Gerald L. Zelizer
By Gerald L. Zelizer
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Opinion Who By the Sword?
Rachelle Fraenkel, the mother of Naftali Fraenkel , one of three boys kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Israel this past summer, said in a recent interview that “because I pray a lot, that does not mean that God owes me anything.” That is one way to cope theologically with a brutal event. The other…
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Opinion Let’s Celebrate the Convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah
American Jews shouldn’t fret too much at this year’s awkward overlap of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. Sure, it may require some culinary dexterity at Thanksgiving dinner. But thematically, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving are an even more perfect fit than Hanukkah and Christmas. This year’s confluence is a once-in-about-2,000-lifetimes experience. Hanukkah and Thanksgiving on the same day last…
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Opinion When Judaism Is All About You
After 40 years in the same congregation and almost 50 since my ordination, I should know what to say in my High Holy Days sermons. It should be easy. But this year it’s not. Sure, I can readily address the perennial themes of High Holy Days preaching: repentance; Israel; Jewish identity versus American assimilation; life’s…
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News Albom Makes Rabbis Look Good, Again
Have A Little Faith: A True Story By Mitch Albom Hyperion, 272 pages, $24.00. There was a time when our parents and grandparents regarded the rabbi as wise and his role as indispensable. Unfortunately, much popular culture has downgraded that image. Recent depictions of rabbis peg them as religious bureaucrats or buffoons — demoralized and…
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Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
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News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
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Opinion Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
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Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
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Opinion Think every Palestinian in Gaza is Hamas? This week’s protests prove you’re wrong
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Opinion A Palestinian Oscar-winner’s arrest shocked the world. For these Jewish activists, it was terrifyingly normal
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Opinion In the Trump administration and Israel, a grotesque display of virility coupled with a loss of humanity
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Fast Forward Cornell’s new Jewish president says he is ‘very comfortable with where Cornell is currently’
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