Rabbi Avram Mlotek is a co-founder of Base Hillel, a new initiative in Jewish engagement, and rabbi of its Manhattan site.
Avram Mlotek
By Avram Mlotek
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Opinion My grandmother was a ‘Sherlock Holmes of Yiddish song,’ but she couldn’t solve the mystery of antisemitism
The new Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection at the Workers Circle unlocks the joys and sorrows of the Jewish past, writes Chana’s grandson
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Opinion In the age of social distancing, we need to flood the internet with love
On Thursday, the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County voted to shut down Jewish communal life out of precaution for the coronavirus, informing hundreds of thousands of Jewish parishioners that all synagogue gatherings including prayer have been canceled. That means no dining in at restaurants, no weddings, no shiva, no play dates, no large Shabbat meals…
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Community Yiddish Is Alive And Well
This article originally appeared in Yiddish in the Forverts. As New Yorkers we take SummerStage for granted. On any given summer night, we can enter our playground and hear music ranging from every culture under the sun. It wasn’t always this way. Fifty years ago, my grandfather, Yosl Mlotek, a Holocaust refugee, produced the first…
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Community MeToo Stories Are As Old As The Bible Itself
Have you heard about the prominent political, religious activist who in a meeting with a foreign dignitary presented his wife as his sister, thereby initiating the hosting diplomat’s sexual predatory advances to his very own spouse? This clip may not have circulated as widely on social media as it wasn’t taken from yesterday’s headlines. This…
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Opinion This Tisha B’Av, I’ll Mourn For The Destruction Of Jewish Unity
When the Israeli government announced its decision last month to halt the construction and planning of a pluralistic prayer space near the Western Wall, the outcry from the Diaspora Jewish community was enormous. The proposed plan didn’t even offer a shared space at the Western Wall; it referred to an area further south by Robinson’s…
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Opinion All Jews Must Welcome Interfaith Families — It’s What Rabbi Hillel Would Do
I encountered fierce opposition to a piece I wrote recently on the value of welcoming multi-faith families into our communities and adopting a posture of radical hospitality. I believe that providing a space that caters to every Jew’s spiritual needs — even if that Jew is married to someone of another faith — is the…
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Community The Tiny Silver Amulet That Forged Communal Bonds
She removed a tiny silver amulet from her pocket. “This is what I wanted to tell you about,” Davy shared. Davy discovered this mysterious looking object near her school, Hunter College, when she was walking with her boyfriend, a Yemenite young man who didn’t happen to be Jewish. “Just leave it alone,” her boyfriend insisted….
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Community Prominent Orthodox Rabbis Affirm Progressive Commitments
Rabbi Dov Linzer, our Rosh Yeshiva, spoke at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School’s annual dinner about the centrality of Torah in our lives as Jews, and then shared the following words: “‘And let it be that we all may know your name and study your Torah.’ Let us make sure that everyone – rich or…
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Culture My father was my hero and, when he was dying, I wrote this song for him
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Fast Forward Trump nominee defends college cartoon of Jewish student with devil horns at Senate hearing
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Fast Forward Former antisemitic activist Lucas Gage explains to Jewish podcast why he left the movement