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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Community Our Living Purim Nightmare
Usually, I love Purim. I cherish that Jewish tradition promotes a day, just one, to undermine its whole system of laws, where we are compelled to cross-dress, to give endless charity, to drink until one knows not the difference between “blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman,” good and evil. But, a teacher of mine…
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Community Exodus: Coming Soon To A Synagogue Near You
With the Jewish high holidays and Hanukah long in the rear view mirror, it can only mean one thing. The season premiere of a series the Jewish people have been binge reading for thousands of years will finally return to your local synagogue: Exodus. Yes, it’s rare for a series to maintain its momentum and…
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Community What I Told My 4-Year-Old Daughter When She Asked for a Christmas Tree
We make a left out of our apartment and walk on Sixth Avenue, where a wide selection of pine trees are available for purchase. “I want a Christmas tree,” says Ravi, my 4-year-old. “What’s Christmas?” I ask. “I don’t know,” Ravi says. “I like the lights.” Why shouldn’t she want a tree? Pine trees especially…
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Community A Look Inside Jewish Romania
Bucharest, Romania I find myself in Eastern Europe for the “International Festival of Yiddish Theatre,” having been invited by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Romania holds the chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 and has invited the New York based National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene to present a play of which…
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Community My Grocery Aisle Encounter with the New Age of Anti-Semitism
“That’s a big f**king yarmulke,” says a voice coming from behind me. I’m shopping at a Fairway supermarket in Manhattan and turn around to face a white man in his thirties sporting a blonde crew cut. “Excuse me?” I ask. I’m holding onto a shopping cart full of groceries for a dinner my community prepares…
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Community Picking Up the Pieces, Together
Nov 9 and 10 mark Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Over seventy years ago today, thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed in Germany and over one thousand synagogues burned to the ground. In Philadelphia yesterday, a store was vandalized with a swastika and a “Heil Trump” sign was left emblazoned on its walls. Walking…
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Opinion The Rabbinate as Taught to Me by Avi Weiss
Rabbi Avi Weiss “Retire is a word I’d like to retire,” said my rabbi, Rav Avi Weiss, from the pulpit he has held for over 40 years. Over the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, Rav Avi announced that he would step back from his position as senior rabbi at the synagogue he helped found, The Hebrew…
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Opinion Let Her Sing!
I held my seven month old daughter Ravi on my lap as we watched the video of Ophir Ben-Shetreet sing. The 17 year old alto gave a soulful performance on Israel’s The Voice, garnering the judge’s acclaim, and inducing some leg bopping on Ravi’s part. Recently, Ben-Shetreet has been the center of much controversy as…
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