Conversion Before Sanctification As a Reform rabbi, I am proud to be part of a movement that wholeheartedly welcomes converts into our midst. Celebrating converts has a long and revered tradition in Judaism going back to the Book of Ruth, which makes the loyal daughter-in-law of Naomi a direct ancestor of King David. But lacking…
Kaifeng’s Jewish Renaissance Your August 20 article “Israel’s Keenest Yeshiva Students” focuses on the Kaifeng Jews studying for conversion in Israel. But the real news is that the Jewish descendants — or Jews, as they see themselves — are organizing again as a community in Kaifeng. There are at least two Jewish schools in Kaifeng,…
100 Years Ago in the Forward Tragedy struck in Brooklyn when a new mother threw her baby out of a fourth-floor window, killing the infant. Esther Jaffe of East New York was standing by the back window of the apartment that she shared with her husband and aunt, holding her 6-month-old baby. The aunt said…
Post-‘Conservative’ Jews Need a New Name Changing the Conservative movement’s name to “Masorti” would be beneficial because it is Hebrew and could thus be comfortably used by Jews affiliated with the movement worldwide. At the same time, “Masorti” more than adequately describes the character and thrust of the movement, that is, to be traditional in…
The American Jewish Congress and Us As a former executive director of the American Jewish Congress (1971-1978), I was saddened by the news that it has suspended its operations. Jerome Chanes’s July 23 essay on the unique contributions of the AJCongress was a moving tribute to the many innovative actions that are part of the…
Wedding Erodes Intermarriage Taboo Like it or not, the media-hyped Clinton-Mezvinsky intermarriage, discussed in your August 6 editorial, “When Marc Weds Chelsea,” will make religiously based Jewish opposition to such matches in our society more difficult. (I’m the groom’s uncle, although I wasn’t present at the ceremony.) Chelsea did not and will not convert to…
How Big of a Tent? In his July 9 article “Peoplehood vs. Israel,” Jay Michaelson presents us with a stark choice. He states: “if we want a community that stands for something — for example, support for the existence of the State of Israel — then we are by definition excluding those who do not…
Outreach Is More Than Hugs and Smiles It is absurd to characterize the basis of the Jewish Outreach Institute’s work — or any Jewish outreach — as an “assumption that all that’s needed is open arms,” as your article put it (“New Study Finds That It’s Not a Lack of Welcome That’s Keeping the Intermarrieds…
Exchange Promotes Understanding Anita Epstein’s June 9 article “Why I Cannot Forgive Germany” (online-exclusive) relates a very tragic past. She feels the way she feels and, as far as I am concerned, that closes the book on her personal experience during the Holocaust. One cannot argue nor should one even comment on it. It is…
Wyatt Earp’s Jewish Burial It is truly ironic that in your June 18 issue, which features a cover story about the controversy over burying non-Jewish spouses in Jewish cemeteries (“Cemeteries Are Becoming New Challenge for Interfaith Families”), there is an unrelated article which mentions that “O.K. Corral gunfighter Wyatt Earp is buried in a Jewish…
We Are Not One, Genetically As a Reform rabbi serving a 500-family congregation, but who has no “Jewish genetic markers” from my ancestors, I am deeply offended by your June 11 editorial “We Are One, Genetically.” The editorial asked whether, as “genetic distinctions fade away,” our sense of peoplehood will remain intact. I was shocked…
אַלעקס דאַפֿנער, פֿון מעלבורן, אַנאַליזירט די באַדינגונגען וואָס האָבן אפֿשר דערפֿירט צו דעם אומגליק.
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