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I’m an Israeli artist of Moroccan descent. Is the Holocaust my story to tell?
(JTA) — Every artist embarks on a path of self-discovery. Any time I find inspiration to create and to paint, I find myself on a journey of trying to comprehend what aspects of life define and...
View ArticleMy ‘transgressive’ Holocaust novel is still stirring debate, 20 years later
(JTA) — Recently, I opened my email and found a link to an article in a scholarly publication, The Journal of Jewish Identities, published by Johns Hopkins. Puzzled, I clicked and discovered the...
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When ‘nice Jewish boys and girls’ first took up the cause of Palestinian rights
(JTA) — In the four months since the Hamas attacks on Israel touched off war in Gaza, Jewish protesters have joined demonstrations in the streets of New York, San Francisco and other cities condemning...
View ArticleOld songs have new meanings after Oct. 7 — and new music helps the...
(JTA) — After a week of witnessing the pain and resilience of Israelis in war time I went to Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine music club. I was driven by a prayerful hope to find some solace during the...
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Jewish service can support recovery efforts in Israel and sustain Jewish life...
It’s not hard to feel a sense of despair in these extraordinarily difficult times for Jews in Israel and around the world following the horrors of Oct. 7, the upsurge in antisemitism close to home, and...
View ArticleWhy the Conservative movement is changing our approach to interfaith marriage
(JTA) — At the recent convening of Conservative/Masorti movement leaders, we were holding a workshop on new approaches to engage intermarrying couples when a participant spoke frankly about her own...
View ArticleRemembering Irving Levine, an AJC official who saw the future of identity...
(JTA) — When I joined the American Jewish Committee as a relatively junior staffer in 1982, I found myself surrounded by many of the “living legends” who led each of its major program departments. It...
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I left the US fearing antisemitism under Trump. Oct. 7 has me rethinking my...
(JTA) — I am and always have been an American Jew. But working in Washington, D.C., after the 2016 election, a shift in the city became noticeable. I found myself having more meetings in the lobby of...
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In dark times, is a dystopian Jewish novel just what we need?
(JTA) — At some point during my reading of Zachary Solomon’s debut novel, “A Brutal Design,” I needed to look up Duma, the utopian city-state where the novel is set, and see if it is a real place. It...
View ArticleOn a visit to Israel, I learned to curb my certainty and listen to our...
(JTA) — I recently returned from a synagogue mission to Israel. Before our departure, I asked our 20 travelers why they were going. “I want to be able to bear witness,” one of them responded, “so first...
View ArticleWhat Jewish mysticism can teach us about psychedelics
This story was originally published on My Jewish Learning. (JTA) — Psychedelics, long caricatured as hedonistic tools of escapism, have lately come of age, with several chemicals now approved for use...
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How ‘ceasefire’ became a dirty word, even to some progressive groups
(JTA) — Late last month, Jacob Frey, the Jewish mayor of Minneapolis, vetoed his city council’s resolution endorsing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, calling it “a one-sided resolution that adds...
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Why one Israeli security veteran hasn’t given up on a two-state solution
(JTA) — When I reached Nimrod Novik in Raanana, Israel and asked how he was feeling, he was blunt. “Bad,” said Novik, 77, who was a senior policy adviser to the late Israeli Prime Minister Shimon...
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For Ukraine’s Jews, the work is not yet done — even as the crisis rages into...
(JTA) — As we mark the grim second anniversary of the Ukraine conflict this Shabbat, I’m reminded of a haunting melody I heard in the city of Poltava last month. I was standing before Sonia Bunina, a...
View ArticleThis year’s ‘Little Purim’ is a big opportunity to appreciate the good
This article initially appeared in My Jewish Learning’s Shabbat newsletter Recharge on Feb. 24, 2024. To sign up to receive Recharge each week in your inbox, click here. (JTA) — About 400 years ago, in...
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Everybody’s talking about anti-Zionism
(JTA) — On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of marchers gathered on New York’s East Side, waving signs reading “Dump AIPAC” and carrying posters with the names and faces of lawmakers who had accepted...
View Article‘Were you adopted?’ and other questions not to ask Jews of color
This article originally appeared in My Jewish Learning. (JTA) — I’m a Black Jew. No, I’m not from Ethiopia, and no, I’m not related to Whoopi Goldberg or the late Sammy Davis Jr. And no, I’m not...
View ArticleRemembering Ellen Bernstein, 70, the ‘birthmother’ of Jewish environmentalism
(JTA) — On Tuesday, I was jolted awake at 3:30 a.m., wrestling with unwelcome consciousness until I eventually exhausted or bored myself back to sleep. Three hours later, I awoke to the news that my...
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While pro-Palestinian supporters glorify a suicide, a ballot box protest gets...
(JTA) — Last week saw two wildly contrasting acts of pro-Palestinian protest: a U.S. airman who died after he set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington shouting “Free...
View ArticleSensationalizing campus antisemitism isn’t serving Jewish students like mine
(JTA) — Last semester I had almost 100 students in my course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Rutgers University. The students represented the diversity of the Rutgers campus, a school with...
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