I was taken aback when I read Peter Beinart’s article, “Is Judaism a Big Tent?” just a few days after returning from a four week kayaking trip with my daughter through our ancestral homeland of Lithuania. Each day, we paddled along Lithuanian rivers, large and small — the Neris, Levuo, Nevezis, Nemunas, and Minija —…
This year, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah was invited to join 17 other organizations in the Resistance Coalition that led the LGBTQ Pride March on June 25 in New York City. Our goal was to bring a clear and consistent message of resistance to the Trump administration’s threats to American democracy, and tochechah — reproach —…
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s research, analysis and essay on officiating at an interfaith wedding is interesting. It is clear that his proposal comes from a place of thoughtfulness and love of Judaism, the Jewish people and those connected to them. Rabbi Lau-Lavie, like all of us, is struggling with our generation’s most complex problem: how do…
Jane Eisner recent editorial asks an important question: “Should We Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Six Day War – Or Despair? Ms. Eisner, why should we despair? Israel has done nothing wrong. She offered to withdraw from most of the territory she liberated (while, as you note, defending her people from planned genocide) in…
Trump Gives A Holocaust Speech — And The ‘Alt Right’ Screams ‘Betrayal’, by Sam Kestenbaum, highlighted why the days of remembrance are so important. The venomous words of the ‘Alt-Right’ are revolting. We live in a society that encourages free speech. Nevertheless, we realize that hate speech can have dire consequences. I attended the ceremony…
My last name – Kushner – wasn’t a big deal until the election of President Trump. Now everyone wants to know if I’m related to Jared Kushner. Aviya Kushner of the Forward apparently gets this question, too. Her response: “The short answer: no.” That’s what she wrote in her recent article “Why It’s So Hard…
Trump administration Press Secretary Spicer’s recent Holocaust gaffe seemed an honest mistake, and that’s what, as a Jew, worries me most. In condemning Syria’s President Assad, Spicer somehow said, “even Hitler didn’t gas his own people.” Spicer’s statement reinforced Hitler’s narrative that the German Jews were not, in fact, “his own people,” that their citizenship…
In his recent column (“How Bibi Played Us On The Iran Deal — And We Let Him”) Peter Beinart claims Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu duped us by hyping the threat posed by the Iran nuclear deal. But who does Beinart mean by “us”? It doesn’t take a Bibi Netanyahu to recognize the dangers the accord…
I’m a longtime supporter of a two-state solution for Israel/Palestine. Paradoxically, however, I’ve become convinced over the last few years that the best way to get there is to push for a one state solution. As any parent knows, there are times when giving a child what he/she wants is the best way to convince…
You know the old joke, two Jews, three opinions? It’s true. But when it comes to judgment, unfortunately we take it to another level entirely. Our propensity to judge one another is a sad component of Jewish culture today, which is at odds with our Jewish values. And, this judgmental culture seems to be a…
I write this letter with sadness and a heavy heart. My 5-year Israel Bond came due on February 1. Over the past few months, I have been deliberating whether or not to renew the bond, as I have done for decades. I have decided not to renew, as I cannot support the current Israeli government…
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