Jewish Blogs

The View From Here

There is no color palette like an Arizona sunset, all cantelopes and indigos and lilacs.There’s more to the view from the foot of my father’s hospital bed. There are tangles of tubes running from my dad to blinking machines. Men and women in scrubs and sneakers rush by occasionally. A bottle of hand lotion and a thrice-read newspaper clutter the ...

The Very Bad Day

Today is Tisha B’Av, and it’d be one mofo of a day if it was 586 BCE or the year 70, or even 1492. Tisha B’Av is basically the Jewish Anniversary of Awful: On this day in 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar and his army of mad Babylonians destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem, murdering 100,000 Jews and exiling a million. In ...

The Universal Sukkah

Sukkos inevitably gives way to Shmini Atzeres. The parei ha-Chag brought on behalf of the nations of the world give way to a day of intimacy between Hashem and His people alone.The shift between the universal to the particular, between broad concern to Jewish exceptionalism, is a less than remarkable observation. Its treatment by R. Chanoch Kerelenstein zt”l (siman 5 in his ...

The Twittering of Gilad Shalit

Ynet News is reporting that the Israeli prime minister’s emissary to the negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas to return the captive Gilad Shalit said “it’s not over yet. The deal reached is pretty complicated, but the most difficult part is behind us.” The former Mossad agent turned Gilad Shalit negotiator, David Meidan, added that he plans to ...

The Truth About Jewish Summer Camps

I went to summer camp for a long time (Alonim 2002, what what?…okay that was the most excited I’ve ever been about my edah since…ever). From the time I was 10 until I was 22, I spent every single one of my summers in Northern Ontario, and I don’t regret a second of it. Amir Blumenfeld, a writer and comedian ...

The trouble with nice Jewish boys and girls

I recently got wind of the 2011 Nice Jewish Guys calendar, described thusly:Firemen and Chipendales have had their spotlight long enough! This Nice Jewish Guys Calendar turns the spotlight on the underrated characteristic that pecs and tight buns can’t deliver…niceness. The Nice Jewish Guys Calendar features a different mensch for every month of the calendar year. Meet Brian, whose favorite ...

The “Top 11″ Landmarks in Jewish Women’s Labor History

Physical places add an important dimension to our understanding of history. This was the impetus behind JWA’s effort to put Jewish women “On the Map.” This month, we have been commemorating the centennial of the Triangle factory fire, which took the lives of 146 garment workers.The history of the labor movement in the U.S. is inextricably linked with this watershed ...

The Top 10 Jewish Women in Labor History

Though we at JWA celebrate women’s history all year round, March brings us the great opportunity of Women’s History Month. This year, March also brings the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. JWA will mark the day with a luncheon and walking tour; a whole slew of other commemorative events will be happening throughout the month. Given the ...

The “Tiger mother” vs. the Jewish mother: The dangers of stereotypes

Amy Chua’s article in The Wall Street Journal last week, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” has stirred up a firestorm of comment, with literally thousands of mothers and their friends weighing in on Chua’s harsh treatment of her daughters—an approach Chua defines as “Chinese” as opposed to a more permissive “Western” strategy. Inevitably, a comparison to the famed Jewish mother arises, and ...

The Three Weeks

The gemara relates the story of Rabbi Akiva who was walking with several sages when they saw a fox emerge from the site of the destroyed Beit Hamikdash. The Chatam Sofer explains that a fox represents crafty slyness. In exile, we are less afraid of physical death and more afraid of our oppressors’ devious use of enticement and warped philosophy ...

The Three “I’s of Airport Security: Israelification, Intelligence And Eye Contact

Have any of you had the pleasure of being screened in the naked machine at airport security? I did a few weeks back on our way to San Francisco from the Jacksonville airport; the little booth reminded me of something at a hi-tech spa. The whole thing wasn’t so bad, although it would have been nicer if the process included ...

The Theological Cosmology of Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy – on Kindle from Amazon

Talmudic Books has published for Kindle, “Whence and Wherefore” a major work of theological cosmology by Rabbi Dr. Zev Zahavy, of blessed memory.Here is the final chapter of the book:14 Flight of the Particular:A very sagacious cocoon for emergent life was spun on Planet Earth by Mother Nature. However, her main concern seems to be the fostering of species, and ...