Lauren Holtzblatt
By Lauren Holtzblatt
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Opinion I was RBG’s rabbi. Her legacy demands we fight for human dignity and reproductive rights.
Grief is a complicated animal. I have often described its presence to my congregants as a mountain — sometimes it is across from you and you can see it, sometimes you are climbing it, sometimes you have summited it and sometimes it is just right on top of you. We do not control it, we…
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Opinion We must be the heirs of Rabin’s dream
This essay is part of a collection of essays commemorating the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The collection was produced in partnership with BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change. “When God returned the exiles of Zion, we were like dreamers” (Psalms 126:1) On the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, I find…
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Community Asylum is becoming nearly impossible; we can’t let it
When we traveled with congregants to the U.S/Mexico Border over a year ago to bear witness to the brutality being perpetrated, we didn’t imagine we’d confront a strikingly modern version of our own ancient story — our religious narrative — of trying to escape degradation for a chance at dignity. But that’s precisely what we…
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Community Mourning, healing, and proximity in a COVID world
There is a story told in the Talmud (Tractate Berakhot, 5b) about Rabbi Yohanan. He possessed a great healing ability, the unique ability to listen and hold the pain of the other, and he had also experienced unimaginable loss as 10 of his children died in his lifetime. In one famous story he goes to…
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Opinion There’s No Easy Answer To The Debate Over Intermarriage
The debate over intermarriage — once again erupting across the Jewish community — has too easily slipped into a binary equation. Opinions are shared, statistics are drawn as weapons and institutions often double-down. Sides are chosen, often reduced to a simple yes or no: “No, never; Jewish Law forbids this.” (Or “no, never; it will…
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