Thanksgiving, Be Honest: You’re Thankful for Israel
This Thanksgiving, Be Honest: You’re Thankful for Israel Whether You Admit It or Not Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating! Especially the people spending today enjoying the countless innovations Israel gave the world while pretending they…
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The Power of ‘Modeh Ani’
“Thankful am I”. These are the very first words that observant Jews recite upon waking each morning. In Hebrew: “Modeh ani”. Not quite a prayer or request for anything in particular, but rather a brief expression of gratitude to our…
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Something Is Rotten in the State of Britain
Britain’s double standard in policing and politics now falls hardest on its Jews. Another week, another hate march outside a British synagogue. This time St John’s Wood. You probably did not hear about it, the mainstream media decided Jews…
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When the Healing Tools Stop Working
For a long time, I believed that the key to healing was having the right tool. The right breathing pattern. The right medication. The right grounding technique. The right therapist. The right mantra. The right step-by-step method for calming the…
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Where history is made
It was Hoshana Rabbah, the exalted final night of Sukkot. Past midnight in Los Angeles, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring—except me, wide awake, watching history in the making. Glued to the live news, as the leader of the…
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Kristallnacht at Park East Synagogue
Embed from Getty Images On November 9, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a well-orchestrated, party-sanctioned riot, involving the vandalization of synagogues and attacks on Jews and their businesses. It became known as Kristallnacht and sent an…
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The First Shattering: Ein Sof Becomes Self-Aware and Recoils, A Chiddush
There is a secret older than Genesis, older than the worlds, older even than the radiance that first pierced the void. A secret whispered only in hints by the Ari, by the Zohar, by the Hasidic masters who trembled before such things: Before…
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