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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News Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes admits ‘at least 6 million’ Jews were killed in Nazi Germany
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Opinion Americans are waking up to right-wing antisemitism. We’re still ignoring the root problem
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Opinion The part of the Hanukkah story we ignore — and why it matters to converts like me
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Fast Forward Prominent rabbi and fierce Mamdani critic turns his criticism toward Jews and Israel
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish די קונסט פֿונעם ייִדישן מאָנאָלאָג און אַנדערע מיני־קורסן אויף ייִדיש‘The Art of the Yiddish Monologue’ and other mini-courses in Yiddish
מע וועט בײַם ייִוואָ אויך לערנען קורסן פֿון שעפֿעריש שרײַבן און וועגן די לידער פֿון דוד האָפֿשטיין.
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Fast Forward High schoolers’ ‘human swastika’ on football field shakes San Jose Jewish community
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Fast Forward Nashville Jewish community center sues Goyim Defense League over alleged campaign of intimidation
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Fast Forward Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, beloved Jewish Theological Seminary professor and author, dies at 73
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