Opinion

Mom Told Strangers Her Holocaust Secret — But Not Me

Getty Images One day in 2002, my mother sat down in the living room of her Upper West Side, Manhattan apartment and told her life story to a stranger. The stranger was a volunteer, part of Steven Spielberg’s epic campaign to preserve the life stories of Holocaust survivors. For over three hours the stranger asked…

Did Hillary Clinton Steal Hadassah’s Logo?

Which is Hillary’s logo — and which is Hadassah’s? (JTA) — Critics love to nitpick Hillary Clinton’s personal and policy choices, as they have during the recent email scandal and the Benghazi scandal. This time, however, the critics may have a substantial case against her. As soon as Clinton’s campaign was launched on Sunday, her campaign…

Dear Stanford: Don’t Quiz Me on BDS Because I’m Jewish

Stanford’s Molly Horwitz, running for student senate, says she faced anti-Semitic questioning I am both a woman of color and a Jew. For much of my life, I struggled to embrace these identities. In high school people told me I was “not a real Latina” while also claiming it was my Hispanic ethnicity that got…

Getting Memory Right: Preparing for Yom HaShoah

On Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2015, Abigail Pogrebin explained how to make the holiday meaningful year after year. Her message resonates just as strongly today. Tonight I will be reading aloud the names of strangers. The annual “Reading and Hearing of the Names” is coordinated by the JCC in Manhattan in honor of Yom HaShoah…

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl sings “Remember”

The Problem With Jewish-Only Holocaust Trips

March of the Living participants visit Auschwitz in 2009 / Yossi Selliger (JTA) — The evening before we visited Auschwitz, over pizza with a group of young people in Oswiecim, the town on whose outskirts lies that infamous symbol, one of my students approached me with tears in her eyes. Tears are hardly uncommon to…

America’s Not ‘1984’ Yet — So Why Can’t I Refuse To Back Gay Marriage?

Some of us who consider the teachings of a religious tradition to define our purpose on earth have been feeling a bit like Winston Smith enduring Hate Week in ‘1984.’ The protagonist of George Orwell’s novel was distressed by his totalitarian society’s collective projection of ill will against a nebulous enemy. Thankfully, even 31 years…

Are American Jews Too Loyal — to the Democrats?

These are challenging political times for American Jews. Rarely have loyalties and core values been so unsettled. It’s not just that America and Israel are at odds. Loyalty to the Jewish homeland seems in conflict right now with loyalty to the liberal values of most American Jews, and to the Democratic Party that champions them….