It is not just our traditional and liturgical emphasis on asking questions that contributes to what Rabbi Waxman terms the “Jewish intellectual legacy.” It is the value Jewish traditional learning placed upon engaging different opinions. The Talmud is full of such debates: different opinions are tried, compared and tested. Often a successful conclusion means finding…

An article by Charles Murray that recently appeared in Commentary Magazine has been inspiring both conversation and criticism with its claim that Jews are uniquely gifted when it comes to intellectual accomplishment, especially in the arts and sciences. Although much of his methodology seems more anecdotal than rigorously analytical, there are some salient facts that…

I brought my 7th grade class to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington last Sunday. I wish I could say they were learning past history. The sad news is, they were not. The very same day, people gathered in front of White House to protest the genocide in Darfur. The U.S. Holocaust Museum has added…

A few weeks ago my congregation was fortunate enough to host Ruth Messinger, executive director of American Jewish World Service, who spoke to us on the situation in Darfur and the obligations that our Jewish values–and recent history–demand of us. Besides the heartbreaking statistics and images (and there were plenty of those) the point that…

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