Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, and the author of American Judaism: A History.
Jonathan D. Sarna
By Jonathan D. Sarna
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Opinion When Shuls Were Banned in America
When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood on Governors Island, in sight of the Statue of Liberty, and forcefully defended the right of Muslims to build a community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, he expressly made a point of distancing himself from an earlier leader of the city: Peter Stuyvesant, who understood…
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Opinion Rabbi Yoffie’s Legacy: ‘Old Ideas’ for Reform Judaism
In announcing that he will retire from the presidency of the Union for Reform Judaism in two years, Rabbi Eric Yoffie said that he aimed to give the URJ “ample time” to search for his successor. It’s a good thing, too. That search will require careful thought. Given the longevity of those tasked with leading…
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Opinion Goodbye Wissenschaft, Hello Relevance
The Jewish Theological Seminary’s chancellor, Arnold Eisen, recently unveiled a bold new strategic plan aimed at transforming the school’s curriculum, redefining its purpose and setting forth its future direction. The plan called to mind a story that my late father used to tell about a modest change that he proposed to the JTS curriculum as…
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Opinion Rabbi Raphall Goes to Washington
On three different occasions, the 111th Congress has opened its daily session with a prayer by a rabbi. The most recent prayer, delivered by Havana-born Rabbi Jacob Luski of St. Petersburg, Fla., on October 28, 2009, called upon Congress to “help us to be guides into unborn tomorrows rather than merchants dealing with yesterdays; to…
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Opinion How Hanukkah Came to the White House
The news that President Obama is cutting the guest list for the annual White House Hanukkah party from 800 to 400 lit up cyberspace over the past couple weeks. “More Proof Obama Hates Jews,” read one dispatch that crossed my desk. Other responses were equally hostile. Overlooked in the frenzy over whether the president was…
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Opinion After Utopia, Loving Israel
Why are American Jews abandoning us? Why do American Jews hold Israel to a higher standard than they do any other country in the world — including the one they so proudly call home? As an American professor on sabbatical in Israel, I field questions like these on a regular basis. The “waning American Jewish…
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Opinion The Long Shadow of Scandal
‘Three Rabbis named in Three Separate Conspiracy Charges.” “Two Rabbis and their two assistants… charged with violations.” “Rabbi to be indicted [for]… uttering or transmitting false or forged papers for the purpose of defrauding the Government.” Sound dismally familiar? Actually, these passages all appeared in The New York Times over what was, for Jews, an…
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Opinion Saying Kaddish Too Soon?
‘With a heavy heart we will soon say Kaddish on the Reform and Conservative movements,” Rabbi Norman Lamm, the distinguished chancellor of Yeshiva University, recently proclaimed in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. “The future of American Jewry is in the hands of Haredim and the Modern Orthodox.” Lamm’s triumphalistic prediction has, unsurprisingly, elicited strong…
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