Shaking Hands

I was brought up in Britain at a time when civility and good manners were regarded as next to godliness. Read more

Israel and China

For as long as I can recall I have been an idealist.  I have always tried my best to support the underdog, the oppressed and the poor. Yet I am also a pragmatist. Sometimes banging one’s head against a brick wall is not a very sensible option. Read more

Silence

The fourth book of the Bible was called Numbers by early Christian scholars. I guess this is because it starts off with a national census. Read more

Cheesecake

Shavuot is the poor relative of the three pilgrim and harvest festivals mentioned in the Torah. Read more

Kill them!

I have always been disturbed by the number of times the Bible declares “He, She or It, shall be put to death.” It doesn’t matter the severity of the crime. Being brought up in a liberal western society and having discovered how many innocent men and women have been wrongly put to death by judicial systems, I cannot accept the very idea of capital punishment. Let’s leave Nazis out of this. Death was too easy for them. Read more

Herman Wouk

Herman Wouk who died a few weeks ago at the age of 103, was one of the most successful American novelists. Read more

Learning lessons

Advance notice! This article will range from Ivan Illich and education to Charter Schools, to Trade Unions, secular dogma, Chernobyl and Bernard of Clairvaux. Hold tight! Read more

Martin Buber

When I first started to read Jewish Philosophers, I found them turgid, academic and completely uninspiring. Read more

Ben Hecht & Yom Hashoah

The Holocaust Day, Yom HaShoah, that the Jewish world commemorates is on the 27^thof Nisan which fell this year on Thursday, May 2nd. Read more

Why to ask is good

The Haggadah that we read on Pesach was a response to the tragic loss of the Temple and Jewish political autonomy some two thousand years ago. Its composers wanted to pay tribute to the past, the Temple and all it stood for. And to find new ways of going forward that focused on study, prayer and education. Read more

State and Religion in Israel on Pesach

The return of a rightwing government, heavily reliant on religious parties in Israel, is a matter of some concern because of the increasing encroachment of religious compulsion in Israeli life (as much as I fear the opposite). Read more

The Seder

For some of us, every minute of the two Seder nights is an absolute delight. Even the preparation and the cleaning – the anticipation. There is no other occasion in the festive year quite like it. Read more

Adapting the Law

The Bible emerged in, and out of, a world that was predominantly agricultural. A world where seasons and produce determined how societies flourished or perished Read more

The Yabloner Rebbe

Usually, I write my own material. This time I am taking it from Pini Dunner, another British rabbi now living in the USA. His hobby is collecting Judaica and researching Jewish history. Read more

Blood libels

On March 22^nd1144, in Norwich, England, Jews were first accused of killing a Christian child because it was claimed, they needed its blood for the Four Cups of Wine at the Passover Seder. Read more

Masks

In Biblical Hebrew, there is no word for face. The Bible uses the word Panim, which literally means, faces. Read more

Martina Navratilova and transgender

In my younger days, Martina Navratilova was considered one of the very best female tennis players. Read more

Kahane

To me, the name Meir Kahane conjures up an aspect of the Jewish people that I deplore. Read more

Abortion

New York’s Reproductive Health Act was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Jan. 22, to a standing ovation and acclaim by State Legislators. This new law allows abortion on the basis of “reasonable and good faith professional judgment based on the facts of the patient’s case” — “the patient is within twenty-four weeks from the commencement of pregnancy, or there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.” Read more

Jewish Political Theory

It is often said that neither the Bible nor Judaism has a theory of politics or, indeed, of political systems. Neither is true.  Read more

Unfair to women

We live in interesting times where men may be women and women, men, and combinations of both and transitions in and out of the other. Read more

Sorry

You are walking down a crowded New York street minding your own business, careful to avoid bumping into anyone else. Read more

When the Law is Petty

Halacha is often translated as Jewish Law. But that is inadequate and misleading. Nowadays we usually use the word law, as in, say, Roman Law, American Law or Civil Law to mean Jurisprudence. Read more

Oaths

Anyone who has attended a Kol Nidrei service will know that there are seven terms in Hebrew and Aramaic for vows and oaths…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

Apologetics

We live nowadays in a world where, more than ever before, our ideas and values have come under scrutiny and assault…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

None So Blind

“There is none so blind as he who will not see.” That, I think, applies nowadays to very many people…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

Kurds

The Kurds have been treated disgustingly. Like Israel, they are both a religious and secular ethnic group which stands outside the official Christian or Muslim world…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

Shame

When I do or say something I regret, I feel shame…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

Ulysses

Judaism has engaged and locked horns with Greek culture for thousands of years. Alexander the Great was welcomed in 332 BCE…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

Boycott Hanukah

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was a protestant land agent in Ireland in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Read more

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