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190 results total, viewing 171 - 180

When American, British, Argentine or any other Diaspora Jews visit Israel, they know that they are in a Jewish place since most of the people living there happen to be Jewish. The language most frequently spoken, read and written is Hebrew – a … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 3/27/14

Shifting American Jewish Identities

In his much-discussed article in the June 10, 2010, issue of The New York Review of Books, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart, author of “The Crisis of Zionism” (2012), wrote: “For several decades the Jewish … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 3/13/14

Time to reengage?

When my father and I would drive “down the shore” on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway, heading for a boat that would take us to where the bluefish were running, occasionally we would go far enough south to pass the exit for Double Trouble … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 2/27/14

Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Beethoven and God

I found my way via a footnote in the Jan. 9, 2014, issue of “The New York Review of Books” to an essay by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, “Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Beethoven and God.” With a title like that, how could I not read it? The essay, … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 2/13/14

Ari Shavit’s bittersweet love letter to fans of Israel

Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel” is a bittersweet love letter addressed to all those who want to see Israel succeed as a democratic Jewish state. The subtitle suggests why bitter (“Tragedy”) and why … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/30/14

A very narrow bridge

In 1995 Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, published “An Unquiet Mind,” a breakthrough book on the subject of manic-depressive illness – today, most often referred to as “bipolar … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/17/14

Berlin: a city that lives with the dead

The German/English “Berlin & City Guide” (No. 6, 2013) contains an article entitled “Remembering the terror,” which begins with the following sentence: “Berlin’s theme year ‘Diversity Destroyed’ encompasses not only the Nazis’ rise … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/3/14

Joseph’s many colors

The story of Joseph and his brothers is the longest continuous narrative in our entire Torah; its telling takes four consecutive readings of the parashat ha-shavuah, the weekly Shabbat Torah portion – this year extending from November 23 through … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 12/19/13

A Vision of Hope

Suhad Babaa is an intelligent and articulate young woman, bursting with a passion to make this world a better place. She is currently Director of Programming for Just Vision more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 12/5/13

In My Father’s Court

My wife Sandy and I spent the first weekend of this month at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. We were among the 50 or so students who attended a program entitled “The Family Singer: Three Siblings and their Stories.” Under the able … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 11/22/13