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Today is Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. The following story of a mother, Miriam Peretz, who has lost two sons, is a powerful one for many reasons. I am less certain about the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking at the official ceremony on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl – the Israeli version of Arlington…

The Shabbat after Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is always a little bitter-sweet for me. The move from profound tragedy to a taste of the World To Come, as Shabbat is sometimes called is not so simple. How do we let go of the pain without letting go of the sensitivity and awareness it creates?…

The Case of little Ela Reyes raises many thorny contemporary issues about church/state entanglement, parenting in a multicultural world, and the challenge of real religious pluralism. Ela’s parents, Rebecca Reyes (born Jewish) and her now ex-husband Joseph Reyes (raised Catholic, converted to Judaism, and now returning to the Church) found themselves in court over the…

While nothing has been proved, the story of an Arizona rabbi accused of molesting a child became that much more real today when Rabbi Bryan Bramly was extradited to New York City, where the crime is alleged to have occurred. Given the public outcry against the Catholic Church in recent weeks, I am curious to…

For years, people have noted that in many Jewish circles, the minimum amount of food required to fulfill one’s obligation with respect to eating-related mitzvot has been on the rise. This trend can be seen for example, in the amounts of matzah and maror (bitter herbs) consumed at last week’s seders. It can be seen…

How is this night different from all other nights? This classic inquiry, which opens the Four Questions recited at the Passover Seder focuses on how that meal differs from all other festive family dinners, let alone the regular ones. But how it does so is not the only question upon which to focus at the…

7 tons of fake matzo (also spelled matzah, especially by those who speak modern Hebrew) was discovered when Israeli authorities raided a factory today. No, I am not kidding, even though this sounds like a joke. A team composed of police and representatives of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s Emergency Response Team (the joke begins) sped…

On March 28th Homer Simpson and the rest of his yellow-headed family will head to Jerusalem. It’s actually not so surprising. Travels, and the lessons learned along the way, have been an important part of this cartoon family’s journey of self-discovery for years. At the urging of their all-too-sweet, but entirely sincere Christian neighbor, Ned…

A trend that was until recently limited to the Hasidic world, is emerging in other parts of the Jewish community. It involves the age at which people are getting married. And it translates into kids (yes, i know thta’s my bias showing) marrying younger and younger. As recent coverage in Haaretz indicates, 17 and 18…

There is tons of “new” music being produced and presented as “new Jewish music”, but is it either? Can it be considered “new” when it it draws so heavily and obviously on traditional Jewish music? And what makes music, or any art for that matter, “Jewish”? Are music and art Jewish because they are made…
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